"Better lucky than good"--where does it come from?

April 11, 2009 8:41 PM

"Better lucky than good." Who said it first?
posted by Slinga to Religion & Philosophy (10 answers total)

I think this isn't the answer you're expecting, given you tagged it "religion and philosophy" ... but Arnold Palmer?
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 8:47 PM on April 11, 2009

Lefty Gomez
posted by Taurid at 8:58 PM on April 11, 2009

BrainyQuote attributes the essentially-the-same "I'd rather be lucky than good" to Left Gomez, who played for the Yankees in the 1930s.
posted by cerebus19 at 8:59 PM on April 11, 2009

That's of course "Lefty," as Taurid wrote. I'm not sure he's the first to have said it, though, since it seems like the sort of thing that may be an old maxim that he'd heard and repeated on the record.
posted by cerebus19 at 9:01 PM on April 11, 2009

Actually its "I'd rather be lucky than good."
posted by Taurid at 9:02 PM on April 11, 2009 [1 favorite]

rats....cerebus 19 beat me to it
posted by Taurid at 9:04 PM on April 11, 2009

"I do not want a good General, I want a lucky one" - Napoleon
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:33 AM on April 12, 2009

Actually: "The more I practice, the luckier I get" -- Gary Player
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 8:01 AM on April 12, 2009

I've always heard "I'd rather be lucky than rich" but maybe that's a similar but completely separate saying.
posted by timepiece at 9:18 AM on April 12, 2009

Chuck Yeager in the game Chuck Yeager's Air Combat...at least that's where I heard it first.
posted by spacefire at 9:48 AM on April 12, 2009