“That however small the chance might be of striking lucky, the chance was there.”

“But there was one other thing that the grown-ups also knew, and it was this: that however small the chance might be of striking lucky, the chance is there. The chance had to be there.”

“A statement about luck is a statement about the mind, not about the world... We find what seems to have been the lucky break or the big mistake, and so we thank our lucky stars that we took the road less traveled or curse the fates that sent that little wavelet that flipped us on our backs. With hindsight, we seem to see that everything preceding the pivotal point was leading up to it, tending toward it, and that everything following it grew from it.To any observer outside the lucky one himself, however, luck is simply chance. Chance is neutral.”

“But lost chances are as much a part of life as chances taken, and a story cannot dwell on what might have been.”

“For a minute there, I thought I stood a chance. But I guess in the end, Mitchell will still be the lucky one.”

“There is a (slight) chance that I might be going to hell.”