53 Quotes on risk-taking, courage, luck, and gambling to inspire

5 mins read
Playing cards, casino chips and red dice

Luck and gambling are interconnected and depend on one another, but they are also related to risk-taking in life. Some people are more likely to leave their comfort zone, while others prefer to keep it safe. Below are words of wisdom on taking chances, having the guts and courage, and gambling. Here are 53 quotes and phrases about good luck and gambling, as well as some movie quotes on betting, playing games of chance and life. They are sorted into quotes on courage and risk, gambling and luck, and gambling quotes taken from movies.

17 Quotes on courage and risk-taking

Without taking risks at some point in your life, whenever necessary, you won’t grow, achieve your goals, and make your dreams come true. Giving up at the moments when hardships seem overwhelming will sabotage your goals. So, fear is the enemy that you need to face and fight. Risk is in every aspect of our lives.

You may need to put something at stake in any area of your life, such as taking that first step toward a dream or having a tough conversation with a friend or colleague.

You are taking a chance or risk every time you:

  • Ask questions you didn’t dare to ask before
  • Look at the truth about why an initiative you have failed in
  • Hire new people
  • Reform your team or business
  • Forgive someone
  • Look fear, uncertainty, and doubt in the eyes, etc.

All the above require risk. Nearly all the problem-solving and innovation in your life needs some risk. Remember that you must step outside your comfort zone to fulfil your purpose in life. What’s more, you’ll never know what you are capable of unless you succumb to fear, uncertainty, and doubt in certain moments. You won’t make any positive impact on your social environment and the whole world if you’re scared of taking risks.

A man standing on the edge of a cliff

Keep in mind that many of the businesses we admire, like Apple, Hewlett Packard, and Whole Foods, started as ideas and then grew, recovering from pitfalls and failures by continuing to take risks. They all began as small businesses and grew into global companies, using luck to their advantage and taking chances whenever necessary. Their owners didn’t play it safe all the time.

In honor of all risk-takers, innovators, and leaders who started and grew small businesses, here are the 17 best inspirational quotes to ignite your adventurer and fearless searcher. Whatever risk you need to take, let them inspire you.

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” – Anais Nin

“Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill

“Courage faces fear and thereby masters it.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

“The hero is no braver than the ordinary man, but he is brave five minutes longer.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“If you want a guarantee, buy a toaster.” – Anonymous

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” – Helen Keller

“Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” – Henry Ford

“You can’t get anywhere in life without taking risks.” – Esme Bianco

“To win without risk is to triumph without glory.” – Pierre Corneille

“If something is important enough, even if the odds are against you, you should still do it.” – Elon Musk

“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” – T. S. Eliot

“Turn a perceived risk into an asset.” – Aaron Patzer

“The greatest risk is not taking one.” – Tim Fargo

“One hundred percent of the shots you don’t take don’t go in.” – Wayne Gretzky

“You’ll always miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” – Wayne Gretzky

“To succeed… you need to find something to hold on to, something to motivate you, something to inspire you.” – Tony Dorsett

“Fortune favors the bold.” – Terence 190-159 BC.

34 Quotes on good luck and gambling

А croupier that deals cards during a poker game

In every aspect of our lives, there are elements of luck and gambling involved. We frequently need to take a chance to make bold and vital decisions, choose something, say no, start a business, end a relationship, etc. We tend to postpone the hard decisions to avoid making mistakes whether in games of chance like poker or life.

Many of us don’t realize that when you do nothing, postpone making the decision, and leave things the way they avoid taking the necessary risk, you still decide. In such cases, you leave other people and circumstances to determine for yourself, which is usually your worst option. Here are some quotes on luck and gambling that make you realize things you may not have:

“A dollar won is twice as sweet as a dollar earned.” – Paul Newman

“Gambling is a way of buying hope on credit.” – Alan Wykes

“If you don’t gamble, you’ll never win.” – Charles Bukowski

“True luck consists not in holding the best of the cards at the table; luckiest is he who knows just when to rise and go home.” – John Milton Hay

“Hoping to recoup is what ruins the gambler.” – Irish proverb

“Quit while you’re ahead. All the best gamblers do.” – Baltasar Gracian y Morales

“Money won is twice as sweet as money earned.” – The Color of Money (Movie)

“Never gamble with a man who knows both sides of the cards.” – Ken Alstad

“At the gambling table, there are no fathers and sons.” – Chinese Proverb

“If you’re playing a poker game and you look around the table and can’t tell who the sucker is, it’s you.” – Paul Newman

“Gambling is not about how well you play the games; it’s really about how well you handle your money.” – V. P. Pappy

“Gambling is not a vice; it is an expression of our humanness. We gamble. Some do it at the gaming table, some do not. You play, you win, you play, you lose. You play.” – Jeanette Winterson

“Nobody’s always a winner, and anybody who says he is, is either a liar or doesn’t play poker.” – Alfred Alvarez

“At gambling, the deadly sin is to mistake bad play for bad luck.” – Casino Royale (Movie)

“Gambling operates under the premise that greed can be satisfied by luck.” – Rita Mae Brown

“Gambling is the great leveler. All men are equal at cards.” – Nikolai Gogol

“The house doesn’t beat the player. It just gives him the opportunity to beat himself.” – Nick Dandalos

“Blackjack is the only casino game an amateur can learn to play and at which he can definitely win.” – Lawrence Revere

“Gambling: The sure way of getting nothing from something.” – Wilson Mizner

“In gambling, the many must lose in order that the few may win.” – George Bernard Shaw

“There are two great pleasures in gambling: that of winning and that of losing.” – French Proverb

“The urge to gamble is so universal and its practice so pleasurable that I assume it must be evil.” – Heywood Hale Broun

“Las Vegas is the only place I know where money really talks – it says, Goodbye.” – Frank Sinatra in “The Joker Is Wild.”

“To be a poker champion, you must have a strong bladder.” – Jack McClelland

“A gambler never makes the same mistake twice. It’s usually three or more times.” – Terry Murphy

“Luck always seems to be against the man who depends on it.” – Unknown

“The guy who invented poker was bright, but the guy who invented the chip was a genius.” – Julius Weintraub

“A Gentleman is a man who will pay his gambling debts even when he knows he has been cheated.” – Leo Tolstoy

“No wife can endure a gambling husband, unless he is a steady winner.” – Thomas Robert Dewar

“I like to play blackjack. I’m not addicted to gambling. I’m addicted to sitting in a semi-circle.” – Mitch Hedberg

“There is no gambling like politics.” – Benjamin Disraeli

“We all get addicted to something that takes away the pain.” – Anonymous

“As long as the red dice are in the air, the gambler has hope. And hope is a wonderful thing to be addicted to.” – Norm Macdonald

”The good things come to those of you who bait.” – Unknown

5 Movie quotes on gambling

Cinema exterior

The following words of wisdom will inspire and make you contemplate the philosophical side of life. They are from popular movies that will shed some light on gambling and luck. Before trying your luck, here are some great quotes from top movies on luck and gambling, risk-taking, and casino games.

“The house always wins. Play long enough, you never change the stakes. The house takes you. Unless, when that perfect hand comes along. You bet and you bet big, then you take the house.” – George Clooney in “Ocean’s Eleven” (2001)

“You know the best part of the best drug in the world isn’t the high. It’s the moment just before you take it. The dice are dancing on the table. Between now and the time they stop, that’s the greatest high in the world.” – Walter Abrams in “Two for the Money” (2005)

“Do you know the difference between a hustler and a good con man? … A hustler has to get out of town as quick as he can, but a good con man – he doesn’t have to leave until he wants to.” Gabriel Cane (Played by James Woods) in “Diggstown” (1992)

Jack Manfred (played by Clive Owen): “Gambling’s not about money. Gambling’s about not facing reality, ignoring the odds.” Gina McKee (played by Marion Nell): “I must be a fool – I never think about the odds.” – “Croupier” (1998)

“I’ve got the same chance as anybody else, haven’t I?” said Charlie, to which Grandpa Joe replied: “You’ve got more, Charlie, because you want it more.” – “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” (1971)

To learn more about the evolution of gaming read our blog posts on the history of luck and gambling and the origins of gambling and games of chance in the ancient world.