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George Bernard Shaw dismissed Lotteries as “a way of taxing fools” and Dennis Thatcher described them as a “nasty foreign invention!” But then his wife was better at cutting funds for educational and cultural ventures than raising money for them, which is what lotteries around the world generally do. Equally, according to Message Board Member Ozpools, lotteries have been called “a tax on people who are bad at maths,” so maybe cutting back on education is a way of keeping the lottery going! We
feel that lotteries are a harmless bit of fun and that the way numbers fall in
a random draw is interesting – and likely to provoke discussion, a major aim of
SoccerLotto.com. I
hope you find the following quotes and anecdotes about winning, losing,
gambling and money thought-provoking.
If you have any you think we should add, please email them to Perman@soccerlotto.com or post them on
the message board. You
can’t always play it safe. Sometimes in life you just have to roll the dice. MARTINA
NAVRATILOVA, on the 2001 Wimbledon women’s singles final. A
little incompatibility is the spice of life, particularly if he has income and
she is pattable. OGDEN NASH In
the midst of life we are in debt. ETHEL WATTS MUMFORD The
only golden thing that women dislike is silence. MARY WILSON LITTLE I’m
living so far beyond my income that we may almost be said to be living apart. SAKI
(H M MUNRO) Let
us all be happy and live within our means, even if we have to borrow the money
to do it with. ARTEMUS WARD Here’s to champagne, the drink
divine That makes us forget our troubles. It’s made of one dollars worth of
wine And three dollars worth of bubbles. ANON “Privileged
Bourgeois Students Should Be Made To Pay” “Do
you accept American Express?” OXFORD
GRAFFITI All
decent people live beyond their incomes nowadays, and those who aren’t
respectable live beyond other people’s. A few gifted individuals manage to do
both. SAKI
(H M MUNRO) If
the aunt of the vicar has never touched liquor, look out when she finds the
champagne. RUDYARD KIPLING The
best throw of the dice is to throw them away. AUSTIN O’MALLEY A
fool and her money are soon courted. HELEN ROWLAND A
fool and his money are soon married. CAROLYN WELLS In
Brighton she was Brenda, She
was Patsy up in Perth, In
Cambridge she was Candida The
sweetest girl on earth. In
Stafford she was Stella, The
pick of all the bunch, But
down on his expenses, She
was Petrol, Oil and Lunch ANON No
wife can endure a gambling husband unless he is a steady winner. LORD
THOMAS ROBERT DEWAR When
I wish I was rich, then I know I am ill. D H LAWRENCE When
one has had to work so hard to get money, why should he impose himself the
further hardship of trying to save it? DON HEROLD There
is only one class in the community that thinks more about money than the rich,
and that is the poor. The poor can think of nothing else. OSCAR
WILDE He
uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts – for support rather than
illumination. ANDREW
LANG The
silk suit cost me much money, and I pray to God to make me able to pay for it. SAMUEL
PEPYS I
am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of
it. STEPHEN
LEACOCK The
only sure thing about luck is that it will change. WILSON
MIZNER Poverty
of course is no disgrace, but it is damned annoying. WILLIAM PITT Seeing
she could not make fools wise, fortune has made them lucky. MICHEL
EYQUEM DE MONTAIGNE Don’t
answer back if you’re out to make money, but do if you’re out for enjoyment. BARRY
PAIN Happiness:
a good bank account, a good cook and a good digestion. JEAN
JACQUES ROUSSEAU The
income tax has made more liars out of the American people than gold has. WILL
ROGERS Gambling
promise the poor what property performs for the rich – something for nothing. GEORGE
BERNARD SHAW The
safest way to double your money is to fold it over once and put it in your
pocket. RUDYARD
KIPLING The
great rule is not to talk about money with people who have much more or less
than you. KATHERINE
WHITEHORN A
banker is a man who lends you an umbrella when the weather is fair, and takes
it away from you when it rains. ANON Some
couples go over their budgets very carefully every month, others just go over
them. SALLY
POPLIN To
force myself to earn more money, I determined to spend more. LOUIS
AGASSIZ Solvency
is entirely a matter of temperament and not of income. LOGON
PEARSALL SMITH Never
ask of money spent Where
the spender thinks it went. Nobody
was ever meant To
remember or invent What
he did with every cent. ROBERT
FROST Anyone
who lives within his means is suffering from a lack of imagination. LIONEL
STANDER IN
GOD WE TRUST. All others pay cash. ANON Saving
is a very fine thing. Especially when your parents have done it for you. WINSTON
CHURCHILL The
winner of the Sydney Opera house draw – to help pay for the building – was
kidnapped and ransomed for $1 million. Payment was not made and the boy was
later found murdered. If
all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion. GEORGE
BERNARD SHAW Nobody
who has wealth to distribute ever omits himself. TROTSKY MENDOZA:
I am a brigand: I live by robbing the rich. TANNER:
I am a gentleman: I live by robbing the poor. GEORGE
BERNARD SHAW The
best things in life are duty free. GRAFFITI,
Heathrow Airport Money
isn’t everything: usually it isn’t even enough. ANON Money
is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons. WOODY
ALLEN All
right, so I like spending money! But name one other extravagance! MAX
KAUFFMAN Chance
favours the prepared mind. LOUIS
PASTEUR There
is divinity in odd numbers. SHAKESPEARE,
The Merry Wives of Windsor. If
you can make one heap of all your winnings And
risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss…. KIPLING,
If. When
you take the bull by the horns, what happens is a toss up. WILLIAM
PETT RIDGE Chance
is always powerful. Let your hook always be cast. In the pool where you least
expect it, will be fish. OVID Men
that hazard all, do it in hope of fair advantages. SHAKESPEARE,
Merchant of Venice – the Message Bard as member Richard Norris memorably
described him. The
lottery is a government institution and the poor its best patrons. MARK
TWAIN There
is no such thing as “social gambling”. Either you are there to cut the other
bloke’s heart out and eat it – or you’re a sucker. If you don’t like this
choice, don’t gamble. ROBERT
A HEINLEIN Gambling:
The sure way of getting nothing for something. WILSON
MIZNER …and
possibly the biggest truism of all: there are two great pleasures in gambling –
winning and losing! ANON |