The power of fortune is confessed only by the miserable; for the happy impute all their success to prudence or merit.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Only those who fail blame luck; winners believe they earned it.
- In plain terms
- Unhappy people blame luck; happy people credit their own work.
- What can you take from it?
- Success breeds confidence in personal ability.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Do you blame luck for your failures?
- How much do you credit yourself?
Another view
Sometimes luck genuinely plays a major role.
More from Jonathan Swift
The Stoical scheme of supplying our wants by lopping off our desires, is like cutting off our feet when we want shoes.
Permalink to quote #45 The latter part of a wise man's life is taken up in curing the follies, prejudices, and false opinions he had contracted in the former.
Permalink to quote #47 What they do in heaven we are ignorant of; what they do not we are told expressly: that they neither marry, nor are given in marriage.
Permalink to quote #44
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