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Submitted by aberkes on Mon, 2011-08-15 17:24
in

Quotation: "I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it."

Variations: "The harder I work, the luckier I get."

Sources Consulted:

Earliest Appearance in Print: 1957[1]

Earliest Appearance in Print, attributed to Thomas Jefferson: 1982?[2]

Other Attributions: Stephen Leacock, Mark Twain, George Allen, Samuel Goldwyn, "old Amish saying"

Comments: Neither this statement nor any variations thereof have ever been found in Thomas Jefferson's writings.

Footnotes

  • 1. John E. Galvin was quoted as saying, "I'm a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more of it I seem to have," in "Rollmaker Forges Ahead," Steel 141 (1957): 243.
  • 2. Administrative Management 43 (1982): 5.  Issues 7-12 were scanned together in Google Books and it is unclear which issue contains this quotation.