The man who has planned badly, if fortune is on his side, may have had a stroke of luck; but his plan was a bad one nonetheless.
Interpretation
Luck cannot replace a good plan; poor planning can lead to misfortune despite favorable circumstances.
This quote by Herodotus emphasizes that while luck may occasionally benefit those who fail to plan properly, it does not rectify the inherent flaws in their planning. The essence of successful endeavors lies in careful and thoughtful planning, as luck is unreliable and does not change the quality of one's strategy.
In practice
In a motivational speech about the importance of preparation, this quote can be used to emphasize careful planning.
The Scythians take kannabis seed, creep in under the felts, and throw it on the red-hot stones. It smolders and sends up such billows of steam-smoke that no Greek vapor bath can surpass it. The Scythians howl with joy in these vapor-baths, which serve them instead of bathing, for they never wash their bodies with water.
Men trust their ears less than their eyes.
Great deeds are usually wrought at great risks.
The worst pain a man can have is to know much and be impotent to act.
All men's gains are the fruit of venturing.
Illness strikes men when they are exposed to change.
Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.
To be aware of a single shortcoming within oneself is more useful than to be aware of a thousand in somebody else. Rather than speaking badly about people and in ways that will produce friction and unrest in their lives, we should practice a purer perception of them, and when we speak of others, speak of their good qualities.
The Lord will always prepare a way for you to escape from the trials you will be given if you understand two things. One is that you need to be on the Lord's errand. The second thing you need to understand is that the escape will almost never be out of the trial; it will usually be through it.
I feel like an inadequate machine, a machine that breaks down at crucial moments, grinds to a dreadful hault, 'won't go,' or, even worse, explodes in some innocent person's face.
He who has lost his money-belt will go where you wish.
How few things can a man measure with the tape of his understanding ; How many greater things might he be seeing in the meanwhile.
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