Horseshoes Quotes

Close don't count in baseball. Close only counts in horseshoes and grenades.

Frank Robinson

Sports, Baseball, Grenade

Quoted in Time, 31 July 1973. Usually attributed to Robinson, but slightly earlier evidence is found in the Guthrian (Guthrie County, Iowa), 26 Jan. 1970, which printed "Close only counts in horse shoes and grenades."

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Happy art thou, as if every day thou hadst picked up a horseshoe.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Art, Luck, Ifs

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1867). “The Poetical Works of H. W. Longfellow. Complete Edition”, p.103

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Somebody once asked Niels Bohr why he had a horseshoe hanging above the front door of his house. Surely you, a world famous physicist, can't really believe that hanging a horseshoe above your door brings you luck? Of course not, Bohr replied, but I have been reliably informed that it will bring me luck whether I believe in it or not.

Arthur Koestler

Believe, Doors, House

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Nearly' only counts in horseshoes and hand-grenades.

Neil Gaiman

Success, Failure, Good Luck

Neil Gaiman (2009). “The Graveyard Book”, p.103, A&C Black

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Great American sport. Horseshoes is a very great game. I love it.

Dan Quayle

Sports, Games, Great American

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A farmer travelling with his load Picked up a horseshoe on the road, And nailed if fast to his barn door, That luck might down upon him pour; That every blessing known in life Might crown his homestead and his wife, And never any kind of harm Descend upon his growing farm.

James Thomas Fields

Blessing, Journey, Doors

James Thomas Fields, “The Lucky Horseshoe”

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Horseshoes are lucky. Horses have four bits of lucky nailed to their feet. They should be the luckiest animals in the world. They should rule the country. They should win all their horse races, at least. 'In the fifth race today, every single horse was first equal...one horse threw a shoe came in third...the duck was ninth...and five ran.'

Eddie Izzard

Country, Horse, Animal

"Eddie Izzard: Definite Article". Documentary, Comedy, www.imdb.com. 1996.

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A visitor to Niels Bohr's country cottage, noticing a horseshoe hanging on the wall, teasing the eminent scientist about this ancient superstition. "Can it be true that you, of all people, believe it will bring you luck?'
'Of course not,' replied Bohr, 'but I understand it brings you luck whether you believe it or not.'

Niels Bohr

Country, Wall, Believe

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I've tried to move [the sidhe-seers] during times of peace and quiet and had the luck of a broken mirror nailed beneath an upside-down horseshoe with a ladder nearby that a black cat just walked under.

Karen Marie Moning

Moving, Cat, Mirrors

Karen Marie Moning (2012). “Iced: Fever Series”, p.373, Delacorte Press

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A physicist visits a colleague and notices a horseshoe hanging on the wall above the entrance. 'Do you really believe that a horseshoe brings luck?' he asks. 'No,' replies the colleague, 'but I've been told that it works even if you don't believe in it.'

Niels Bohr

Wall, Believe, Luck

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As for me, tough duty though it may be, I continue to do my part for the commercial recreation industry. Fishing, boating, tennis, golf, running, hunting, and all of this. Horseshoes. It's tough duty. Somebody has to do it, and I'm going to keep on.

George H. W. Bush

Running, Golf, Hunting

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Of course I don't believe in it [pointing to horseshoe on his office wall]. But I understand that it brings you luck whether you believe in it or not.

Niels Bohr

Faith, Wall, Believe

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It's so fun to do theater, because as opposed to television, you just keep doing it again and again and again - every night. Sometimes it lands beautifully, and sometimes it lands just beside of it. It's like throwing a horseshoe. It's great fun.

Missi Pyle

Fun, Night, Land

"Missi Pyle on Her Role in the Off-Broadway Rock Musical 'Bare'". Interview with Lauren Levinson, www.elle.com. January 4, 2013.

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I would not be too surprised to see a flying horse; I would consider it as a gift of the evolution; but I would be very surprised if it had horseshoe sounds!

Mehmet Murat Ildan

Horse, Flying, Sound

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I noticed that all the prayers I used to offer to God, and all the prayers I now offer to Joe Pesci, are being answered at about the same 50% rate. Half the time I get what I want, half the time I don't... Same as the four-leaf clover and the horseshoe...same as the Voodoo Lady who tells you your fortune by squeezing the goat's testicles, it's all the same: 50-50. So just pick your superstition, sit back, make a wish, and enjoy yourself.

George Carlin

Funny, Sarcastic, Witty

"You Are All Diseased". Book by George Carlin, 1999.

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As a revolutionary people, we Americans won a probable victory over the best and biggest army in the world because we learned to fight from the Indians. You can do a lot of damage with a Kentucky rifle from behind a tree. You don't put on a peaked hat and a red coat and white leggings and crossed white bandoleers with a big silver buckle in the center of the X and march uphill into a line of Howitzers loaded with chain and chopped horseshoes.

James Lee

Army, Fighting, Kentucky

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One of the chief reasons for the widespread fear of the Huns rested on their ability to travel very long distances in relatively short periods. This ability may well have been based on their use of horseshoes.

Carroll Quigley

Distance, Long, Use

Carroll Quigley (1979). “The evolution of civilizations: an introduction to historical analysis”, Liberty Fund Inc.

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Narrative should flow as flows the brook down through the hills and the leafy woodlands...a brook that never goes straight for a minute, but goes and goes briskly, sometimes ungrammatically, and sometimes fetching a horseshoe of ¾ of a mile around and at the end of the circuit flowing within a yard of the path that it traversed an hour before; but always going and always following at least one law, always loyal to that law, the law of narrative, which has no law. Nothing to do but make the trip; the how of it is not important, so that the trip is made.

Mark Twain

Law, Important, Loyal

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Tell Robb that I'm going to command the Night's Watch and keep him safe, so he might as well take up needlework with the girls and have Mikken melt down his sword for horseshoes. - Jon Snow

George R. R. Martin

Girl, Night, Snow

George R. R. Martin (2012). “George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones 5-Book Boxed Set (Song of Ice and Fire Series): A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows, and and A Dance with Dragons”, p.187, Bantam

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Holding back technology to reserve business models is like allowing blacksmiths to veto the internal combustion engine in order to protect their horseshoes.

Don Tapscott

Technology, Order, Marketing

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Some children like to make castles out of their rice pudding, or faces with raisins for eyes. It is forbidden -- so sternly that, when they grow up, they take a horrid revenge by dying meringues pale blue or baking birthday cakes in the form of horseshoes or lyres or whatnot.

Julia Child

Children, Growing Up, Revenge

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Green clovers. Blue diamonds. Orange Stars. Pink hearts. Purple horseshoes. Man, I never know if I'm looking at a bowl of cereal or having another acid flashback.

David Henry

Stars, Food, Heart

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Just build a classic horseshoe of wood and plaster, and fill it with statuary and curtains, then sit back and savor the beautifully blended results.

Michael A. Walsh

Woods, Classic, Results

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Many authors write like amateur blacksmiths making their first horseshoe; the clank of the anvil, the stench of the scorched leather apron, the sparks and the cursing are palpable, and this appeals to those who rank "sincerity" very high. Nabokov is more like a master swordsmith making a fine blade; nothing is amiss, nothing is too much, there is no fuss, and the finished product must be handled with great care, or it will cut you badly.

Robertson Davies

Writing, Cutting, Care

Review of Nabokov's Lolita, 1958.

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It was given out that the animals there practised cannibalism, tortured one another with red-hot horseshoes, and had their females in common. This was what came of rebelling against the laws of Nature, Frederick and Pilkington said.

George Orwell

Animal, Law, Hot

George Orwell (2016). “Animal Farm”, p.14, Hamilton Books

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