Quote by Amor Towles

Men may boast of their great actions; but they are more often the effects of chance than of design.

— Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Though men pride themselves on their great actions, often they are not the results of any great design, but of chance.

— François De La Rochefoucauld

“In many ways an artistic nature unfits a man for a practical existence.”

— Robert Louis Stevenson

Although men flatter themselves with their great actions, they are not so often the result of a great design as of chance.

— Anonymous

Man is a transitory being, and his designs must partake of the imperfections their author.

— Samuel Johnson

“Style is not the man; it is something better. It is a dizzy, dazzling structure that he erects about himself using as building materials…

— Quentin Crisp

“Men live by embedding themselves in ongoing systems of illusion. Religion. Patriotism. Economics. Fashion. That sort of thing.”

— Tom Robbins

“Men who are capable of real action first make their plans and then go forward without hesitation while their enemies have still not made…

— Thucydides

Man is a transitory being, and his designs must partake of the imperfections of their author. To confer duration is not always in our…

— Samuel Johnson

“Imitation and custom are the spring of almost all human action. The cause of it is that men fight shy of all and any…

— Arthur Schopenhauer

“Attempts to connect men's circumstances too closely with their literary productions are usually, I believe, unsuccessful.”

— C.S. Lewis

“The natural impulse of men is to follow, he thought, and whoever has the strongest sense of purpose will always dominate the rest.”

— Robert Harris