“Luck is not chance, it's toil; fortune's expensive smile is earned.”

“There is no such thing as luck. Only good or bad fortune. And God controls our fortune.”

“This perhaps was what lay at the root of the hysteria surrounding what came to be known as the Gold Rush: Men desiring a feeling of fortune; the unlucky masses hoping to skin or borrow the luck of others, or the luck of a destination. A seductive notion, and one I thought to be wary of. To me, luck was something you either earned or invented through strength of character. You had to come by it honestly; you could not trick or bluff your way into it.”

“There are rules to luck, not everything is chance for the wise; luck can be helped by skill.”

“I think it's a worthy undertaking--to provide a decent apartment for a man who earns fifteen dollars a week. But not at the expense of other men. Not if it raises the taxes, raises all the other rents and makes the man who earns forty live in a rat hole.”

“What i'm saying is that the sun always rises. Fortune's a mix of good and bad luck. Like they say/ good luck and bad luck are strands of the same rope.”