# Luck & fortune sayings

Sayings about luck, fate, and adversity — from classical maxims to Shakespearean tags, several of which Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898) traces to their earlier sources.

## About this category

Sayings about luck, fate, and adversity — from classical maxims to Shakespearean tags, several of which Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898) traces to their earlier sources. Each entry below gives the plain meaning, an origin note honestly attributed to Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898) or marked as uncertain, and a usage example.

## Questions

### Where do the origins for luck & fortune sayings come from?

Origins on this page are drawn from public-domain reference works, primarily Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898). Where the origin is disputed or unknown, the entry says so plainly.

### Are these idioms still in modern use?

Most are in everyday English; a few are chiefly literary or old-fashioned, and those are flagged in the usage notes.

## Sources

- [Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898) — Internet Archive scan](https://archive.org/details/brewers-dictionary-of-phrase-and-fable)

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