Be lucky - it's an easy skill to learn (2003)

Re:Be lucky - it's an easy skill to learn (2003) by F_J_H on Tuesday February 16, 2010 @12:03PM (#1129196)

"Chance favours the prepared mind." (Can't remember who said it, but it is the crux of this article in many ways.)

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Re:Be lucky - it's an easy skill to learn (2003) by carbocation on Tuesday February 16, 2010 @01:03PM (#1129312)

"Dans les champs de l'observation le hasard ne favorise que les esprits préparés." - Pasteur

(Various versions of this are available in English at http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Louis_Pasteur )

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Re:Be lucky - it's an easy skill to learn (2003) by MrHyde on Tuesday February 16, 2010 @01:40PM (#1129414)

My best literal-ish interpretation "In the fields of observation (testing?) chance favors only the prepared spirits." It's interesting to me the explicit "only" construction, as opposed to the implied version in the typical English versions.

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Re:Be lucky - it's an easy skill to learn (2003) by gmartres on Tuesday February 16, 2010 @03:16PM (#1129715)

I'm not a native English speaker, but isn't "minds" more appropriate than "spirits"?

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Re:Be lucky - it's an easy skill to learn (2003) by MrHyde on Monday March 08, 2010 @12:10PM (#1175779)

I'm not a native French speaker. It's quite possible that minds would be better here. I don't really know; I think the distinction can frequently be subtle, at least in my conception of the two. Depending on the situation, I might consider either to be a strict subset of the other, which means I'm sometimes equivocating.

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