Branch Rickey? John Milton? Alexander Pope? Anonymous?
Question for Quote Investigator: Confident people believe that luck is really controlled by human action. Religious people believe that luck is actually controlled by divine action. Here is a pertinent adage:
Luck is the residue of design.
This statement has been credited to prominent U.S. sports executive Branch Rickey and major English poet John Milton. I cannot find a good citation. Are either of these ascriptions accurate? Would you please explore this topic?
Reply from Quote Investigator: The earliest close match known to QI appeared in the “Lexington Leader” newspaper of Kentucky in 1915. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
Branch Rickey, manager of the St. Louis Browns, and one of the best known base ball men in the country, spoke to the State University Y.M.C.A. last night …
He gave a number of examples to demonstrate his point, and luck, he said, had no place in the lexicon of life, for there was no such thing as luck. Luck, he pointed out, is the residue of design and is governed by causes which are generally in the power of the man himself to govern.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
QI and other researchers have not found a close match for this statement in the works of John Milton. Yet, Milton did compose two pertinent quotations about chance. In 1634 a courtly entertainment called a masque was performed at Ludlow Castle. This work by Milton was called Comus, and it contained a character who suggested that chance events did not exist. The character contended that a negative event vexing a virtuous person never occurred by chance. Instead, the event was a challenge which enabled the achievement of glory:2
Against the threats
Of malice or of sorcery, or that pow’r
Which erring men call chance, this I hold firm,
Virtue may be assail’d, but never hurt,
Surpriz’d by unjust force, but not enthrall’d;
Yea even that, which mischief meant most harm,
Shall in the happy trial prove most glory.
In 1667 John Milton first published the famous poem “Paradise Lost”. He published a revised edition in 1674. In this poem “chance” was personified as a high arbiter who governed all:3
Chaos Umpire sits,
And by decision more imbroils the fray
By which he Reigns: next him high Arbiter
Chance governs all. Into this wild Abyss,
The Womb of Nature and perhaps her Grave,
Of neither Sea, nor Shore, nor Air, nor Fire,
But all these in their pregnant causes mixt
In 1734 the prominent English literary figure Alexander Pope published “An Essay on Man”. Pope’s work suggested that “chance” was really being directed by an unseen force. The word “spite” was spelled “spight”:4
All Nature is but Art, unknown to thee;
All Chance, Direction which thou canst not see;
All Discord, Harmony not understood;
All partial Evil, universal Good:
And spight of Pride, in erring Reason’s spight,
One truth is clear; “Whatever Is, is RIGHT.”
In 1882 the well-known collection “Familiar Quotations” compiled by John Bartlett contained the Milton’s line from “Comus”:5
That power Which erring men call Chance.
Comus, Line 587
In 1915 Branch Rickey employed the quotation under examination while delivering a speech in Kentucky as mentioned previously:
Luck, he pointed out, is the residue of design and is governed by causes which are generally in the power of the man himself to govern.
In 1920 “The Chat” periodical of Brooklyn, New York printed the following filler item:6
The best brand of “Pure Luck” is the residue in the refining crucible of hard work and economy.—Uncle Philander.
In 1922 the following thematically related quip appeared in the book “Listen to This” by Coleman Cox:7
I am a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more of it I seem to have.
A separate article about the saying immediately above is available here.
In 1938 Branch Rickey addressed the Minneapolis Chapter of the American Institute of Banking, and he employed the saying:8
“Luck?” he shouted. “Luck is the residue of design. Michigan proved it to you in football and Luck is the greatest single factor in American sport—or life.”
In 2006 a message sent to an e-mail list about the Detroit Tigers U.S. baseball team attributed the saying to Milton:9
Luck is the residue of design.
– John Milton (often attributed to Branch Rickey)
In 2009 a sports journalist of the “Los Angeles Times” credited Milton with the saying:10
There’s a reason the quote from John Milton—luck is the residue of design—has stood the test of time.
In conclusion, Branch Rickey deserves credit for this quotation based on the 1915 citation. The attribution of the quotation to John Milton is unsupported. Milton did compose a thematically related statement about chance, but the meaning was quite different.
Image Notes: Picture of two 20-sided (icosahedron) dice from Lucas Santos at Unsplash.
Acknowledgement: Great thanks to Laurence Horn whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration. Also, thanks to researcher Barry Popik for his previous exploration of this topic. Popik located the valuable 1915 citation for Branch Rickey. Additional thanks to “The New Yale Book of Quotations” edited by Fred R. Shapiro which included the 1915 citation.
- 1915 November 1, Lexington Leader, Branch Rickey, Quote Page 2, Column 4, Lexington, Kentucky. (Newspapers_com) link ↩︎
- 1750, Comus: A Masque. (Now Adapted to Stage) by John Milton, Character speaking: Eldest Brother, Quote Page 38, (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1688, Paradise Lost: A Poem In Twelve Books by John Milton, The Fourth Edition, Book II, Quote Page 55, Printed by Miles Flesher for Richard Bently, London. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1734, An Essay on Man, Being the First Book of Ethic Epistles To Henry St. John, Lord Bolingbroke, Author: Alexander Pope, Epistle I, Quote Page 24, Printed in London and Reprinted in Dublin by George Faulkner. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1882, Familiar Quotations: Being an Attempt to Trace to Their Sources, Compiled by John Bartlett, Eighth Edition, Section: John Milton (1608-1674), Quote Page 201, Little, Brown, and Company, Boston, Massachusetts. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1920 March 6, The Chat (Flatbush Edition), (Filler item), Quote Page 4, Column 6, Brooklyn, New York. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1922, Listen to This by Coleman Cox, Quote Page VII, Published by Coleman Cox Publishing Co., Monadnock Building, San Francisco. (HathiTrust full view) link ↩︎
- 1938 May 19, The Minneapolis Journal, “Luck? Luck Is Residue Of Design,” Says Rickey, Quote Page 20, Column 2, Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- Google Groups Database, Source: Detroit Tigers e-mail list, Timestamp: Jul 15, 2006, 11:18:16 PM, From: Tony Matt, Subject: last night’s exhibition of stupidity and luck. (Google Groups Search; Accessed October 11, 2024) link ↩︎
- 2009 September 16, Daily Press, Four Corners: A Sports Debate: Which is the luckiest team in all of sports?, Good teams make breaks by Mike James (Los Angeles Times), Quote Page C2, Column 2, Newport News, Virginia. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎