Unlikely Events Quotes & Sayings

People think that God wants our offerings. God does not need anything from us. He is the giver. He is like the sun - the giver of light. — Mata Amritanandamayi

The government-sponsored institution Fannie Mae, when I look at its risks, seems to be sitting on a barrel of dynamite, vulnerable to the slightest hiccup. But not to worry: their large staff of scientists deemed these events "unlikely." — Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Extremely unlikely events occur every moment and it is not a priori unthinkable that the evolution of life should be due to mere chance than that a particular order in a pack of cards should result from mechanical shuffling. — Leszek Kolakowski

All social groups groups make rules and attempt, at some times and under some circumstances, to enforce them. Social rules define situations and the kinds of behavior appropriate to them, specifying some actions as "right" and forbidding others as "wrong". — Howard S. Becker

Money is the driving force of Hand to Mouth, the lack of money, and all those true stories about strange things in The Red Notebook, coincidences and unlikely events, surprise, the unexpected. — Paul Auster

This book is a work of fiction that was given to a pirate after it was retrieved from the future by exotically beautiful Eastern European girls. Then diabolical Eastern European scientists worked tirelessly to ensure that every name, character, place, and incident in the world which, even remotely, resembled one within the book was "erased." (How? Ninjas.) If any similarity still exists, it's purely accidental (and suggests you live in an alternate dimension). Any lingering resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living, dead, or undead, is entirely coincidental and highly unlikely. — James Marshall

Don't waste your time with procrastinating, because that time you won't get back. Be productive, even if it means sitting in your bed and reading :D — Anonymous

I've always had a tomboy look. — Carey Lowell

Sometimes what seems to be a difference in opinions is in fact just a difference in definitions. — Scott Adams

Ah yes, "The Calling." This is certainly a favorite Christian concept over in these parts. Here is the trouble: Scripture barely confirms our elusive calling - the bull's-eye, life purpose, individual mission every hardworking Protestant wants to discover. I found five scriptures, three of which referred to salvation rather than a job description (Rom. 11:29, 2 Peter 1:10, and Heb. 3:1). — Jen Hatmaker

Success is the result of a delicate balance between making things happen and letting things happen. — Robin Sharma

Stories people told themselves were biased by the availability of the material used to construct them...what people remember about the past, [Kahneman and Tversky] suggested, is likely to warp their judgement of the future. "We often decide that an outcome is extremely unlikely or impossible, because we are unable to imagine any chain of events that could cause it to occur. The defect, often, is in our imagination. — Michael Lewis

I am not sure how much I would like being married if I wasn't married to him. A man who likes flea markets and isn't gay? I knew I was lucky. — Lynda Barry

Life for a child of God isn't about your successes or failures; Christ IS your success. — Jenari Skye

How do people make the judgments and how do they assign decision weights? We start from two simple answers, then qualify them. Here are the oversimplified answers: People overestimate the probabilities of unlikely events. People overweight unlikely events in their decisions. — Daniel Kahneman

If we can somehow control the probability of certain improbable events, then anything, including faster-than-light travel, and even time travel, is possible. Reaching the distant stars in seconds is highly unlikely, but when one can control quantum probabilities at will, then even the impossible may become commonplace. — Michio Kaku

It felt like one of those perfect moments where everything comes together. But like I said, I don't believe in accidents. Even if this strange, musical moment, the final result of a long chain of unlikely events, never came to anything else, it was meant to be.
Something new had been born. — Mark Peter Hughes

In infinite space, even the most unlikely events must take place somewhere. — Max Tegmark

An unlikely event is likely to happen because there are so many unlikely events that could happen. — Per Bak

On Improbability:
There's an infinite number of things that can go wrong but only a finite number of things that can go right.
In the infinitude of unlikely events many will happen with unnerving frequency.
Tautology: A given improbable event isn't likely to happen.
Corollary: Shit happens, but you'll not know its ilk.
I'm certain that nothing is certain. — Kalifer Deil

They asked me a good many questions; as, what my name was, how old I was, where I lived, how I was employed, and how I came there. To all of which, that I might commit nobody, I invented, I am afraid, appropriate answers. They served me with the ale, though I suspect it was not the Genuine Stunning; and the landlord's wife, opening the little half-door of the bar, and bending down, gave me my money back, and gave me a kiss that was half admiring and half compassionate, but all womanly and good, I am sure. — Charles Dickens

Because Time has been around for a long time, it often gets bored. In order to briefly relieve its boredom, Time enjoys constructing massively unlikely series of events. If the events are of the romantic kind, they're called Fate, and if they are of the negative kind, we call them Unfortunate Coincidence. — Ben Brooks

This is the only life I have to live. — Lailah Gifty Akita

In later years, your child will still appreciate having some time with you before he goes to sleep. He needs close, warm, personal time , something that simply watching television together, for instance, will not provide: even if the shows are not exciting or scary - which is unlikely - and even if you are sitting next to him, the lack of direct personal interaction makes this bedtime routine a poor one. Instead, use the time to discuss school events, plans for the weekend, soccer, dance class, after-school programs, or music lessons. It might also be helpful to talk about any worries your child may have, so he will be less likely to brood over them in bed. — Richard Ferber

So even the most unlikely events have to take place somewhere ... — David Lindsay-Abaire

We become innocent when we are unfortunate. — Jean De La Fontaine

The outlandish 2000 election and Bush's victory had come along at the perfect time, helping Stewart, the correspondents, and the writers sharpen The Daily Show's tone of bemused mockery. The next world-changing events would have just as big an effect - and a late-night, basic cable comedy show would become an unlikely outlet for mourning, an antidote to anxiety, and gradually a center of principled, patriotic dissent. — Chris Smith

Everything's going to be fine. She'll be back at work soon. Let's just keep the house clean. Oh yeah, I want to say, because a clean house will result in peace in the Middle East as well. — Melina Marchetta

None but the most blindly credulous will imaging the characters and events in this story to be anything but fictitious. It is true that the ancient and noble city of Oxford is, of all the towns of England, the likeliest progenitor of unlikely events and persons. But there are limits. — Edmund Crispin

A hero is one who knows how to hang on one minute longer. — Novalis

Life is a series of unlikely events, isn't it? Hers certainly is. One unlikely event after another, adding up to a rich, complicated whole. And who knows what's still to come? — Judy Blume

With the destruction of history, contemporary events themselves retreat into a remote and fabulous realm of unverifiable stories, uncheckable statistics, unlikely explanations and untenable reasoning. — Guy Debord