{ "type": "topic", "site": { "name": "Leafy Quotes", "language": "en", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com" }, "formats": "Every page has two versions with the same data: JSON (the page address + .json) and markdown (the page address + .md). Append .json or .md to any `url` in this document.", "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance", "heading": "Quotes about chance", "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance.json", "markdown": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance.md", "quotes_count": 143, "authors_count": 82, "parent": { "name": "fate", "slug": "fate", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fate", "heading": "Quotes about fate" }, "children": [], "quotes": [ { "id": "d05c8728-62c8-4400-9f32-17f283cc398f", "slug": "marius-had-lived", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/victor-hugo/les-miserables/marius-had-lived", "text": "Marius had lived too little as yet to know that nothing is more imminent than the impossible, and that what we must always forsee is the unforseen.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Victor Hugo", "slug": "victor-hugo", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/victor-hugo" }, "book": { "title": "Les Miserables", "slug": "les-miserables", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/victor-hugo/les-miserables" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 958, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Les_Mis%C3%A9rables#Book_XIV_-_The_Grandeurs_of_Despair", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T08:09:50" }, { "id": "3d2bcc96-5ad3-4964-a726-aa77e8b9fd7a", "slug": "without-coincidence-there", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shi-naian/the-water-margin/without-coincidence-there", "text": "Without coincidence there would be no story.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Shī Nàiān", "slug": "shi-naian", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shi-naian" }, "book": { "title": "The Water Margin", "slug": "the-water-margin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shi-naian/the-water-margin" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" }, { "name": "stories", "slug": "stories", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/stories" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Water_Margin#Quotations", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:49:56" }, { "id": "4dc4a30d-e343-4967-ab2d-8dc6c2f63f13", "slug": "cleopatras-nose-had", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/blaise-pascal/pensees/cleopatras-nose-had", "text": "Cleopatra's nose: had it been shorter, the whole aspect of the world would have been altered.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Blaise Pascal", "slug": "blaise-pascal", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/blaise-pascal" }, "book": { "title": "Pensees", "slug": "pensees", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/blaise-pascal/pensees" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pens%C3%A9es#Section_II:_The_Misery_of_Man_without_God_(60-183)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:49:54" }, { "id": "6a83ade5-9977-4d3e-bae0-4060234a9736", "slug": "the-greatest-chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare/science-and-method/the-greatest-chance", "text": "The greatest chance is the birth of a great man. It is only by chance that two reproductive cells, of different sexes, met, each containing precisely those mysterious elements whose mutual reaction was to produce genius. We will agree that these elements must be rare and that their meeting is even rarer. That it would have taken little to deviate the spermatozoon that carried them from its course; it would have been enough to deviate it by a tenth of a millimeter and Napoleon would not have been born and the destiny of a continent would have been changed. No other example can better explain the true nature of chance.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Henri Poincaré", "slug": "henri-poincare", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare" }, "book": { "title": "Science and Method", "slug": "science-and-method", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare/science-and-method" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henri_Poincar%C3%A9#Science_and_Method_(1908)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:49:02" }, { "id": "86acf5c0-6707-43fe-a6ee-98ff9e34c65d", "slug": "coincidences-are-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carlos-ruiz-zafon/la-sombra-del-viento/coincidences-are-the", "text": "Coincidences are the scars of fate.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Carlos Ruiz Zafón", "slug": "carlos-ruiz-zafon", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carlos-ruiz-zafon" }, "book": { "title": "La Sombra del Viento", "slug": "la-sombra-del-viento", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carlos-ruiz-zafon/la-sombra-del-viento" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "fate", "slug": "fate", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fate" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carlos_Ruiz_Zaf%C3%B3n#La_sombra_del_viento_(The_Shadow_of_the_Wind)_(2001)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:01:59" }, { "id": "af5c28f3-092f-432a-92e0-98152cccc0d9", "slug": "ive-found-though", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king/the-langoliers/ive-found-though", "text": "I've found, though, that in real life coincidence is not the exception but the rule.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Stephen King", "slug": "stephen-king", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king" }, "book": { "title": "The Langoliers", "slug": "the-langoliers", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king/the-langoliers" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Langoliers#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:18:43" }, { "id": "d6d1fae0-bbab-4561-a657-dfe54ecc7c33", "slug": "one-thing-ive", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass/one-thing-ive", "text": "One thing I’ve learned in the woods is that there is no such thing as random. Everything is steeped in meaning, colored by relationships, one thing with another.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robin Wall Kimmerer", "slug": "robin-wall-kimmerer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer" }, "book": { "title": "Braiding Sweetgrass", "slug": "braiding-sweetgrass", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 298, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "nature", "slug": "nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robin_Wall_Kimmerer#Braiding_Sweetgrass_(2013)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:32" }, { "id": "39b9b302-b987-4fb6-9470-06968502d43a", "slug": "the-word-coincidence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-eddings/the-redemption-of-althalus/the-word-coincidence", "text": "The word “coincidence” always seems to start religious arguments for some reason.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "David Eddings", "slug": "david-eddings", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-eddings" }, "book": { "title": "The Redemption of Althalus", "slug": "the-redemption-of-althalus", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-eddings/the-redemption-of-althalus" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "religion", "slug": "religion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Eddings#Part_II_cap_7", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:22" }, { "id": "03e30099-84d3-4c2f-bfa6-c78748174e7f", "slug": "the-rich-and", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-gibson/idoru/the-rich-and", "text": "The rich and the famous, Kathy had once said, were seldom that way by accident. It was possible to be one or the other, but very seldom, accidentally, to be both.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "William Gibson", "slug": "william-gibson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-gibson" }, "book": { "title": "Idoru", "slug": "idoru", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-gibson/idoru" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "wealth", "slug": "wealth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/wealth" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" }, { "name": "fame", "slug": "fame", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fame" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bridge_trilogy#Idoru_(1996)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:41" }, { "id": "6f6949bb-c472-4f05-931b-df17dbb0113d", "slug": "none-of-those", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch/amongst-our-weapons/none-of-those", "text": "None of those choices seemed likely, but if I’ve learned one thing on the job, it is that a coincidence can kill someone just as easily as malice.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ben Aaronovitch", "slug": "ben-aaronovitch", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch" }, "book": { "title": "Amongst Our Weapons", "slug": "amongst-our-weapons", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch/amongst-our-weapons" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 36, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ben_Aaronovitch#Amongst_our_Weapons_(2022)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:34" }, { "id": "a900ec41-b950-4670-bbdd-0e25dc4aa223", "slug": "unless-you-believe", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch/tales-from-the-folly/unless-you-believe", "text": "“Unless you believe it was a coincidence that Melvin the Rat turned up at a party we were hosting.” Actually I thought it probably was, but I found that when people are nursing a grievance it’s a waste of time trying to explain the ubiquitous nature of coincidence in the universe. People always want things to happen for a reason.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ben Aaronovitch", "slug": "ben-aaronovitch", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch" }, "book": { "title": "Tales From The Folly", "slug": "tales-from-the-folly", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch/tales-from-the-folly" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 91, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" }, { "name": "resentment", "slug": "resentment", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/resentment" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ben_Aaronovitch#Tales_from_the_Folly_(2020)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:33" }, { "id": "681772fd-9b07-4296-8819-404e6a65efe4", "slug": "the-timing-might", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch/false-value/the-timing-might", "text": "“The timing might not be significant,” I said. “Just because two things happen at the same time doesn’t mean they’re related.” Abigail gave me a withering look. But everyone assumes causation when they should be thinking coincidence, and correlation when they should be asking whether Twitter is really a reliable source of information.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ben Aaronovitch", "slug": "ben-aaronovitch", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch" }, "book": { "title": "False Value", "slug": "false-value", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-aaronovitch/false-value" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 144, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "media", "slug": "media", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/media" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ben_Aaronovitch#False_Value_(2020)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:33" }, { "id": "3b53fa9d-8a91-4d7e-97f0-f8b51a6ba003", "slug": "there-is-many", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham/the-outward-urge/there-is-many", "text": "\"There is many a flower which would not be growing if the dung had not happened to fall where it did.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Wyndham", "slug": "john-wyndham", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham" }, "book": { "title": "The Outward Urge", "slug": "the-outward-urge", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham/the-outward-urge" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 51, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "nature", "slug": "nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Wyndham#The_Outward_Urge_(1961)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:05" }, { "id": "b9857c78-91ce-4df8-91ba-6aec8a65b724", "slug": "he-did-too", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/maxine-hong-kingston/tripmaster-monkey/he-did-too", "text": "He did too have a philosophy of life: Do the right thing by whoever crosses your path. Those coincidental people are your people. (p223)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Maxine Hong Kingston", "slug": "maxine-hong-kingston", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/maxine-hong-kingston" }, "book": { "title": "Tripmaster Monkey", "slug": "tripmaster-monkey", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/maxine-hong-kingston/tripmaster-monkey" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "kindness", "slug": "kindness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/kindness" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Maxine_Hong_Kingston#Tripmaster_Monkey:_His_Fake_Book_(1989)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:46" }, { "id": "4cc407ac-375e-4b00-8518-bd24b338af24", "slug": "it-was-improbable", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-sheffield/the-spheres-of-heaven/it-was-improbable", "text": "It was improbable for him to meet his old friends here? Fine, so it was improbable; but it had happened. “Improbable” was something you could only apply to future events.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Charles Sheffield", "slug": "charles-sheffield", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-sheffield" }, "book": { "title": "The Spheres of Heaven", "slug": "the-spheres-of-heaven", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-sheffield/the-spheres-of-heaven" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 317, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Sheffield#The_Spheres_of_Heaven_(2001)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:34" }, { "id": "5e668756-a3e4-48b9-8620-c0a942a19b4d", "slug": "the-laws-of-probability", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-sheffield/the-compleat-mcandrew/the-laws-of-probability", "text": "The laws of probability not only permit coincidences; they absolutely insist on them.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Charles Sheffield", "slug": "charles-sheffield", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-sheffield" }, "book": { "title": "The Compleat McAndrew", "slug": "the-compleat-mcandrew", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-sheffield/the-compleat-mcandrew" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 223, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Sheffield#The_Compleat_McAndrew_(2000)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:31" }, { "id": "7bc2f0b6-5a27-496c-b328-0497db337468", "slug": "chance-encounters-are", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami/kafka-on-the-shore/chance-encounters-are", "text": "\"Chance encounters are what keep us going.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Haruki Murakami", "slug": "haruki-murakami", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami" }, "book": { "title": "Kafka on the Shore", "slug": "kafka-on-the-shore", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami/kafka-on-the-shore" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" }, { "name": "relationships", "slug": "relationships", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/relationships" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kafka_on_the_Shore#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:18" }, { "id": "18770999-ad34-4dce-813e-4298585e6234", "slug": "my-cell-phone", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami/kafka-on-the-shore/my-cell-phone", "text": "\"My cell phone number,\" she says with a wry expression. \"I'm staying at my friend's place for a while but if you ever feel like seeing somebody, give me a call. We can go out for a bite or whatever. Don't be a stranger, okay? 'Even chance meetings'... how does the rest of that go?\" \"'Are the results of karma.'\" \"Right, right\", she says. But what does that mean? \"That things in life are fated by our previous lives. That even in the smallest events there's no such thing as coincidence.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Haruki Murakami", "slug": "haruki-murakami", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami" }, "book": { "title": "Kafka on the Shore", "slug": "kafka-on-the-shore", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/haruki-murakami/kafka-on-the-shore" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "fate", "slug": "fate", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fate" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kafka_on_the_Shore#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:18" }, { "id": "fdddf392-1f70-4310-9715-c12d036b7669", "slug": "theres-always-enough", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-allen-paulos/innumeracy/theres-always-enough", "text": "There’s always enough random success to justify almost anything to someone who wants to believe.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Allen Paulos", "slug": "john-allen-paulos", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-allen-paulos" }, "book": { "title": "Innumeracy", "slug": "innumeracy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-allen-paulos/innumeracy" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 44, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "faith", "slug": "faith", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/faith" }, { "name": "success and failure", "slug": "success-and-failure", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/success-and-failure" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Allen_Paulos#Innumeracy:_Mathematical_Illiteracy_and_its_Consequences_(1988)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:58" }, { "id": "e7ab33cc-4e39-4f00-87e4-e71b93617a8a", "slug": "the-moral-again", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-allen-paulos/innumeracy/the-moral-again", "text": "The moral, again, is that some unlikely event is likely to occur, whereas it’s much less likely that a particular one will...The paradoxical conclusion is that it would be very unlikely for unlikely events not to occur. If you don’t specify a predicted event precisely, there are an indeterminate number of ways for an event of that general kind to take place.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Allen Paulos", "slug": "john-allen-paulos", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-allen-paulos" }, "book": { "title": "Innumeracy", "slug": "innumeracy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-allen-paulos/innumeracy" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 37, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Allen_Paulos#Innumeracy:_Mathematical_Illiteracy_and_its_Consequences_(1988)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:58" }, { "id": "2ceac72d-ae6d-48e7-89bd-383be550fa19", "slug": "a-tendency-to-drastically", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-allen-paulos/innumeracy/a-tendency-to-drastically", "text": "A tendency to drastically underestimate the frequency of coincidences is a prime characteristic of innumerates, who generally accord great significance to correspondences of all sorts while attributing too little significance to quite conclusive but less flashy statistical evidence.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Allen Paulos", "slug": "john-allen-paulos", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-allen-paulos" }, "book": { "title": "Innumeracy", "slug": "innumeracy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-allen-paulos/innumeracy" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 35, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" }, { "name": "statistics", "slug": "statistics", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/statistics" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Allen_Paulos#Innumeracy:_Mathematical_Illiteracy_and_its_Consequences_(1988)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:58" }, { "id": "808b0049-75c6-41db-b9c7-64d39f411631", "slug": "chance-is-a-funny", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chris-stedman/faitheist/chance-is-a-funny", "text": "Chance is a funny thing and it is easily mistaken for portent.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Chris Stedman", "slug": "chris-stedman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chris-stedman" }, "book": { "title": "Faitheist", "slug": "faitheist", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chris-stedman/faitheist" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 93, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "fate", "slug": "fate", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fate" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Chris_Stedman#Faitheist_(2012)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:29" }, { "id": "71189c33-dadb-44a4-80cc-af7abeb01738", "slug": "a-recurrent-theme", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-kahneman/thinking-fast-and-slow/a-recurrent-theme", "text": "A recurrent theme of this book is that luck plays a large role in every story of success; it is almost always easy to identify a small change in the story that would have turned a remarkable achievement into a mediocre outcome.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Daniel Kahneman", "slug": "daniel-kahneman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-kahneman" }, "book": { "title": "Thinking, Fast and Slow", "slug": "thinking-fast-and-slow", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-kahneman/thinking-fast-and-slow" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 9, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "success and failure", "slug": "success-and-failure", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/success-and-failure" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Daniel_Kahneman#Thinking,_Fast_and_Slow_(2011)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:31" }, { "id": "ea7bbf66-400c-4f68-8da7-ba58fd710a51", "slug": "the-fact-that", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/leonard-mlodinow/the-drunkards-walk/the-fact-that", "text": "The fact that human intuition is ill suited to situations involving uncertainty was known as early as the 1930's, when researchers noted that people could neither make up a sequence of numbers that passed mathematical tests for randomness nor recognize reliably whether a given string was randomly generated.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Leonard Mlodinow", "slug": "leonard-mlodinow", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/leonard-mlodinow" }, "book": { "title": "The Drunkard's Walk", "slug": "the-drunkards-walk", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/leonard-mlodinow/the-drunkards-walk" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" }, { "name": "intuition", "slug": "intuition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/intuition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Leonard_Mlodinow#The_Drunkard's_Walk_(2008)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:26" }, { "id": "cbcc1bb3-d66f-4441-8d20-a4f0c0ee138a", "slug": "obviously-it-can", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/leonard-mlodinow/the-drunkards-walk/obviously-it-can", "text": "Obviously it can be a mistake to assign brilliance in proportion to wealth. We cannot see a persons potential, only his or her results, so we often misjudge people by thinking that the results must reflect the person. The normal accident theory of life shows not that the connection between actions and rewards is random but that random influences are as important as our qualities and actions.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Leonard Mlodinow", "slug": "leonard-mlodinow", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/leonard-mlodinow" }, "book": { "title": "The Drunkard's Walk", "slug": "the-drunkards-walk", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/leonard-mlodinow/the-drunkards-walk" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 209, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "wealth", "slug": "wealth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/wealth" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Leonard_Mlodinow#The_Drunkard's_Walk_(2008)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:26" }, { "id": "98545d69-b0a6-4b77-8757-ab4724484d4e", "slug": "random-events-often", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/leonard-mlodinow/the-drunkards-walk/random-events-often", "text": "Random events often come like the raisins in a box of cereal - in groups, streaks, and clusters. And although Fortune is fair in potentialities, she is not fair in outcomes.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Leonard Mlodinow", "slug": "leonard-mlodinow", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/leonard-mlodinow" }, "book": { "title": "The Drunkard's Walk", "slug": "the-drunkards-walk", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/leonard-mlodinow/the-drunkards-walk" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 13, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Leonard_Mlodinow#The_Drunkard's_Walk_(2008)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:26" }, { "id": "4385db5a-c8cc-4420-acad-69d19eaaf0a9", "slug": "the-outline-of-our", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/leonard-mlodinow/the-drunkards-walk/the-outline-of-our", "text": "The outline of our lives, like the candles flame, is continuously coaxed in new directions by a variety of random events that, along with our responses to them, determine our fate.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Leonard Mlodinow", "slug": "leonard-mlodinow", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/leonard-mlodinow" }, "book": { "title": "The Drunkard's Walk", "slug": "the-drunkards-walk", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/leonard-mlodinow/the-drunkards-walk" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 4, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "fate", "slug": "fate", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fate" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Leonard_Mlodinow#The_Drunkard's_Walk_(2008)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:26" }, { "id": "33ad121a-7b16-4fe0-8384-985f271d2875", "slug": "it-might-seem", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/leonard-mlodinow/the-drunkards-walk/it-might-seem", "text": "It might seem daunting to think that effort and chance, as much as innate talent, are what counts. But I find it encouraging because, while our genetic makeup is out of our control, our degree of effort is up to us. And the effects of chance, too, can be controlled to the extent that by committing ourselves to repeated attempts, we can increase our odds of success.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Leonard Mlodinow", "slug": "leonard-mlodinow", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/leonard-mlodinow" }, "book": { "title": "The Drunkard's Walk", "slug": "the-drunkards-walk", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/leonard-mlodinow/the-drunkards-walk" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 162, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" }, { "name": "talent", "slug": "talent", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/talent" }, { "name": "effort", "slug": "effort", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/effort" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Leonard_Mlodinow#The_Drunkard's_Walk_(2008)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:26" }, { "id": "25a666f3-4a9e-47b7-857f-8bcdaedba5e3", "slug": "what-i-have", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/leonard-mlodinow/the-drunkards-walk/what-i-have", "text": "What I have learned, above all, is to keep marching forward because the best news is that since chance does play a role, one important factor in success is under our control: the number of at bats, the number of chances taken, the number of opportunities seized.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Leonard Mlodinow", "slug": "leonard-mlodinow", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/leonard-mlodinow" }, "book": { "title": "The Drunkard's Walk", "slug": "the-drunkards-walk", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/leonard-mlodinow/the-drunkards-walk" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 217, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "success and failure", "slug": "success-and-failure", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/success-and-failure" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Leonard_Mlodinow#The_Drunkard's_Walk_(2008)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:26" }, { "id": "c8d0ca8b-ccd9-408b-ad3a-437cd7ad0137", "slug": "fifty-nine-mr-mowen", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/connie-willis/fire-watch/fifty-nine-mr-mowen", "text": "“Fifty-nine,” Mr. Mowen said. “That’s too many coincidences to just be a coincidence.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Connie Willis", "slug": "connie-willis", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/connie-willis" }, "book": { "title": "Fire Watch", "slug": "fire-watch", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/connie-willis/fire-watch" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 255, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Connie_Willis#Fire_Watch_(1985)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:10" }, { "id": "680bf68c-8687-41c3-ac3b-6923f0c0883b", "slug": "but-no-one", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edmund-cooper/transit/but-no-one", "text": "But no one can be immune to the laws of chance.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edmund Cooper", "slug": "edmund-cooper", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edmund-cooper" }, "book": { "title": "Transit", "slug": "transit", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edmund-cooper/transit" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "fate", "slug": "fate", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fate" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edmund_Cooper#Transit_(1964)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:57:58" }, { "id": "4c53d9ed-672e-4de8-aafb-b1a66e2714e0", "slug": "notions-of-chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cormac-mccarthy/blood-meridian/notions-of-chance", "text": "Notions of chance and fate are the preoccupation of men engaged in rash undertakings.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Cormac McCarthy", "slug": "cormac-mccarthy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cormac-mccarthy" }, "book": { "title": "Blood Meridian", "slug": "blood-meridian", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cormac-mccarthy/blood-meridian" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 158, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "fate", "slug": "fate", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fate" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Blood_Meridian#Quotations", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:57:21" }, { "id": "b554bf07-ebbb-42be-a2b8-ed5fd17bbb9a", "slug": "for-every-action", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/china-mieville/the-scar/for-every-action", "text": "For every action, there’s an infinity of outcomes. Countless trillions are possible, many milliards are likely, millions might be considered probable, several occur as possibilities to us as observers—and one comes true.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "China Miéville", "slug": "china-mieville", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/china-mieville" }, "book": { "title": "The Scar", "slug": "the-scar", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/china-mieville/the-scar" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 394, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "fate", "slug": "fate", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fate" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/China_Mi%C3%A9ville#The_Scar_(2002)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:50" }, { "id": "37fc79ba-4e77-4485-ab36-f1f66cb68058", "slug": "he-did-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/poul-anderson/the-boat-of-a-million-years/he-did-not", "text": "He did not share the widespread present-day faith in astrology. It seemed likeliest to him that sheer accident ruled the world.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Poul Anderson", "slug": "poul-anderson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/poul-anderson" }, "book": { "title": "The Boat of a Million Years", "slug": "the-boat-of-a-million-years", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/poul-anderson/the-boat-of-a-million-years" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 45, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" }, { "name": "superstitions", "slug": "superstitions", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/superstitions" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Poul_Anderson#The_Boat_of_a_Million_Years_(1989)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:47" }, { "id": "cdae470a-cdcf-4d79-858d-502e326eb1a8", "slug": "weve-been-amazingly", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner/total-eclipse/weve-been-amazingly", "text": "We’ve been amazingly lucky, which is another way of saying we’ve kept our eyes and minds open and responded when something turned up.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Brunner", "slug": "john-brunner", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner" }, "book": { "title": "Total Eclipse", "slug": "total-eclipse", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner/total-eclipse" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 125, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" }, { "name": "curiosity", "slug": "curiosity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/curiosity" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Brunner#Total_Eclipse_(1974)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:11" }, { "id": "4f1b7ffd-df65-4ef0-ae0d-700042b61dbb", "slug": "coincidence-you-werent", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner/stand-on-zanzibar/coincidence-you-werent", "text": "COINCIDENCE You weren’t paying attention to the other half of what was going on.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Brunner", "slug": "john-brunner", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner" }, "book": { "title": "Stand On Zanzibar", "slug": "stand-on-zanzibar", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner/stand-on-zanzibar" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Brunner#Stand_on_Zanzibar_(1968)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:09" }, { "id": "6b1d9a9c-27b8-480a-9332-c350fb13dfb4", "slug": "it-is-just", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/erich-maria-remarque/all-quiet-on-the-western-front/it-is-just", "text": "It is just as much a matter of chance that I am still alive as that I might have been hit. In a bomb-proof dug-out I might have been smashed to atoms, and in the open may survive ten hours' bombardment unscathed. No soldier survives a thousand chances. But every soldier believes in Chance and trusts his luck.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Erich Maria Remarque", "slug": "erich-maria-remarque", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/erich-maria-remarque" }, "book": { "title": "All Quiet on the Western Front", "slug": "all-quiet-on-the-western-front", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/erich-maria-remarque/all-quiet-on-the-western-front" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 101, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "war", "slug": "war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Erich_Maria_Remarque#All_Quiet_on_the_Western_Front_(1929)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:33" }, { "id": "8c8e45c1-f9a0-4176-8573-8701df0e9c56", "slug": "anything-can-be-an-instrument", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cormac-mccarthy/no-country-for-old-men/anything-can-be-an-instrument", "text": "Anything can be an instrument, Chigurh said. Small things. Things you wouldnt even notice. They pass from hand to hand. People dont pay attention. And then one day there's an accounting. And after that nothing is the same. Well, you say. It's just a coin. For instance. Nothing special there. What could that be an instrument of? You see the problem. To separate the act from the thing. As if the parts of some moment in history might be interchangeable with the parts of some other moment. How could that be? Well, it's just a coin. Yes. That's true. Is it?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Cormac McCarthy", "slug": "cormac-mccarthy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cormac-mccarthy" }, "book": { "title": "No Country for Old Men", "slug": "no-country-for-old-men", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cormac-mccarthy/no-country-for-old-men" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "fate", "slug": "fate", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fate" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/No_Country_for_Old_Men#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:18" }, { "id": "7d9596e6-9080-4c7d-98ff-9113f834285c", "slug": "when-you-become", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/a-new-earth/when-you-become", "text": "When you become aligned with the whole, you become a conscious part of the interconnectedness of the whole and its purpose: the emergence of consciousness into this world. As a result, spontaneous helpful occurrences, chance encounters, coincidences, and synchronistic events happen much more frequently.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Eckhart Tolle", "slug": "eckhart-tolle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle" }, "book": { "title": "A New Earth", "slug": "a-new-earth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/a-new-earth" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" }, { "name": "consciousness", "slug": "consciousness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/consciousness" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_New_Earth#Chapter_9,_Your_Inner_Purpose", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:04" }, { "id": "f8d77f1f-1f7d-4ff7-b341-bef66cff40ad", "slug": "i-sat-for", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edgar-rice-burroughs/a-princess-of-mars/i-sat-for", "text": "I sat for hours cross-legged, and cross-tempered, upon my silks meditating upon the queer freaks chance plays upon us poor devils of mortals.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edgar Rice Burroughs", "slug": "edgar-rice-burroughs", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edgar-rice-burroughs" }, "book": { "title": "A Princess of Mars", "slug": "a-princess-of-mars", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edgar-rice-burroughs/a-princess-of-mars" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "fate", "slug": "fate", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fate" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edgar_Rice_Burroughs#A_Princess_of_Mars_(1917)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:41" }, { "id": "e53e312b-87b9-4c84-a2f0-a5948496c791", "slug": "time-travel-destabilizes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-stross/singularity-sky/time-travel-destabilizes", "text": "Time travel destabilizes history. History is a child of contingency; so many events depend on critical misunderstandings or transient encounters that even the apocryphal butterfly’s wing is apt to stir up a storm in short order.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Charles Stross", "slug": "charles-stross", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-stross" }, "book": { "title": "Singularity Sky", "slug": "singularity-sky", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-stross/singularity-sky" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 177, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Stross#Singularity_Sky_(2003)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:04" }, { "id": "29bf8feb-ffa2-45f6-950b-bdc815c525e7", "slug": "as-every-secret", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-stross/singularity-sky/as-every-secret", "text": "As every secret policeman knows, there is no such thing as a coincidence; the state has too many enemies.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Charles Stross", "slug": "charles-stross", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-stross" }, "book": { "title": "Singularity Sky", "slug": "singularity-sky", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-stross/singularity-sky" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 139, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" }, { "name": "the state", "slug": "the-state", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-state" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Stross#Singularity_Sky_(2003)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:04" }, { "id": "b3e04e69-9420-4f37-ae17-2b1ed3ab00e3", "slug": "it-was-a-coincidence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jasper-fforde/the-eyre-affair/it-was-a-coincidence", "text": "“It was a coincidence.” “I don’t believe in coincidences.” “Neither do I. That’s a coincidence, isn’t it?”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jasper Fforde", "slug": "jasper-fforde", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jasper-fforde" }, "book": { "title": "The Eyre Affair", "slug": "the-eyre-affair", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jasper-fforde/the-eyre-affair" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 82, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jasper_Fforde#The_Eyre_Affair_(2001)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:59" }, { "id": "9bb472ea-2e6a-400f-a1ab-885f5e35b5e6", "slug": "well-he-said", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jasper-fforde/lost-in-a-good-book/well-he-said", "text": "“Well,” he said thoughtfully, “it is my considered opinion that most coincidences are simply quirks of chance—if you extrapolate the bell curve of probability you will find statistical abnormalities that seem unusual but are, in actual fact, quite likely, given the amount of people on the planet and the amount of different things we do in our lives.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jasper Fforde", "slug": "jasper-fforde", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jasper-fforde" }, "book": { "title": "Lost in a Good Book", "slug": "lost-in-a-good-book", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jasper-fforde/lost-in-a-good-book" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 87, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jasper_Fforde#Lost_in_a_Good_Book_(2002)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:59" }, { "id": "1c88bf8b-559d-4c1d-8ca3-5a4726073706", "slug": "my-father-told", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jasper-fforde/lost-in-a-good-book/my-father-told", "text": "My father told me that for the most part coincidences could be safely ignored: they were merely that chance discovery of one pertinent fact from a million or so possible daily interconnections. “Stop a stranger in the street,” he would say, “and delve into each other’s past. Pretty soon an astounding-too-amazing-to-be-chance coincidence will appear.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jasper Fforde", "slug": "jasper-fforde", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jasper-fforde" }, "book": { "title": "Lost in a Good Book", "slug": "lost-in-a-good-book", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jasper-fforde/lost-in-a-good-book" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 48, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jasper_Fforde#Lost_in_a_Good_Book_(2002)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:59" }, { "id": "73417bd3-903f-4aae-8cdd-2034c90202d8", "slug": "design-in-nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-pollan/the-botany-of-desire/design-in-nature", "text": "Design in nature is but a concatenation of accidents, culled by natural selection until the result is so beautiful or effective as to seem a miracle of purpose.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Michael Pollan", "slug": "michael-pollan", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-pollan" }, "book": { "title": "The Botany of Desire", "slug": "the-botany-of-desire", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-pollan/the-botany-of-desire" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "nature", "slug": "nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature" }, { "name": "evolution", "slug": "evolution", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evolution" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michael_Pollan#The_Botany_of_Desire_(2001)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:33" }, { "id": "35ed4844-89f3-42df-9026-b7f30e17471d", "slug": "chance-another-word", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-jose-farmer/the-dark-design/chance-another-word", "text": "Chance, another word for destiny.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Philip José Farmer", "slug": "philip-jose-farmer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-jose-farmer" }, "book": { "title": "The Dark Design", "slug": "the-dark-design", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-jose-farmer/the-dark-design" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 289, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "fate", "slug": "fate", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fate" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Philip_Jos%C3%A9_Farmer#The_Dark_Design_(1977)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:31" }, { "id": "0c0cde78-8a16-4fc0-ad19-ac0602a6192c", "slug": "was-destiny-anything", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-jose-farmer/the-dark-design/was-destiny-anything", "text": "Was destiny anything but chance? Probably. But the odds against this happening on Earth were infinity to one.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Philip José Farmer", "slug": "philip-jose-farmer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-jose-farmer" }, "book": { "title": "The Dark Design", "slug": "the-dark-design", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-jose-farmer/the-dark-design" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 302, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "fate", "slug": "fate", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fate" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Philip_Jos%C3%A9_Farmer#The_Dark_Design_(1977)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:31" }, { "id": "bfd3114d-68d6-432d-99b1-c9337c3da551", "slug": "a-miracle-a-chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-jose-farmer/the-fabulous-riverboat/a-miracle-a-chance", "text": "A miracle: a chance distribution of events, occurring one time in a billion.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Philip José Farmer", "slug": "philip-jose-farmer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-jose-farmer" }, "book": { "title": "The Fabulous Riverboat", "slug": "the-fabulous-riverboat", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-jose-farmer/the-fabulous-riverboat" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 18, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" }, { "name": "miracles", "slug": "miracles", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/miracles" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Philip_Jos%C3%A9_Farmer#The_Fabulous_Riverboat_(1971)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:30" }, { "id": "46e95111-ed52-4622-aeca-55be255b51be", "slug": "of-course-im-only", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-jose-farmer/the-fabulous-riverboat/of-course-im-only", "text": "Of course, I’m only indulging in mankind’s vice of trying to make a symbol out of coincidence.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Philip José Farmer", "slug": "philip-jose-farmer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-jose-farmer" }, "book": { "title": "The Fabulous Riverboat", "slug": "the-fabulous-riverboat", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-jose-farmer/the-fabulous-riverboat" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 34, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Philip_Jos%C3%A9_Farmer#The_Fabulous_Riverboat_(1971)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:30" }, { "id": "958e940a-7c8c-4a3e-8778-3f504b1d980f", "slug": "lying-here-during", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/transition/lying-here-during", "text": "Lying here, during all this time after my own small fall, it has become my conviction that things mean pretty much what we want them to mean. We’ll pluck significance from the least consequential happenstance if it suits us and happily ignore the most flagrantly obvious symmetry between separate aspects of our lives if it threatens some cherished prejudice or cosily comforting belief; we are blindest to precisely whatever might be most illuminating.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Iain M. Banks", "slug": "iain-m-banks", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks" }, "book": { "title": "Transition", "slug": "transition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/transition" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 3, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" }, { "name": "self-deception", "slug": "self-deception-2", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/self-deception-2" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Iain_Banks#Transition_(2009)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:23" }, { "id": "45366fb7-8c14-4c3b-ba11-e6f1b8b209da", "slug": "details-matter-though", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/against-a-dark-background/details-matter-though", "text": "“Details matter, though, don’t you think?” he said. “Sometimes what appear to be utterly inconsequential actions have the most enormous results. Chance makes the casual momentous. It is the fulcrum upon which the levers of action rest.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Iain M. Banks", "slug": "iain-m-banks", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks" }, "book": { "title": "Against A Dark Background", "slug": "against-a-dark-background", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/against-a-dark-background" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 298, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" }, { "name": "taking action", "slug": "taking-action", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/taking-action" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Iain_Banks#Against_a_Dark_Background_(1993)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:22" }, { "id": "a8850e9e-1432-47d1-838a-7f98cd7be350", "slug": "she-hadnt-forgotten", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/the-hydrogen-sonata/she-hadnt-forgotten", "text": "She hadn’t forgotten all her military training; one point she certainly recalled being taught was that anything that looked like an outrageous coincidence was probably enemy action.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Iain M. Banks", "slug": "iain-m-banks", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks" }, "book": { "title": "The Hydrogen Sonata", "slug": "the-hydrogen-sonata", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/the-hydrogen-sonata" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 177, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" }, { "name": "enemies", "slug": "enemies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/enemies" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Iain_Banks#The_Hydrogen_Sonata_(2013)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:20" }, { "id": "d077cd6b-c50f-4e20-a1ec-12693297f219", "slug": "it-seemed-at-first", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/matter/it-seemed-at-first", "text": "It seemed at first glance like utter madness, yet it also, when one thought about it, appeared somehow no less implausible than any other explanation of how things truly were, and it had a sort of completeness about it that stifled argument. Assuming that every branching fork on the Universe map was taken randomly, all would still somehow be well; the likely things would always outnumber the unlikely and vastly outnumber the ludicrous, so as a rule things would happen much as one expected, with the occasional surprise and the very rare moment of utter incredulity. Pretty much as life generally was, in other words, in his experience. This was at once oddly satisfactory, mildly disappointing and strangely reassuring to Holse; fate was as fate was, and that was it. He immediately wondered how you could cheat.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Iain M. Banks", "slug": "iain-m-banks", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks" }, "book": { "title": "Matter", "slug": "matter", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/matter" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 387, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "fate", "slug": "fate", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fate" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Iain_Banks#Matter_(2008)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:19" }, { "id": "b305465a-ed99-4860-a321-f6ac93cbb12c", "slug": "the-source-of-my-name", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/matter/the-source-of-my-name", "text": "“The source of my name,” the vehicle had replied, “The Hundredth Idiot, is a quotation: ’One hundred idiots make idiotic plans and carry them out. All but one justly fail. The hundredth idiot, whose plan succeeded through pure luck, is immediately convinced he’s a genius.’ It is an old proverb.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Iain M. Banks", "slug": "iain-m-banks", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks" }, "book": { "title": "Matter", "slug": "matter", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/matter" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 281, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "stupidity", "slug": "stupidity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/stupidity" }, { "name": "success and failure", "slug": "success-and-failure", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/success-and-failure" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Iain_Banks#Matter_(2008)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:19" }, { "id": "655cd4b0-22b7-4636-b8aa-75ab8a169d9d", "slug": "fate-i-tell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/matter/fate-i-tell", "text": "“Fate, I tell you, if not the hand of the WorldGod itself…or whatever manipulatory appendage WorldGods possess. Anyway, the hand, metaphorically, of the WorldGod. Possibly.” “I think you underguess the workings of blind chance, sir.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Iain M. Banks", "slug": "iain-m-banks", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks" }, "book": { "title": "Matter", "slug": "matter", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/matter" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 132, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "fate", "slug": "fate", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fate" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Iain_Banks#Matter_(2008)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:19" }, { "id": "407dc2c2-0712-4bb4-b2ea-dca674fa76d6", "slug": "all-reality-is-a-game", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/the-player-of-games/all-reality-is-a-game", "text": "All reality is a game. Physics at its most fundamental, the very fabric of our universe, results directly from the interaction of certain fairly simple rules, and chance; the same description may be applied to the best, most elegant and both intellectually and aesthetically satisfying games. By being unknowable, by resulting from events which, at the sub-atomic level, cannot be fully predicted, the future remains malleable, and retains the possibility of change, the hope of coming to prevail; victory, to use an unfashionable word. In this, the future is a game; time is one of its rules.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Iain M. Banks", "slug": "iain-m-banks", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks" }, "book": { "title": "The Player Of Games", "slug": "the-player-of-games", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/the-player-of-games" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 48, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the future", "slug": "the-future", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-future" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" }, { "name": "play", "slug": "play", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/play" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Iain_Banks#The_Player_of_Games_(1988)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:16" }, { "id": "9726b936-5b94-40c2-9042-becaf1b79662", "slug": "and-coincidence-convinces", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/the-state-of-the-art/and-coincidence-convinces", "text": "And coincidence convinces the credulous. Two things happen at the same time, or one after another, and we assume there must be a link; well, we sacrificed a virgin last year, and there was a good harvest. Of course the ceremony to raise the sun works—it comes up every morning, doesn’t it? I say my prayers each night and the world hasn’t ended yet... Dung beetle thinking. Life is too complicated for there not to be continual coincidences, and we just have to come to terms with the fact that they merely happen and aren’t ordained, that some things occur for no real reason whatsoever, and that this is not a punishment and that is not a reward. Good grief; the most copper-bottomed, platinum-card proof of divine intervention, of some holy masterplan, would be if there were no coincidences at all! That really would look suspicious.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Iain M. Banks", "slug": "iain-m-banks", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks" }, "book": { "title": "The State Of The Art", "slug": "the-state-of-the-art", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/iain-m-banks/the-state-of-the-art" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 75, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" }, { "name": "superstitions", "slug": "superstitions", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/superstitions" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Iain_Banks#The_State_of_the_Art_(1991)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:15" }, { "id": "e6464c47-9b22-4e12-836b-63b50e53c84c", "slug": "believing-in-accidents", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jose-rizal/noli-me-tangere/believing-in-accidents", "text": "Believing in accidents is like believing in miracles--both presuppose that God does not know the future.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jose Rizal", "slug": "jose-rizal", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jose-rizal" }, "book": { "title": "Noli Me Tangere", "slug": "noli-me-tangere", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jose-rizal/noli-me-tangere" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "god", "slug": "god", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" }, { "name": "miracles", "slug": "miracles", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/miracles" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Rizal#Noli_me_Tangere", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:14" }, { "id": "95138b33-e19f-41b8-8a7c-74a25020fdaa", "slug": "life-is-mere", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/matthew-stover/blade-of-tyshalle/life-is-mere", "text": "Life is mere chance only when one allows it to be.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Matthew Stover", "slug": "matthew-stover", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/matthew-stover" }, "book": { "title": "Blade of Tyshalle", "slug": "blade-of-tyshalle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/matthew-stover/blade-of-tyshalle" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 214, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "life", "slug": "life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Matthew_Stover#Blade_of_Tyshalle_(2001)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:44" }, { "id": "34d9e71c-2a46-491c-bafb-5bebcc87a84a", "slug": "it-is-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-hill/strange-meeting/it-is-the", "text": "It is the constant possibility of accident which erodes ones courage most of all.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Susan Hill", "slug": "susan-hill", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-hill" }, "book": { "title": "Strange Meeting", "slug": "strange-meeting", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/susan-hill/strange-meeting" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "courage", "slug": "courage", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/courage" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Strange_Meeting_(book)#Part_III", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:43" }, { "id": "97753e7b-6dd9-49ec-8adc-baf1c92bbcce", "slug": "death-and-disaster", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hugh-laurie/the-gun-seller/death-and-disaster", "text": "Death and disaster are at our shoulders every second of our lives, trying to get at us. Missing, a lot of the time. A lot of miles on the motorway without a front wheel blow-out. A lot of viruses that slither through our bodies without snagging. A lot of pianos that fall a minute after we've passed. Or a month, it makes no difference. So unless were going to get down on our knees and give thanks every time disaster misses, it makes no sense to moan when it strikes.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Hugh Laurie", "slug": "hugh-laurie", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hugh-laurie" }, "book": { "title": "The Gun Seller", "slug": "the-gun-seller", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hugh-laurie/the-gun-seller" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "death", "slug": "death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" }, { "name": "gratitude", "slug": "gratitude", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/gratitude" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hugh_Laurie#The_Gun_Seller_(1996)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:26" }, { "id": "f8b1ea97-fa16-4092-bbf8-19f663714abf", "slug": "reuven-as-you", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chaim-potok/the-chosen/reuven-as-you", "text": "Reuven, as you grow older you will discover that the most important things that will happen to you will often come as a result of silly things, as you call them— \"ordinary things\" is a better expression. That is the way the world is.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Chaim Potok", "slug": "chaim-potok", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chaim-potok" }, "book": { "title": "The Chosen", "slug": "the-chosen", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chaim-potok/the-chosen" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 110, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "life", "slug": "life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Chaim_Potok#The_Chosen_(1967)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:08" }, { "id": "8b4012bc-935c-4927-ad19-d136ce76a32e", "slug": "the-details-of-which", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jared-diamond/guns-germs-and-steel/the-details-of-which", "text": "The details of which candidate said what during a single televised debate in October 1960 could have given the electoral victory to Nixon instead of to Kennedy, but no details of who said what could have blocked the European conquest of Native Americans.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jared Diamond", "slug": "jared-diamond", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jared-diamond" }, "book": { "title": "Guns, Germs, and Steel", "slug": "guns-germs-and-steel", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jared-diamond/guns-germs-and-steel" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jared_Diamond#Guns,_Germs,_and_Steel:_The_Fates_of_Human_Societies_(1997)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:06" }, { "id": "6803d797-a81e-4694-a909-e5ad501d9999", "slug": "technological-advances-seem", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jared-diamond/guns-germs-and-steel/technological-advances-seem", "text": "Technological advances seem to come disproportionately from a few very rare geniuses, such as Johannes Gutenberg, James Watt, Thomas Edison, and the Wright brothers. They were Europeans, or descendants of European emigrants to America. So were Archimedes and other rare geniuses of ancient times. Could such geniuses have equally well been born in Tasmania or Namibia? Does the history of technology depend on nothing more than accidents of the birthplaces of a few inventors?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jared Diamond", "slug": "jared-diamond", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jared-diamond" }, "book": { "title": "Guns, Germs, and Steel", "slug": "guns-germs-and-steel", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jared-diamond/guns-germs-and-steel" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" }, { "name": "technological progress", "slug": "technological-progress", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/technological-progress" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jared_Diamond#Guns,_Germs,_and_Steel:_The_Fates_of_Human_Societies_(1997)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:06" }, { "id": "1d9827bd-97d7-4b9b-bcb7-94f6e5bb2a99", "slug": "the-roll-of-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/settling-accounts-in-at-the-death/the-roll-of-the", "text": "The roll of the dice, the turn of the card…Some guys had a shell burst ten feet away from them and didn’t get badly hurt. Some turned into hamburger. Who could say why? God, maybe. From everything Jorge had seen, He had a rugged sense of humor.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Harry Turtledove", "slug": "harry-turtledove", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove" }, "book": { "title": "Settling Accounts: In at the Death", "slug": "settling-accounts-in-at-the-death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/settling-accounts-in-at-the-death" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 425, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "god", "slug": "god", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god" }, { "name": "fate", "slug": "fate", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fate" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Harry_Turtledove#Settling_Accounts:_In_at_the_Death_(2007)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:55" }, { "id": "726fbb04-8bf8-4c2f-955d-d2013877065d", "slug": "you-can-only", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/settling-accounts-return-engagement/you-can-only", "text": "You can only bend the long arm of coincidence so far before you break it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Harry Turtledove", "slug": "harry-turtledove", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove" }, "book": { "title": "Settling Accounts: Return Engagement", "slug": "settling-accounts-return-engagement", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/settling-accounts-return-engagement" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 467, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Harry_Turtledove#Settling_Accounts:_Return_Engagement_(2004)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:53" }, { "id": "ce5a49dd-ebed-4579-b178-9b56f65c99da", "slug": "youre-lucky-as-hell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/settling-accounts-return-engagement/youre-lucky-as-hell", "text": "“You're lucky as hell, kid,” Moss said, glad to have something to talk about besides the pounding of his heart. “That's only a scratch, and you'll get yourself a Purple Heart on account of it.” “If I'd been lucky, they would have missed me,” the lieutenant said, which held more than a little truth. If he'd been unluckier, though, all the infinite cleverness and articulation of that hand would have been smashed to bloody, bony ruin in less than the blink of an eye.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Harry Turtledove", "slug": "harry-turtledove", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove" }, "book": { "title": "Settling Accounts: Return Engagement", "slug": "settling-accounts-return-engagement", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/settling-accounts-return-engagement" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 37, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "fate", "slug": "fate", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fate" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Harry_Turtledove#Settling_Accounts:_Return_Engagement_(2004)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:52" }, { "id": "6245fb16-269e-4b2f-ad8c-9af03f30f672", "slug": "if-you-happened", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/settling-accounts-return-engagement/if-you-happened", "text": "If you happened to end up in the wrong place at the wrong instant, you could be the best soldier in the world and it wouldn't matter one goddamn bit. Your next of kin would get a wire from the War Department, and that would be that.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Harry Turtledove", "slug": "harry-turtledove", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove" }, "book": { "title": "Settling Accounts: Return Engagement", "slug": "settling-accounts-return-engagement", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/settling-accounts-return-engagement" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 50, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "war", "slug": "war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Harry_Turtledove#Settling_Accounts:_Return_Engagement_(2004)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:52" }, { "id": "0b6feafe-ef77-49eb-b89f-cd93763e7fb2", "slug": "that-was-a-memorable", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/great-expectations/that-was-a-memorable", "text": "That was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But, it is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it, and think how different it's course would have been. Pause you who read this, and think for the moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Charles Dickens", "slug": "charles-dickens", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens" }, "book": { "title": "Great Expectations", "slug": "great-expectations", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/great-expectations" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "change", "slug": "change", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/change" }, { "name": "fate", "slug": "fate", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fate" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Great_Expectations#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:43" }, { "id": "2b41c7f6-0b15-45c2-860c-3251b8ff21c3", "slug": "t-he-freaks-of-chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thucydides/history-of-the-peloponnesian-war/t-he-freaks-of-chance", "text": "[T]he freaks of chance are not determinable by calculation.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Thucydides", "slug": "thucydides", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thucydides" }, "book": { "title": "History of the Peloponnesian War", "slug": "history-of-the-peloponnesian-war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thucydides/history-of-the-peloponnesian-war" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thucydides#Book_I", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:35" }, { "id": "3571dcdb-aa0e-45a7-81bc-6dc2a5e52d74", "slug": "those-who-encounter", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/shadows-end/those-who-encounter", "text": "Those who encounter chains of events at two disparate points, without observing the connections, think they have observed coincidence when they have, in fact, seen only consequence.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sheri S. Tepper", "slug": "sheri-s-tepper", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper" }, "book": { "title": "Shadow’s End", "slug": "shadows-end", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/shadows-end" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 336, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sheri_S._Tepper#Shadow's_End_(1994)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:24" }, { "id": "2bddd89d-cdf0-4656-8242-35fc91b21c58", "slug": "the-one-sure", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-gate-to-womens-country/the-one-sure", "text": "The one sure part of every plan is that it will be set awry.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sheri S. Tepper", "slug": "sheri-s-tepper", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper" }, "book": { "title": "The Gate to Women’s Country", "slug": "the-gate-to-womens-country", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-gate-to-womens-country" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 165, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" }, { "name": "plans", "slug": "plans", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/plans" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sheri_S._Tepper#The_Gate_to_Women's_Country_(1988)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:21" }, { "id": "ddf2aa5a-127d-4513-879e-843179cf010b", "slug": "truth-shall-prevail", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-conrad/lord-jim/truth-shall-prevail", "text": "Truth shall prevail — don't you know Magna est veritas . . . Yes, when it gets a chance. There is a law, no doubt — and likewise a law regulates your luck in the throwing of dice. It is not Justice — the servant of men, but accident, hazard, Fortune — the ally of patient Time — that holds an even and scrupulous balance.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Joseph Conrad", "slug": "joseph-conrad", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-conrad" }, "book": { "title": "Lord Jim", "slug": "lord-jim", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-conrad/lord-jim" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "truth", "slug": "truth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth" }, { "name": "justice", "slug": "justice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/justice" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lord_Jim#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:16" }, { "id": "5adb01c7-e6ba-42f4-8ddf-5803b78da0fd", "slug": "she-said-we-lied", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-conrad/lord-jim/she-said-we-lied", "text": "She said we lied. Poor soul! Well — let's leave it to Chance, whose ally is Time, that cannot be hurried, and whose enemy is Death, that will not wait.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Joseph Conrad", "slug": "joseph-conrad", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-conrad" }, "book": { "title": "Lord Jim", "slug": "lord-jim", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-conrad/lord-jim" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "death", "slug": "death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death" }, { "name": "time", "slug": "time", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/time" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lord_Jim#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:16" }, { "id": "7460709e-d09b-42d3-b5de-6c3ff97168cb", "slug": "if-he-had", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tom-holt/flying-dutch/if-he-had", "text": "If he had any philosophy of life, it was that everything happens by accident, and that at any given time, ninety-nine-point-nine-five per cent of the human race are a confounded nuisance.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Tom Holt", "slug": "tom-holt", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tom-holt" }, "book": { "title": "Flying Dutch", "slug": "flying-dutch", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tom-holt/flying-dutch" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 125, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tom_Holt#Flying_Dutch_(1991)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:50:53" }, { "id": "37664808-10ba-4888-8c22-52a2d35da98f", "slug": "the-impossible-lives", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tibor-fischer/the-thought-gang/the-impossible-lives", "text": "The impossible lives next door to the possible; people ring its door bell by accident all the time.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Tibor Fischer", "slug": "tibor-fischer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tibor-fischer" }, "book": { "title": "The Thought Gang", "slug": "the-thought-gang", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tibor-fischer/the-thought-gang" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 226, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tibor_Fischer#The_Thought_Gang_(1994)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:50:11" }, { "id": "aad7f6ca-a7d0-4366-ae53-59d8bdefdb1e", "slug": "when-you-really", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/guards-guards/when-you-really", "text": "\"When you really need them the most,\" he said, \"million-to-one chances always crop up. Well-known fact.\" (p. 292)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Terry Pratchett", "slug": "terry-pratchett", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett" }, "book": { "title": "Guards! Guards!", "slug": "guards-guards", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/guards-guards" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Guards!_Guards!#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:55" }, { "id": "5e449781-e0ca-4e88-a280-53ed0f85bc2c", "slug": "destiny-was-funny", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/wyrd-sisters/destiny-was-funny", "text": "Destiny was funny stuff, he knew. You couldn't trust it. Often you couldn't even see it. Just when you knew you had it cornered, it turned out to be something else—coincidence, maybe, or providence.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Terry Pratchett", "slug": "terry-pratchett", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett" }, "book": { "title": "Wyrd Sisters", "slug": "wyrd-sisters", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/wyrd-sisters" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "fate", "slug": "fate", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fate" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wyrd_Sisters#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:54" }, { "id": "d60fb85b-60c6-4a09-8ef4-792bdf7e3fa3", "slug": "all-the-people", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mitch-albom/the-five-people-you-meet-in-heaven/all-the-people", "text": "\"All the people you meet here have one thing to teach you.\" Eddie was skeptical. His fists stayed clenched. \"What?\" he said. \"That there are no random acts. That we are all connected. That you can no more separate one life from another than you can separate a breeze from the wind.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Mitch Albom", "slug": "mitch-albom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mitch-albom" }, "book": { "title": "The Five People You Meet in Heaven", "slug": "the-five-people-you-meet-in-heaven", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/mitch-albom/the-five-people-you-meet-in-heaven" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "fate", "slug": "fate", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fate" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mitch_Albom#The_Five_People_You_Meet_in_Heaven_(2003)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:36" }, { "id": "b887f6a8-64cd-4aaa-891c-6ea679d4624d", "slug": "on-the-longest", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-baxter/evolution/on-the-longest", "text": "On the longest of timescales, over millions of years, the workings of chance defied human intuition. Humans were equipped with a subjective consciousness of risk and improbability suitable for creatures with a lifespan of less than a century or so. Event that came much less frequently than that—such as asteroid impacts—were place, in human minds, in the category not of rare, but of never. But the impacts happened even so, and to a creature with a lifespan of, say, ten million years, would not have seemed so improbable at all. Given enough time even such unlikely events as ocean crossings from Africa to South America would inevitably occur, over and again, and would shape the destiny of life.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Stephen Baxter", "slug": "stephen-baxter", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-baxter" }, "book": { "title": "Evolution", "slug": "evolution", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-baxter/evolution" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 185, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stephen_Baxter#Evolution_(2002)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:49:24" }, { "id": "9fb87d20-742f-4f76-bd7d-c19c16c94aec", "slug": "the-probability-of-ten", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alan-greenspan/the-age-of-turbulence/the-probability-of-ten", "text": "The probability of ten consecutive heads is 0.1 percent; thus, when you have millions of coin tossers, or investors, in the end there will be thousands of very successful practitioners of coin tossing, or stock picking.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Alan Greenspan", "slug": "alan-greenspan", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alan-greenspan" }, "book": { "title": "The Age of Turbulence", "slug": "the-age-of-turbulence", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alan-greenspan/the-age-of-turbulence" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 465, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "money", "slug": "money", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/money" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alan_Greenspan#The_Age_of_Turbulence_(2008)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:46" }, { "id": "37c9e5c8-8999-4939-b411-96b72b518d3e", "slug": "my-instinct-shouted", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock/the-city-in-the-autumn-stars/my-instinct-shouted", "text": "My instinct shouted “Conspiracy” but my head reasoned “Coincidence”.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Michael Moorcock", "slug": "michael-moorcock", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock" }, "book": { "title": "The City in the Autumn Stars", "slug": "the-city-in-the-autumn-stars", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock/the-city-in-the-autumn-stars" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 291, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" }, { "name": "conspiracy theories", "slug": "conspiracy-theories", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/conspiracy-theories" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michael_Moorcock#The_City_in_the_Autumn_Stars_(1986)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:45" }, { "id": "b63d4e20-6de6-4aec-a391-ea3385d2e0ce", "slug": "i-saw-that-this", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-fowles/daniel-martin/i-saw-that-this", "text": "I saw that this cataclysm must be an expiation for some barbarous crime of civilisation, some terrible human lie. What the lie was, I had too little knowledge of history to know then. I now know it was our believing that we were fulfilling some end, serving some plan, - that all would come out well in the end, because there was some great plan over all. Instead of the reality. There is no plan. All is hazard. And the only thing that will preserve us is ourselves.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Fowles", "slug": "john-fowles", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-fowles" }, "book": { "title": "Daniel Martin", "slug": "daniel-martin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-fowles/daniel-martin" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" }, { "name": "illusions", "slug": "illusions-2", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/illusions-2" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Fowles#Daniel_Martin_(1977)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:31" }, { "id": "ecc05b79-1746-44da-a50b-09e79ba2779b", "slug": "there-was-no-difference", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-pynchon/gravitys-rainbow/there-was-no-difference", "text": "There was no difference between the behavior of a god and the operations of pure chance.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Thomas Pynchon", "slug": "thomas-pynchon", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-pynchon" }, "book": { "title": "Gravity's Rainbow", "slug": "gravitys-rainbow", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-pynchon/gravitys-rainbow" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "god", "slug": "god", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Pynchon#Gravity's_Rainbow_(1973)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:19" }, { "id": "5533aff1-cedc-4892-9d5e-b87be8fc7452", "slug": "consider-the-fact", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/bill-bryson/a-short-history-of-nearly-everything/consider-the-fact", "text": "Consider the fact that for 3.8 billion years, a period of time older than the Earth's mountains and rivers and oceans, every one of your forebears on both sides has been attractive enough to find a mate, healthy enough to reproduce, and sufficiently blessed by fate and circumstances to live long enough to do so. Not one of your pertinent ancestors was squashed, devoured, drowned, starved, stranded, stuck fast, untimely wounded, or otherwise deflected from its life's quest of delivering a tiny charge of genetic material to the right partner at the right moment in order to perpetuate the only possible sequence of hereditary combinations that could result -- eventually, astoundingly, and all too briefly -- in you.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Bill Bryson", "slug": "bill-bryson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/bill-bryson" }, "book": { "title": "A Short History of Nearly Everything", "slug": "a-short-history-of-nearly-everything", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/bill-bryson/a-short-history-of-nearly-everything" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 3, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "life", "slug": "life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bill_Bryson#A_Short_History_of_Nearly_Everything_(2003)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:46:36" }, { "id": "a3fa7b63-4e3c-4d39-bbad-d2654ca5d3ed", "slug": "anything-that-happens", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/mostly-harmless/anything-that-happens", "text": "Anything that happens, happens. Anything that, in happening, causes something else to happen, causes something else to happen. Anything that, in happening, causes itself to happen again, happens again. It doesn't necessarily do it in chronological order, though.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Douglas Adams", "slug": "douglas-adams", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams" }, "book": { "title": "Mostly Harmless", "slug": "mostly-harmless", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/mostly-harmless" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker's_Guide_to_the_Galaxy#Preface", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:46:29" }, { "id": "7872281d-f3f5-42f7-b655-06da099f2f8f", "slug": "a-series-of-accidents", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-baudrillard/cool-memories/a-series-of-accidents", "text": "A series of accidents creates a positively lighthearted state.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jean Baudrillard", "slug": "jean-baudrillard", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-baudrillard" }, "book": { "title": "Cool Memories", "slug": "cool-memories", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-baudrillard/cool-memories" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jean_Baudrillard#Cool_Memories_(1987,_trans._1990)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:58" }, { "id": "ec447933-e086-4a6d-a179-a13fad517a2d", "slug": "only-the-element", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-von-clausewitz/on-war/only-the-element", "text": "...only the element of chance is needed to make war a gamble, and that element is never absent.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Carl von Clausewitz", "slug": "carl-von-clausewitz", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-von-clausewitz" }, "book": { "title": "On War", "slug": "on-war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-von-clausewitz/on-war" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "war", "slug": "war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" }, { "name": "gambling", "slug": "gambling", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/gambling" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carl_von_Clausewitz#(no_chapter_info)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:37" }, { "id": "a9cb8bb7-d45b-4d73-a081-5d3aad316117", "slug": "for-most-of-her", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/dean-koontz/the-taking/for-most-of-her", "text": "For most of her existence, Molly had not shied from a truth that most people understood but diligently suppressed: that every moment of every day, depending on the faith we embrace, each of us continues to live either by the merciful sufferance of God or at the whim of blind chance and indifferent nature.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Dean Koontz", "slug": "dean-koontz", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/dean-koontz" }, "book": { "title": "The Taking", "slug": "the-taking", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/dean-koontz/the-taking" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "god", "slug": "god", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dean_Koontz#The_Taking_(2004)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:28" }, { "id": "304c146a-db30-40a0-b477-7e4dcf0883e1", "slug": "as-stone-was", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-crichton/the-andromeda-strain/as-stone-was", "text": "As Stone was fond of saying, scientific research was much like prospecting: you went out and you hunted, armed with your maps and your instruments, but in the end your preparations did not matter, or even your intuition. You needed your luck, and whatever benefits accrued to the diligent, through sheer, grinding hard work.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Michael Crichton", "slug": "michael-crichton", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-crichton" }, "book": { "title": "The Andromeda Strain", "slug": "the-andromeda-strain", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-crichton/the-andromeda-strain" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "science", "slug": "science", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Andromeda_Strain#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:45:21" }, { "id": "3d4c5be2-f2e0-4fe2-b297-327ee20d66e1", "slug": "a-major-breakthrough", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steven-pinker/enlightenment-now/a-major-breakthrough", "text": "A major breakthrough of the Scientific Revolution - perhaps its biggest breakthrough - was to refute the intuition that the universe is saturated with purpose. In this primitive but ubiquitous understanding, everything happens for a reason, so when bad things happen - accidents, disease, famine, poverty - some agent must have wanted them to happen.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Steven Pinker", "slug": "steven-pinker", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steven-pinker" }, "book": { "title": "Enlightenment Now", "slug": "enlightenment-now", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steven-pinker/enlightenment-now" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 24, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "science", "slug": "science", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Steven_Pinker#Enlightenment_Now_(2018)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:50" }, { "id": "997d1085-2bf9-4a5c-8ce1-7d345581c864", "slug": "we-are-born", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-silverberg/the-stochastic-man/we-are-born", "text": "We are born by accident into a purely random universe.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert Silverberg", "slug": "robert-silverberg", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-silverberg" }, "book": { "title": "The Stochastic Man", "slug": "the-stochastic-man", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-silverberg/the-stochastic-man" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 1, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Silverberg#The_Stochastic_Man_(1975)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:41" }, { "id": "f8565b8a-1535-4a64-b38a-8ad539278e62", "slug": "contingency-is-rich", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-jay-gould/eight-little-piggies/contingency-is-rich", "text": "Contingency is rich and fascinating; it embodies an exquisite tension between the power of individuals to modify history and the intelligible limits set by laws of nature. The details of individual and species's lives are not mere frills, without power to shape the large-scale course of events, but particulars that can alter entire futures, profoundly and forever.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Stephen Jay Gould", "slug": "stephen-jay-gould", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-jay-gould" }, "book": { "title": "Eight Little Piggies", "slug": "eight-little-piggies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-jay-gould/eight-little-piggies" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 77, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stephen_Jay_Gould#Eight_Little_Piggies_(1993)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:34" }, { "id": "bdbd8770-265c-40b4-8d76-4b0f1b07e979", "slug": "the-divine-tape", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-jay-gould/wonderful-life/the-divine-tape", "text": "The divine tape player holds a million scenarios, each perfectly sensible. Little quirks at the outset, occurring for no particular reason, unleash cascades of consequences that make a particular future seem inevitable in retrospect. But the slightest early nudge contacts a different groove, and history veers into another plausible channel, diverging continually from its original pathway. The end results are so different, the initial perturbation so apparently trivial.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Stephen Jay Gould", "slug": "stephen-jay-gould", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-jay-gould" }, "book": { "title": "Wonderful Life", "slug": "wonderful-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-jay-gould/wonderful-life" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 320, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stephen_Jay_Gould#Wonderful_Life_(1989)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:34" }, { "id": "6fe9a58b-d45c-4fea-a562-408253de5f6f", "slug": "the-contingency-of-history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-jay-gould/eight-little-piggies/the-contingency-of-history", "text": "The contingency of history (both for life in general and for the cultures of Homo sapiens) and human free will (in the factual rather than theological sense) are conjoined concepts, and no better evidence can be produced than the “experimental” production of markedly different solutions in identical environments.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Stephen Jay Gould", "slug": "stephen-jay-gould", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-jay-gould" }, "book": { "title": "Eight Little Piggies", "slug": "eight-little-piggies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-jay-gould/eight-little-piggies" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 29, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "freedom", "slug": "freedom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stephen_Jay_Gould#Eight_Little_Piggies_(1993)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:34" }, { "id": "0338db78-29b2-43e1-896f-c21a97295fa2", "slug": "c-ontingency-is-a-thing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-jay-gould/wonderful-life/c-ontingency-is-a-thing", "text": "[C]ontingency is a thing unto itself, not the titration of determinism by randomness.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Stephen Jay Gould", "slug": "stephen-jay-gould", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-jay-gould" }, "book": { "title": "Wonderful Life", "slug": "wonderful-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-jay-gould/wonderful-life" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 51, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stephen_Jay_Gould#Wonderful_Life_(1989)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:34" }, { "id": "593254bd-da42-4eed-83d5-2a063404711d", "slug": "it-is-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-deptford-trilogy/it-is-not", "text": "\"It is not a fact, except insofar as all coincidences are facts.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robertson Davies", "slug": "robertson-davies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies" }, "book": { "title": "The Deptford Trilogy", "slug": "the-deptford-trilogy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-deptford-trilogy" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Deptford_Trilogy#(1972)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:13" }, { "id": "4b81acd2-c334-4f25-aec5-efa37622cde7", "slug": "by-the-laws", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/the-door-into-summer/by-the-laws", "text": "By the laws of statistics we could probably approximate just how unlikely it is that it would happen. But people forget—especially those who ought to know better, such as yourself—that while the laws of statistics tell you how unlikely a particular coincidence is, they state just as firmly that coincidences do happen.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert A. Heinlein", "slug": "robert-a-heinlein", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein" }, "book": { "title": "The Door into Summer", "slug": "the-door-into-summer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/the-door-into-summer" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_A._Heinlein#The_Door_Into_Summer_(1957)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:57" }, { "id": "c40debce-87cb-43fc-8815-1556e19b9dfb", "slug": "psychologists-have-correctly", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/napoleon-hill/think-and-grow-rich/psychologists-have-correctly", "text": "Psychologists have correctly said that when one is truly ready for a thing, it puts in its appearance. When the opportunity came, it appeared in a different form, and from a different direction than... expected. That is one of the tricks of opportunity. It has a sly habit of slipping in by the back door, and often it comes disguised in the form of misfortune, or temporary defeat. Perhaps this is why so many fail to recognize opportunity... p. 13", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Napoleon Hill", "slug": "napoleon-hill", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/napoleon-hill" }, "book": { "title": "Think And Grow Rich", "slug": "think-and-grow-rich", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/napoleon-hill/think-and-grow-rich" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "success and failure", "slug": "success-and-failure", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/success-and-failure" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Napoleon_Hill#Think_and_Grow_Rich_(1938)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:17" }, { "id": "65b6ff78-c653-43db-8905-87f8123f2b02", "slug": "if-a-great", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-hitchens/for-the-sake-of-argument/if-a-great", "text": "If a great city or a great state should fall as the result of an apparent \"accident\", the there would be a general reason why it required only an accident to make it fall.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Christopher Hitchens", "slug": "christopher-hitchens", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-hitchens" }, "book": { "title": "For the Sake of Argument", "slug": "for-the-sake-of-argument", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-hitchens/for-the-sake-of-argument" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Christopher_Hitchens#For_the_Sake_of_Argument:_Essays_and_Minority_Reports_(1993)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:04" }, { "id": "f0688978-66e0-4736-8986-4fb2a3bff6f1", "slug": "there-are-no-absolute", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-vance/the-languages-of-pao/there-are-no-absolute", "text": "There are no absolute certainties in this universe. A man must try to whip order into a yelping pack of probabilities, and uniform success is impossible.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jack Vance", "slug": "jack-vance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-vance" }, "book": { "title": "The Languages of Pao", "slug": "the-languages-of-pao", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-vance/the-languages-of-pao" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 133, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jack_Vance#The_Languages_of_Pao_(1958)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:55" }, { "id": "b5529f0b-51cd-40ec-aaf7-fbd005a17ece", "slug": "it-used-to-be-thought", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gaiman/good-omens/it-used-to-be-thought", "text": "It used to be thought that the events that changed the world were things like big bombs, maniac politicians, huge earthquakes, or vast population movements, but it has now been realized that this is a very old-fashioned view held by people totally out of touch with modern thought. The things that really change the world, according to Chaos theory, are the tiny things. A butterfly flaps its wings in the Amazonian jungle, and subsequently a storm ravages half of Europe. Somewhere in Adam's sleeping head, a butterfly had emerged.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Neil Gaiman", "slug": "neil-gaiman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gaiman" }, "book": { "title": "Good Omens", "slug": "good-omens", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gaiman/good-omens" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" }, { "name": "chaos", "slug": "chaos", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chaos" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Good_Omens#Thursday", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:53" }, { "id": "04eb4af6-f5cc-43c9-959c-014ad1b8a6b9", "slug": "busy-busy-busy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/cats-cradle/busy-busy-busy", "text": "Busy, busy, busy, is what we Bokononists whisper whenever we think of how complicated and unpredictable the machinery of life really is.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kurt Vonnegut", "slug": "kurt-vonnegut", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut" }, "book": { "title": "Cat's Cradle", "slug": "cats-cradle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/cats-cradle" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "life", "slug": "life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cat's_Cradle#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:37" }, { "id": "ee141de3-608e-47e6-9a85-d1e79bd7d62c", "slug": "i-was-a-victim", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/the-sirens-of-titan/i-was-a-victim", "text": "I was a victim of a series of accidents, as are we all.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kurt Vonnegut", "slug": "kurt-vonnegut", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut" }, "book": { "title": "The Sirens of Titan", "slug": "the-sirens-of-titan", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/the-sirens-of-titan" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 253, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut#The_Sirens_of_Titan_(1959)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:35" }, { "id": "707fc4d5-2bc2-4c1c-957b-4cffdff92266", "slug": "it-was-in-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/the-sirens-of-titan/it-was-in-the", "text": "It was in the nature of truly effective good-luck pieces that human beings never really owned them.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kurt Vonnegut", "slug": "kurt-vonnegut", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut" }, "book": { "title": "The Sirens of Titan", "slug": "the-sirens-of-titan", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/the-sirens-of-titan" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 301, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "happiness", "slug": "happiness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut#The_Sirens_of_Titan_(1959)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:35" }, { "id": "0df8183a-153c-41d4-bc20-e764353f4eab", "slug": "if-id-been", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/mother-night/if-id-been", "text": "If I'd been born in Germany, I suppose I would have been a Nazi, bopping Jews and gypsies and Poles around, leaving boots sticking out of snowbanks, warming myself with my secretly virtuous insides. So it goes.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kurt Vonnegut", "slug": "kurt-vonnegut", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut" }, "book": { "title": "Mother Night", "slug": "mother-night", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/mother-night" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "evil", "slug": "evil", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evil" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut#Mother_Night_(1962)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:35" }, { "id": "06a793d8-4ade-464f-adb3-c671e8c95c29", "slug": "the-name-of-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/the-sirens-of-titan/the-name-of-the", "text": "\"The name of the new religion,\" said Rumfoord, \"is The Church of God the Utterly Indifferent. \"The flag of that church will be blue and gold,\" said Rumfoord. \"These words will be written on that flag in gold letters on a blue field: Take Care of the People, and God Almighty Will Take Care of Himself. \"The two chief teachings of this religion are these,\" said Rumfoord: \"Puny man can do nothing at all to help or please God Almighty, and Luck is not the hand of God.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kurt Vonnegut", "slug": "kurt-vonnegut", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut" }, "book": { "title": "The Sirens of Titan", "slug": "the-sirens-of-titan", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/the-sirens-of-titan" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 180, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "religion", "slug": "religion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion" }, { "name": "god", "slug": "god", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut#The_Sirens_of_Titan_(1959)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:35" }, { "id": "e8516107-278d-472b-92e4-7ab955c05a70", "slug": "when-some-systems", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/antifragile/when-some-systems", "text": "When some systems are stuck in a dangerous impasse, randomness and only randomness can unlock them and set them free.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Nassim Nicholas Taleb", "slug": "nassim-nicholas-taleb", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb" }, "book": { "title": "Antifragile", "slug": "antifragile", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/antifragile" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 102, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nassim_Nicholas_Taleb#Antifragile:_Things_That_Gain_from_Disorder_(2012)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:33" }, { "id": "c495f8bf-6948-4df5-963c-c00287e840b5", "slug": "this-is-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/antifragile/this-is-the", "text": "This is the central illusion in life: that randomness is a risk, that it is a bad thing ...", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Nassim Nicholas Taleb", "slug": "nassim-nicholas-taleb", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb" }, "book": { "title": "Antifragile", "slug": "antifragile", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/antifragile" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 84, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" }, { "name": "illusions", "slug": "illusions", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/illusions" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nassim_Nicholas_Taleb#Antifragile:_Things_That_Gain_from_Disorder_(2012)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:33" }, { "id": "b719cf43-2eac-45f9-b181-3d258e1729e6", "slug": "randomness-works-well", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/antifragile/randomness-works-well", "text": "Randomness works well in search—sometimes better than humans.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Nassim Nicholas Taleb", "slug": "nassim-nicholas-taleb", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb" }, "book": { "title": "Antifragile", "slug": "antifragile", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/antifragile" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 103, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nassim_Nicholas_Taleb#Antifragile:_Things_That_Gain_from_Disorder_(2012)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:33" }, { "id": "8f0e66ef-9f08-432c-979b-e8a409c7ac90", "slug": "if-i-could", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/antifragile/if-i-could", "text": "If I could predict what my day would exactly look like, I would feel a little bit dead.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Nassim Nicholas Taleb", "slug": "nassim-nicholas-taleb", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb" }, "book": { "title": "Antifragile", "slug": "antifragile", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/antifragile" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 63, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "life", "slug": "life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nassim_Nicholas_Taleb#Antifragile:_Things_That_Gain_from_Disorder_(2012)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:33" }, { "id": "9f6b661e-2923-4163-967b-aa7fac07e61f", "slug": "because-our-minds", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/the-bed-of-procrustes/because-our-minds", "text": "Because our minds need to reduce information, we are more likely to try to squeeze a phenomenon into the Procrustean bed of a crisp and known category (amputating the unknown), rather than suspend categorization, and make it tangible. Thanks to our detections of false patterns, along with real ones, what is random will appear less random and more certain—our overactive brains are more likely to impose the wrong, simplistic, narrative than no narrative at all.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Nassim Nicholas Taleb", "slug": "nassim-nicholas-taleb", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb" }, "book": { "title": "The Bed of Procrustes", "slug": "the-bed-of-procrustes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/the-bed-of-procrustes" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 105, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "thinking", "slug": "thinking", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" }, { "name": "storytelling", "slug": "storytelling", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/storytelling" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nassim_Nicholas_Taleb#The_Bed_of_Procrustes:_Philosophical_and_Practical_Aphorisms_(2010)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:32" }, { "id": "e3612822-299a-4f98-b1d6-6231244a88c4", "slug": "let-us-use", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/fooled-by-randomness/let-us-use", "text": "Let us use 10,000 fictional investment managers... [O]nce a manager has a single bad year, he is thrown out of the sample. ...[T]oss a coin; heads and the manager will make $10,000 over the year, tails and he will lose $10,000. ...We have, in a fair game, 313 managers who made money five years in a row. ...[I]f we throw one of these ...into the real world we would get ...comments on his remarkable style, his incisive mind... His biographer will dwell on ...a great mind in the making. ...[S]hould he stop performing (...his odds ...have stayed at 50%) they would start ...finding fault with his dissipated lifestyle. They will find something he stopped doing, and attribute his failure... The truth ...he simply ran out of luck.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Nassim Nicholas Taleb", "slug": "nassim-nicholas-taleb", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb" }, "book": { "title": "Fooled by Randomness", "slug": "fooled-by-randomness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/fooled-by-randomness" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "success and failure", "slug": "success-and-failure", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/success-and-failure" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nassim_Nicholas_Taleb#Fooled_by_Randomness_(2001)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:31" }, { "id": "b1d494f6-8e56-482d-87d6-0b2cb195a3c0", "slug": "probability-is-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/fooled-by-randomness/probability-is-not", "text": "Probability is not about the odds, but about the belief in the existence of an alternative outcome, cause, or motive.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Nassim Nicholas Taleb", "slug": "nassim-nicholas-taleb", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb" }, "book": { "title": "Fooled by Randomness", "slug": "fooled-by-randomness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/fooled-by-randomness" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nassim_Nicholas_Taleb#Fooled_by_Randomness_(2001)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:31" }, { "id": "852fb52f-4a46-4286-af97-af3633756468", "slug": "i-disagree-with", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/the-black-swan/i-disagree-with", "text": "I disagree with the followers of Marx and those of Adam Smith: the reason free markets work is because they allow people to be lucky, thanks to aggressive trial and error, not by giving rewards or \"incentives\" for skill.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Nassim Nicholas Taleb", "slug": "nassim-nicholas-taleb", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb" }, "book": { "title": "The Black Swan", "slug": "the-black-swan", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/the-black-swan" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" }, { "name": "capitalism", "slug": "capitalism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/capitalism" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nassim_Nicholas_Taleb#The_Black_Swan:_The_Impact_of_the_Highly_Improbable_(2007)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:31" }, { "id": "712f7c91-e36a-40ac-a1c2-80398873f2fa", "slug": "while-in-theory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/the-black-swan/while-in-theory", "text": "While in theory randomness is an intrinsic property, in practice, randomness is incomplete information.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Nassim Nicholas Taleb", "slug": "nassim-nicholas-taleb", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb" }, "book": { "title": "The Black Swan", "slug": "the-black-swan", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/the-black-swan" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 198, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "knowledge", "slug": "knowledge", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/knowledge" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nassim_Nicholas_Taleb#The_Black_Swan:_The_Impact_of_the_Highly_Improbable_(2007)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:31" }, { "id": "0f727fde-f268-4401-beec-edd2d3bbc3df", "slug": "this-makes-living", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/the-black-swan/this-makes-living", "text": "This makes living in big cities invaluable because you increase the odds of serendipitous encounters — you gain exposure to the envelope of serendipity.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Nassim Nicholas Taleb", "slug": "nassim-nicholas-taleb", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb" }, "book": { "title": "The Black Swan", "slug": "the-black-swan", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/the-black-swan" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 209, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" }, { "name": "cities", "slug": "cities", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cities" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nassim_Nicholas_Taleb#The_Black_Swan:_The_Impact_of_the_Highly_Improbable_(2007)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:31" }, { "id": "0ad1441a-bba6-4e8f-a640-2f5f498bc036", "slug": "cumulative-errors-depend", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/the-black-swan/cumulative-errors-depend", "text": "Cumulative errors depend largely on the big surprises, the big opportunities. Not only do economic, financial, and political predictors miss them, but they are quite ashamed to say anything outlandish to their clients — and yet events, it turns out, are almost always outlandish.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Nassim Nicholas Taleb", "slug": "nassim-nicholas-taleb", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb" }, "book": { "title": "The Black Swan", "slug": "the-black-swan", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/the-black-swan" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 149, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" }, { "name": "prophecies", "slug": "prophecies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/prophecies" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nassim_Nicholas_Taleb#The_Black_Swan:_The_Impact_of_the_Highly_Improbable_(2007)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:31" }, { "id": "f07b2796-be88-486b-8673-9a255443a56c", "slug": "mild-success-can", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/fooled-by-randomness/mild-success-can", "text": "Mild success can be explainable by skills and labor. Wild success is attributable to variance.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Nassim Nicholas Taleb", "slug": "nassim-nicholas-taleb", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb" }, "book": { "title": "Fooled by Randomness", "slug": "fooled-by-randomness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/fooled-by-randomness" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "success and failure", "slug": "success-and-failure", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/success-and-failure" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nassim_Nicholas_Taleb#Fooled_by_Randomness_(2001)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:30" }, { "id": "cd619826-1e5b-4ac6-b27a-13e63b91977e", "slug": "evolution-is-all", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-dennett/breaking-the-spell/evolution-is-all", "text": "Evolution is all about processes that almost never happen. Every birth in every lineage is a potential speciation event, but speciation almost never happens, not once in a million births. Mutation in DNA almost never happens — not once in a trillion copings — but evolution depends on it. Take the set of infrequent accidents — things that almost never happen — and sort them into the happy accidents, the neutral accidents, and the fatal accidents; amplify the effects of the happy accidents — which happens automatically when you have replication and competition — and you get evolution.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Daniel Dennett", "slug": "daniel-dennett", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-dennett" }, "book": { "title": "Breaking the Spell", "slug": "breaking-the-spell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/daniel-dennett/breaking-the-spell" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "evolution", "slug": "evolution", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evolution" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Daniel_Dennett#Breaking_the_Spell_(2006)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:30" }, { "id": "82b991bd-93e1-40b0-a632-374438bc6dc4", "slug": "lucky-fools-do-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/fooled-by-randomness/lucky-fools-do-not", "text": "Lucky fools do not bear the slightest suspicion that they may be lucky fools - by definition, they do not know that they belong to such a category.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Nassim Nicholas Taleb", "slug": "nassim-nicholas-taleb", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb" }, "book": { "title": "Fooled by Randomness", "slug": "fooled-by-randomness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/fooled-by-randomness" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "stupidity", "slug": "stupidity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/stupidity" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nassim_Nicholas_Taleb#Fooled_by_Randomness_(2001)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:30" }, { "id": "049050c0-6ac6-4e82-9f07-03bc851a0069", "slug": "unlike-a-well-defined", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/fooled-by-randomness/unlike-a-well-defined", "text": "Unlike a well-defined, precise game like Russian roulette, where the risks are visible to anyone capable of multiplying and dividing by six, one does not observe the barrel of reality.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Nassim Nicholas Taleb", "slug": "nassim-nicholas-taleb", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb" }, "book": { "title": "Fooled by Randomness", "slug": "fooled-by-randomness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/fooled-by-randomness" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" }, { "name": "risk", "slug": "risk", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/risk" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nassim_Nicholas_Taleb#Fooled_by_Randomness_(2001)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:30" }, { "id": "f071b2aa-8040-4112-99aa-a8588b306270", "slug": "my-own-feeling", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/alvin-journeyman/my-own-feeling", "text": "My own feeling is that human happiness is a very random thing, and bestows itself willy-nilly, and there's not much deserving about the matter.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Orson Scott Card", "slug": "orson-scott-card", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card" }, "book": { "title": "Alvin Journeyman", "slug": "alvin-journeyman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/alvin-journeyman" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "happiness", "slug": "happiness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Orson_Scott_Card#Alvin_Journeyman_(1995)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:13" }, { "id": "e451a32c-baa0-408d-b796-d29a51f0af29", "slug": "coincidence-is-just", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/the-call-of-earth/coincidence-is-just", "text": "Coincidence is just the word we use when we have not yet discovered the cause.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Orson Scott Card", "slug": "orson-scott-card", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card" }, "book": { "title": "The Call Of Earth", "slug": "the-call-of-earth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/the-call-of-earth" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Orson_Scott_Card#The_Call_Of_Earth_(1992)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:09" }, { "id": "0af704b2-8a90-403f-a768-a5bb01775f3f", "slug": "one-cannot-divine", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/willa-cather/willa-cather-in-europe/one-cannot-divine", "text": "One cannot divine nor forecast the conditions that will make happiness; one only stumbles upon them by chance, in a lucky hour, at the world's end somewhere, and hold fast to the days, as to fortune or fame.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Willa Cather", "slug": "willa-cather", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/willa-cather" }, "book": { "title": "Willa Cather In Europe", "slug": "willa-cather-in-europe", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/willa-cather/willa-cather-in-europe" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "happiness", "slug": "happiness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Willa_Cather#Willa_Cather_in_Europe_(1956)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:05" }, { "id": "0e27fb56-a0ba-4c8d-a01a-2606246f1ab7", "slug": "i-never-had", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/claude-levi-strauss/myth-and-meaning/i-never-had", "text": "I never had, and still do not have, the perception of feeling my personal identity. I appear to myself as the place where something is going on, but there is no ‘I’, no ‘me.’ Each of us is a kind of crossroads where things happen. The crossroads is purely passive; something happens there. A different thing, equally valid, happens elsewhere. There is no choice, it is just a matter of chance.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Claude Lévi-Strauss", "slug": "claude-levi-strauss", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/claude-levi-strauss" }, "book": { "title": "Myth and Meaning", "slug": "myth-and-meaning", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/claude-levi-strauss/myth-and-meaning" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "identity", "slug": "identity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/identity" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Claude_L%C3%A9vi-Strauss#Myth_and_Meaning_(1978)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:57" }, { "id": "ca91836c-56ec-4962-afce-12ad4af89193", "slug": "world-events-are", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gore-vidal/united-states/world-events-are", "text": "World events are the work of individuals whose motives are often frivolous, even casual.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Gore Vidal", "slug": "gore-vidal", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gore-vidal" }, "book": { "title": "United States", "slug": "united-states", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/gore-vidal/united-states" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gore_Vidal#United_States_-_Essays_1952%E2%80%931992_(1992)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:19" }, { "id": "ccdcda35-e884-414c-9f97-b0abf6d45831", "slug": "you-must-beware", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/clans-of-the-alphane-moon/you-must-beware", "text": "You must beware of seeing malice behind accidental injury.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Philip K. Dick", "slug": "philip-k-dick", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick" }, "book": { "title": "Clans of the Alphane Moon", "slug": "clans-of-the-alphane-moon", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/clans-of-the-alphane-moon" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 196, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick#Clans_of_the_Alphane_Moon_(1964)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:04" }, { "id": "3e2659a3-55af-4b42-9f59-11808ecf781b", "slug": "can-anyone-alter", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/the-man-in-the-high-castle/can-anyone-alter", "text": "Can anyone alter fate? All of us combined...or one great figure...or someone strategically placed, who happens to be in the right spot. Chance. Accident. And our lives, our world, hanging on it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Philip K. Dick", "slug": "philip-k-dick", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick" }, "book": { "title": "The Man in the High Castle", "slug": "the-man-in-the-high-castle", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/the-man-in-the-high-castle" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "fate", "slug": "fate", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fate" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick#The_Man_in_the_High_Castle_(1962)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:03" }, { "id": "871a45b3-9b4d-4c4d-9f16-97b163ab48db", "slug": "skill-is-a-function", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/solar-lottery/skill-is-a-function", "text": "Skill is a function of chance. It's an intuitive best-use of chance situations.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Philip K. Dick", "slug": "philip-k-dick", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick" }, "book": { "title": "Solar Lottery", "slug": "solar-lottery", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/solar-lottery" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 60, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick#Solar_Lottery_(1955)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:41:02" }, { "id": "0705ca0c-e8a3-4ffe-bbf1-c0d09a06ff68", "slug": "governments-may-rise", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/children-of-dune/governments-may-rise", "text": "Governments may rise and fall for reasons which appear insignificant, Prince. What small events! An argument between two women... which way the wind blows on a certain day... a sneeze, a cough, the length of a garment or the chance collision of a fleck of sand and a courtier's eye. It is not always the majestic concerns of Imperial ministers which dictate the course of history, nor is it necessarily the pontifications of priests which move the hands of God.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Frank Herbert", "slug": "frank-herbert", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert" }, "book": { "title": "Children Of Dune", "slug": "children-of-dune", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/children-of-dune" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" }, { "name": "the state", "slug": "the-state", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-state" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dune#Children_of_Dune_(1976)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:53" }, { "id": "354af3d8-ec13-432d-8f27-ecf2ed4ec8b9", "slug": "then-as-his", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/dune/then-as-his", "text": "Then, as his planet killed him, it occurred to Kynes that his father and all the other scientists were wrong, that the most persistent principles of the universe were accident and error.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Frank Herbert", "slug": "frank-herbert", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert" }, "book": { "title": "Dune", "slug": "dune", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/dune" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "mistakes", "slug": "mistakes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mistakes" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dune#Book_2:_Muad'Dib", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:48" }, { "id": "93af7316-15e2-4960-8d66-b007543c8303", "slug": "the-universe-was", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/stranger-in-a-strange-land/the-universe-was", "text": "The Universe was a damned silly place at best… but the least likely explanation for its existence was the no-explanation of random chance, the conceit that some abstract somethings \"just happened\" to be some atoms that \"just happened\" to get together in configurations which \"just happened\" to look like consistent laws and then some of these configurations \"just happened\" to possess self-awareness and that two such \"just happened\" to be the Man from Mars and the other a bald-headed old coot with Jubal himself inside. No, Jubal would not buy the \"just happened\" theory, popular as it was with men who called themselves scientists. Random chance was not a sufficient explanation of the Universe — in fact, random chance was not sufficient to explain random chance; the pot could not hold itself.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert A. Heinlein", "slug": "robert-a-heinlein", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein" }, "book": { "title": "Stranger in a Strange Land", "slug": "stranger-in-a-strange-land", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/stranger-in-a-strange-land" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the universe", "slug": "the-universe", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stranger_in_a_Strange_Land#Part_Two_:_His_Preposterous_Heritage", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:43" }, { "id": "aa0fd99a-3b40-4069-b74f-6a4849369534", "slug": "many-are-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-r-r-tolkien/the-silmarillion/many-are-the", "text": "'Many are the strange chances of the world,' said Mithrandir, 'and help oft shall come from the hands of the weak when the Wise falter.'", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "J. R. R. Tolkien", "slug": "j-r-r-tolkien", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-r-r-tolkien" }, "book": { "title": "The Silmarillion", "slug": "the-silmarillion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-r-r-tolkien/the-silmarillion" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "wisdom", "slug": "wisdom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/wisdom" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Silmarillion#Of_the_Rings_of_Power_and_the_Third_Age", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:36" }, { "id": "d988e9a6-df6c-4896-a159-880ccd121042", "slug": "do-we-holding", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/contact/do-we-holding", "text": "Do we, holding that the gods exist, deceive ourselves with insubstantial dreams and lies, while random careless chance and change alone control the world?", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Carl Sagan", "slug": "carl-sagan", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan" }, "book": { "title": "Contact", "slug": "contact", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/contact" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 157, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" }, { "name": "mythology", "slug": "mythology", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mythology" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan#Contact_(1985)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:28" }, { "id": "d7166064-75e7-4ea2-aa5a-fdb9d1f167e6", "slug": "it-is-merely", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/brocas-brain/it-is-merely", "text": "It is merely a coincidence. When enough fiction is written and enough scientific hypotheses are proposed, sooner or later there will be accidental concordances.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Carl Sagan", "slug": "carl-sagan", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan" }, "book": { "title": "Broca's Brain", "slug": "brocas-brain", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/brocas-brain" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 148, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan#Broca's_Brain_(1979)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:26" }, { "id": "e1b6d8ed-4a49-41ee-bff9-509a3d27a08e", "slug": "it-is-a-small", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gaiman/anansi-boys/it-is-a-small", "text": "It is a small world. You do not have to live in it particularly long to learn that for yourself. There is a theory that, in the whole world, there are only five hundred real people (the cast, as it were; all the rest of the people in the world, the theory suggests, are extras) and what is more, they all know each other. And it’s true, or true as far as it goes. In reality the world is made of thousands upon thousands of groups of about five hundred people, all of whom will spend their lives bumping into each other, trying to avoid each other, and discovering each other in the same unlikely teashop in Vancouver. There is an unavoidability to this process. It’s not even coincidence. It’s just the way the world works, with no regard for individuals or for propriety.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Neil Gaiman", "slug": "neil-gaiman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gaiman" }, "book": { "title": "Anansi Boys", "slug": "anansi-boys", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gaiman/anansi-boys" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" }, { "name": "relationships", "slug": "relationships", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/relationships" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Anansi_Boys#Chapter_11_-_In_Which_Rosie_Learns_To_Say_No_To_Strangers_And_Fat_Charlie_Acquires_A_Lime", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:12" }, { "id": "736870a5-3eaf-4a4d-b454-767b0880c9d3", "slug": "he-fled-to-his", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot/silas-marner/he-fled-to-his", "text": "He fled to his usual refuge, that of hoping for some unforeseen turn of fortune, some favourable chance which would save him from unpleasant consequences – perhaps even justify his insincerity by manifesting prudence. In this point of trusting in some throw of fortune's dice, Godfrey can hardly be called old-fashioned. Favourable Chance is the god of all men who follow their own devices instead of obeying a law they believe in. Let even a polished man of these days get into a position he is ashamed to avow, and his mind will be bent on all the possible issues that may deliver him from the calculable results of that position. Let him live outside his income, or shirk the resolute honest work that brings wages, and he will presently find himself dreaming of a possible benefactor, a possible simpleton who may be cajoled into using his interest, a possible state of mind in some possible person not yet forthcoming. Let him neglect the responsibilities of his office, and he will inevitably anchor himself on the chance, that the thing left undone may turn out not to be of the supposed importance. Let him betray his friend's confidence, and he will adore that same cunning complexity called Chance, which gives him the hope that his friend will never know. Let him forsake a decent craft that he may pursue the gentilities of a profession to which nature never called him, and his religion will infallibly be the worship of blessed Chance, which he will believe in as the mighty creator of success. The evil principle deprecated in that religion, is the orderly sequence by which the seed brings forth a crop after its kind.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George Eliot", "slug": "george-eliot", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot" }, "book": { "title": "Silas Marner", "slug": "silas-marner", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot/silas-marner" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 73, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "responsibility", "slug": "responsibility", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/responsibility" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Eliot#Silas_Marner:_The_Weaver_of_Raveloe_(1861)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:51" }, { "id": "1e51b4cf-bf4f-4650-94d3-b51e00eef6e8", "slug": "i-know-that", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born/i-know-that", "text": "I know that my birth is fortuitous, a laughable accident, and yet, as soon as I forget myself, I behave as if it were a capital event, indispensable to the progress and equilibrium of the world.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Emil Cioran", "slug": "emil-cioran", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran" }, "book": { "title": "The Trouble With Being Born", "slug": "the-trouble-with-being-born", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/emil-cioran/the-trouble-with-being-born" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" }, { "name": "ego", "slug": "ego", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ego" }, { "name": "birth", "slug": "birth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/birth" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emil_Cioran#The_Trouble_With_Being_Born_(1973)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:41" }, { "id": "e5cce6c5-20d4-4bb6-8798-e0ec13bd3827", "slug": "i-must-not", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/i-must-not", "text": "I must not be surprised if that which is possible should happen, and if the improbability of the event is compensated for by the number of the attempts. I grant this; yet if any one told me that printed characters scattered broadcast had produced the Aeneid all complete, I would not condescend to take a single step to verify this falsehood. You will tell me I am forgetting the multitude of attempts. But how many such attempts must I assume to bring the combination within the bounds of probability? For my own part the only possible assumption is that the chances are infinity to one that the product is not the work of chance. In addition to this, chance combinations yield nothing but products of the same nature as the elements combined, so that life and organisation will not be produced by a flow of atoms, and a chemist when making his compounds will never give them thought and feeling in his crucible. [Footnote: Could one believe, if one had not seen it, that human absurdity could go so far? Amatus Lusitanus asserts that he saw a little man an inch long enclosed in a glass, which Julius Camillus, like a second Prometheus, had made by alchemy. Paracelsis (De natura rerum) teaches the method of making these tiny men, and he maintains that the pygmies, fauns, satyrs, and nymphs have been made by chemistry. Indeed I cannot see that there is anything more to be done, to establish the possibility of these facts, unless it is to assert that organic matter resists the heat of fire and that its molecules can preserve their life in the hottest furnace.]", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jean Jacques Rousseau", "slug": "jean-jacques-rousseau", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau" }, "book": { "title": "Emile; or On Education", "slug": "emile-or-on-education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emile,_or_On_Education#The_Creed_of_the_Savoyard_Priest", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:36" }, { "id": "ed5d644a-541f-4ee1-893a-564d6d47adb5", "slug": "almost-all-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham/the-razors-edge/almost-all-the", "text": "Almost all the people who have had most effect on me I seem to have met by chance.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "William Somerset Maugham", "slug": "william-somerset-maugham", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham" }, "book": { "title": "The Razor's Edge", "slug": "the-razors-edge", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham/the-razors-edge" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/W._Somerset_Maugham#The_Razor's_Edge_(1943)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:29" }, { "id": "96e1c317-82b1-4b36-b662-3641cd72cda0", "slug": "did-you-hear", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-tale-of-two-cities/did-you-hear", "text": "\"Did you hear the message?\" \"I did, Joe.\" \"What did you make of it, Tom?\" \"Nothing at all, Joe.\" \"That's a coincidence, too,\" the guard mused, \"for I made the same of it myself.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Charles Dickens", "slug": "charles-dickens", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens" }, "book": { "title": "A Tale of Two Cities", "slug": "a-tale-of-two-cities", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-tale-of-two-cities" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "chance", "slug": "chance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Tale_of_Two_Cities#Chapter_II_-_The_Mail", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:32:31" } ] }