The greatest events occur without intention playing any part in them; chance makes good mistakes and undoes the most carefully planned undertaking. The world's greatest events are not produced, they happen.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Major historical shifts often arise from chance rather than careful planning. The world's biggest changes happen organically rather than being manufactured.
- In plain terms
- Big events happen by luck, not by design.
- What can you take from it?
- Plans often fail to predict major outcomes.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How much of success is planning versus luck?
- Can we truly control major outcomes?
Another view
Some outcomes result from deliberate strategy and hard work.
More from Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
First we have to believe, and then we believe.
Permalink to quote #108 There is no greater impediment to progress in the sciences than the desire to see it take place too quickly.
Permalink to quote #110 So-called professional mathematicians have, in their reliance on the relative incapacity of the rest of mankind, acquired for themselves a reputation for profu…
Permalink to quote #107
Related quotes
I can see ... only one safe rule for the historian: that he should recognize in the development of human destinies the play of the contingent and the unforesee…
Herbert FisherHerbert Fisher quote #3 There are ideal series of events which run parallel with the real ones. They rarely coincide. Men and circumstances generally modify the ideal train of events,…
NovalisNovalis quote #1 Our foreign policy was an improvisation. Like Schacht's financial policy, it lacked foresight. The Nazis kept talking about a thousand-year Reich, but they cou…
Paul SchmidtPaul Schmidt quote #3