“Our studies will be forever, in a very great degree, under the direction of chance; like travelers, we must take what we can get, and when we can get it - whether it is or is not administered to us in the most commodious manner, in the most proper place, or at the exact minute when we would wish to have it.” WishChanceForeverStudyMinutesDegreesTraveler Book:Sir Joshua Reynolds's Discourses Source: Sir Joshua Reynolds's Discourses
“Many leave the labours of half their life to their executors and to chance, because they will not send them abroad unfinished, and are unable to finish them, having prescribed to themselves such a degree of exactness as human diligence can scarcely ontain.” WritingHumansChanceHalfDegreesLabourDiligenceUnfinishedExactnessExecutors Book:The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With An Essay on His Life and Genius Source: The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With An Essay on His Life and Genius
“During the ages of faith the Church argued, not illogically, that any degree of cruelty towards sinners and heretics was justified, if there was a chance that it could save them, or others, from the eternal torments of hell. Thus, in the name of the religion of love, hundreds of thousands of people were not merely killed but atrociously tortured in ways that made the gas chambers of Beslen seem humane.” PeopleIfsWayMadeSeemsAgeNamesChurchChanceHellAtheismDegreesEternalPositive AtheismCrueltyGasSinnerTormentJustifiedChamberHumaneHereticGas Chambers Author:Margaret E. Knight
“media saturation is probably very destructive to art. New movements get overexposed and exhausted before they have a chance to grow, and they turn to ashes in a short time. Some degree of time and obscurity is often very necessary to artists.” ArtArtistTurnsGrowsChanceMediaMovementDegreesDestructiveAshesExhaustedPublicityObscurityShort TimeSaturation Author:Joyce Johnson
“Surely no man can reflect, without wonder upon the vicissitudes of human life arising from causes in the highest degree accidental and trifling. If you trace the necessary concatenation of human events a very little way back, you may perhaps discover that a person's very going in or out of a door has been the means of coloring with misery or happiness the remaining current of his life.” IfsMenWayHumansMayMeanLittlesPersonsHas BeensCausesChanceWonderDoorsEventsDegreesHighestMiseryCurrentsHuman LifeTriflingVicissitudes Author:Sir Fulke Greville
“If you are low income in the United States, you have a higher chance of going to jail than getting a 4-year degree.” IfsYearsStatesChanceUnitedUnited StatesHigherDegreesLowsIncomeJailLow Income Author:Bill Gates
“Suppose by chance you do get picked up. What have you done? You shot a horse; that isn't first degree murder; in fact, it isn't even murder; in fact, I don't know what it is.” KnowsFirstsDoneFactsChanceDegreesShotsHorseMurder Author:Stanley Kubrick