Moral Luck Quotes

You know that saying, bad things don't happen to good people? That's a lie.

Let us remember that a traitor may betray himself and do good that he does not intend. It can be so, sometimes.

I thought it was her wicked stepmother who poisoned her...' '...Turned out the wicked stepmother had an alibi.' '...Seems she was off poisoning someone else at the time. Chance in a million, really. It was just bad luck.

No one so dislikes being punished unjustly as the person who might have been punished justly on scores of previous occasions, if he had only been found out.

It is fortunate for this community that I am not a criminal.

Heaven goes by favor. If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in.

I cannot believe there is a god who punishes and rewards, for I see honest folk unlucky, and rogues unlucky.

When good befalls a man he calls it Providence, when evil fate.

It is no credit to me to do right. I am never under any temptation to do wrong!

But Anatole said suddenly, 'Don't expect God's protection in places beyond God's dominion. It will only make you feel punished. I'm warning you. When things go bad, you will blame yourself.' 'What are you telling me?' 'I am telling you what I'm telling you. Don't try to make life a mathematics problem with yourself in the center and everything coming out equal. When you are good, bad things can still happen. And if you are bad, you can still be lucky.

Our probity is not less at the mercy of fortune than our property.

I think that's why we're always so fascinated with criminal stories because there but for the grace of God it could be us.

Virtue with some is nothing but successful temerity.

The more tickets you have in a lottery, the worse your chance. And it is the same of virtues, in the lottery of life.

I have often met with happiness after some imprudent step which ought to have brought ruin upon me, and although passing a vote of censure upon myself I would thank God for his mercy.

She didn’t understand a damned thing about life except that it was arbitrary and cruel, and some people got away with murder while others made one tiny, careless mistake and paid a terrible price.

When you're young, you get blamed for crimes that you didn't commit. When you are old, you get credit for virtues that you never had. I guess it all evens out in the end.

I believe that if a million chances were likely to do good, they would be given.

People don't ever seem to realize that doing what's right is no guarantee against misfortune.

To judge by the event is an error all commit: for in every instance courage, if crowned with success, is heroism; if clouded by defeat, temerity. When Nelson fought his battle in the Sound, it was the result alone that decided whether he was to kiss a hand at court or a rod at a court-martial.

It's always wonderful when something altogether wrong ends right, without the help of either religion or the police.

Innocence most often is a good fortune and not a virtue.

The inclusion of consequences in the conception of what we have done is an acknowledgement that we are parts of the world, but the paradoxical character of moral luck which emerges from this acknowledgement shows that we are unable to operate with such a view, for it leaves us with no one to be.

I very much believe in the Intentional Fallacy. If Donald Trump lies and dopes and bumbles and staggers his way into peace in the middle east, he gets credit for it. He owns it.