And the great sea with its friends and its enemies. And bed, he thought. Bed is my friend. Just bed, he thought. Bed will be a great thing. It is easy when you are beaten, he thought. I never knew how easy it was. And what beat you, he thought. ‘Nothing’, he said aloud. ‘I went out too far.’
– Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea
‘At that point I ought to have gone away, but a strange sensation rose up in me, a sort of defiance of fate, a desire to challenge it, to put out my tongue at it. I laid down the largest stake allowed – four thousand gulden – and lost it. Then, getting hot, I pulled out all I had left, staked it on the same number, and lost again, after which I walked away from the table as though I were stunned. I could not even grasp what had happened to me.’
– The Gambler, by Fyodor Dostoevsky
If you must play, decide upon three things at the start: the rules of the game, the stakes, and the quitting time.
– Chinese Proverb
Luck never gives; it only lends.
– Swedish Proverb
Depend on the rabbit’s foot if you will, but remember it didn’t work for the rabbit.
– R.E. Shay