“Luck is statistics taken personally.”

“The bones and flesh and legal statistics are the garments worn by the personality, not the other way around.”

“Above all, he liked it that everything was one's own fault. There was only oneself to praise or blame. Luck was a servant and not a master. Luck had to be accepted with a shrug or taken advantage of up to the hilt. But it had to be understood and recognized for what it was and not confused with a faulty appreciation of the odds, for, at gambling, the deadly sin is to mistake bad play for bad luck. And luck in all its moods had to be loved and not feared”

“Extrapolating from the statistical growth of the legal profession, by the year 2035 every single person in the United States will be a lawyer, including newborn infants.”

“His mastery of the hard-luck story was of a kind never achieved by persons not wholly concentrated on themselves.”

“A person's birthday should be a special day, a wonderful day, a day of pure celebration for the luck of being born!”