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Quotations about Gambling



For most men (till by losing rendered sager)
Will back their own opinions by a wager.
~Lord Byron


A gambler would rather win a dollar on a bet than earn ten. ~20,000 Quips & Quotes, Evan Esar, 1968


No wife can ever endure a gambling husband unless he is a steady winner. ~Houston Post-Dispatch, 1924


Widgins is a man who offers to lay ten to one on anything... ~Frederick William Robinson, Twelve O'Clock, 1861


A permanent and intense interest is acquirable in baccarat, or in any other game, but you have to buy it. You don't get it by standing around and looking on... Constantly money and chips are flung upon the table, and the game seems to consist in the croupier's reaching for these things with a flexible sculling oar, and raking them home. It appeared to be a rational enough game for him, and if I could have borrowed his oar I would have stayed... ~Mark Twain, "Aix, the Paradise of the Rheumatics"


FLUSH  Five cards in one suit being choked to death by ten fingers clasped in an attitude of prayer. ~Charles Wayland Towne, The Altogether New Foolish Dictionary, by Gideon Wurdz, 1914


A dollar picked up in the road is more satisfaction to you than the ninety-and-nine which you had to work for, and money won at faro or in stocks snuggles into your heart in the same way. ~Mark Twain


Poker parties would be all right if it were not for the fact that somebody has to lose. ~George V. Hobart, "The Poker Party Boobs," BOOBS As Seen by John Henry, 1914


If you would read a mans Disposition, see him Game, you will then learn more of him in one hour, than in seven Years Conversation... ~Richard Lingard, A Letter of Advice To A Young Gentleman Leaving the University, Concerning his Behaviour and Conversation in the World, 1670


Sporting News will embrace everything except Heavyweight Boxing Championship battles. They will be found in the Financial Section. ~Will Rogers, 1923


Th' safest way t' double your money is t' fold it over once an' put it back in your pocket. ~Kin Hubbard


In life's poker game, the optimist sees the pessimist's night and raises him the sunrise. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com


A pack of cards is the devil's prayer-book. ~German proverb


      Sarah Battle... was none of your lukewarm gamesters, your half and half players... No inducement could ever prevail upon her to play at any game, where chance entered into the composition, for nothing... Games of pure skill were as little to her fancy. Played for a stake, they were a mere system of over-reaching. Played for glory, they were a mere setting of one man's wit, — his memory, or combination-faculty rather — against another's; like a mock-engagement at a review, bloodless and profitless.— She could not conceive a game wanting the spritely infusion of chance, — the handsome excuses of good fortune. Two people playing at chess in a corner of a room, whilst whist was stirring in the centre, would inspire her with insufferable horror and ennui. Those well-cut similitudes of Castles, and knights... were entirely misplaced and senseless. Those hard head-contests can in no instance ally with the fancy... A pencil and dry slate (she used to say) were the proper arena for such combatants.
      To those puny objectors against cards, as nurturing the bad passions, she would retort, that man is a gaming animal. He must be always trying to get the better in something or other:— that this passion can scarcely be more safely expended than upon a game at cards: that cards are a temporary illusion; in truth, a mere drama... They are a sort of dream-fighting; much ado; great battling, and little bloodshed; mighty means for disproportioned ends; quite as diverting, and a great deal more innoxious, than many of those more serious games of life, which men play, without esteeming them to be such.
      With great deference to the old lady's judgment on these matters, I think I have experienced some moments in my life, when playing at cards for nothing has even been agreeable. When I am in sickness, or not in the best spirits, I sometimes call for the cards, and play a game at piquet for love... I grant there is something sneaking in it: but with a toothache, or a sprained ankle, — when you are subdued and humble, — you are glad to put up with an inferior spring of action. ~Charles Lamb, "Mrs. Battle's Opinions on Whist"


The great object of life is Sensation — to feel that we exist — even though in pain — it is this "craving void" which drives us to Gaming — to Battle — to Travel — to intemperate but keenly felt pursuits of every description whose principal attraction is the agitation inseparable from their accomplishment. ~Lord Byron, 1813


STOCKS  An unreliable commodity bought and sold by gamblers. If you win, it's an investment; if you lose, a speculation. ~Charles Wayland Towne, The Foolish Dictionary, Executed by Gideon Wurdz, Master of Pholly, Doctor of Loquacious Lunacy, etc., 1904


The man who makes wagers may show good judgment, but better judgment is usually shown by the man who doesn't bet. ~"Poor Richard Junior's Philosophy," The Saturday Evening Post, 1903, George Horace Lorimer, editor


In such a complicated machine as this world of ours, in spite of our own little contributory efforts, we must, as regards the principal thing, it seems to me, be always gamblers in a lottery. ~Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–1799), translated by Norman Alliston, 1908


The gambling known as business looks with austere disfavor upon the business known as gambling. ~Ambrose Bierce


LADY FREDERICK BEROLLES.  Then let me give you one warning — don't gamble.
MADAME CLAUDE.  Oh, no, my lady. I gamble quite enough in my business as it is. I never know when my customers will pay their bills — if ever.
~W. Somerset Maugham, Lady Frederick, 1907





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