Quote: I am a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more of it I seem to have (Coleman Cox 1922)

[Garson O'Toole]

Here are two versions of the same basic saying:
(1) The harder I work, the more luck I have
(2) I'm a great believer in luck.  The harder I work, the more of it I
seem to have.

I was asked about this quotation because a top venture capitalist
credited the sentiment to Thomas Jefferson recently. Indeed, the
saying has been ascribed to Jefferson for a few decades. However, the
Monticello website states that there is no evidence to support that
attribution.

http://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/i-am-great-believer-luckquotation

[Begin excerpt]
Neither this statement nor any variations thereof have ever been found
in Thomas Jefferson's writings.
[End excerpt]

The Yale Book of Quotations has a version of the saying in 1947
attributed to F. L. Emerson:
[Begin excerpt]
I’m a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more of it I seem to have.
[End excerpt]

The Dictionary of Modern Proverbs has an instance in 1940:
[Begin excerpt]
1940 Esther Eberstadt Brooke, Career Clinic (New York: Farrar &
Rinehart) 246: “Luck, if you will, is something you work for, and the
harder you work the more luck you have.”
[End excerpt]

Barry Popik has an entry on the topic:
“I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more
I have of it”

http://goo.gl/YdhVn
http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/i_am_a_great_believer_in_luck_and_i_find_the_harder_i_work_the_more_i_have_/

A commentator on Barry's blog pointed to a quotation attributed to
Coleman Cox in an issue of "Colorado School of Mines Magazine". The
date given by the commentator was not quite correct. The proper date
for the issue was January 1923.

Here is a citation for a book written by Coleman Cox containing the
saying. The copyright is 1922.

Cite: 1922, Listen to This by Coleman Cox, Page VII, Published by
Coleman Cox Publishing Co., Monadnock Building, San Francisco.
(HathiTrust full view)

http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39076005053058
http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39076005053058?urlappend=%3Bseq=9

[Begin excerpt]
I am a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more of it I seem to have.
[End excerpt]

Garson

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