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Most coincidences are simply chance events that turn out to be far more probable than many people imagine.

— Ivars Peterson The Jungles of Randomness: A Mathematical Safari (1997)

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Luck

More quotes by Ivars Peterson

More often than not, a piece of mathematics worked out years before—and believed to be totally without practical value—finds a role in the “real” world.

The Mathematical Tourist: New and Updated Snapshots of Modern Mathematics (1998)

In mathematics, in science, and in life, we constantly face the delicate, tricky task of separating design from happenstance.

The Jungles of Randomness: A Mathematical Safari (1997)

Indeed, mathematics is full of conjectures—questions waiting for answers—with no assurance that the answers even exist.

The Jungles of Randomness: A Mathematical Safari (1997)

The aim of science is to reduce the scope of chance.

The Jungles of Randomness: A Mathematical Safari (1997)

The theory of probability combines commonsense reasoning with calculation. It domesticates luck, making it subservient to reason.

The Jungles of Randomness: A Mathematical Safari (1997)

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In the fields of observation chance favors only the prepared mind.

Louis Pasteur

Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em.

William Shakespeare Twelfth Night (1601)

O Fortune, cruellest of heavenly powers,
Why make such game of this poor life of ours?

Horace Satires (-35)

Vicissitudes of fortune, which spares neither man nor the proudest of his works, which buries empires and cities in a common grave.

Edward Gibbon The History of the Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire (1776)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Ivars Peterson (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.