Quote checked against the text
“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” — attributed to Seneca
Not found. The sentence was searched in the 30 letters of Gummere’s translation (1917–1925) we hold, out of 124, and in the ten dialogues we have from Stewart’s 1889 volume and did not appear; the search and its result are below.
No. The sentence is in none of the 30 letters of Gummere’s translation (1917–1925) that we hold, out of the 124 Seneca wrote, and in none of the ten dialogues we have from Stewart’s 1889 volume. Neither fragment, “preparation meets opportunity” nor “luck is what happens”, returns a line in those files; the same search across our Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus editions is empty too.
The wording has the shape of a modern maxim rather than of a Roman letter. Gummere’s Seneca speaks of Fortune as a person who gives and takes, not of luck as something preparation produces. What the letters do say about chance and readiness is at Letter 18, where Seneca asks Lucilius to rehearse poverty on chosen days so that Fortune finds him ready, and at Letter 91, where nothing ought to be unexpected by us.
We cannot say the sentence is nowhere in Seneca: the other letters and several treatises are outside our files. We can say it has no letter number in ours, and that the versions which circulate give none.
What we searched
Each fragment is searched, normalized, in every file of the editions below. The block is the search and its result, replayed at each build.
The wording was searched in the 30 letters of Gummere’s translation (1917–1925) we hold, out of 124, and in the ten dialogues we have from Stewart’s 1889 volume.
$ node tools/seo/grep-quote.mjs --lang en "preparation meets opportunity" "luck is what happens" George Long, 1862 — Meditations · 12 books, 487 chapters (1 file) "preparation meets opportunity" 0 hits "luck is what happens" 0 hits Richard Mott Gummere, 1917–1925 — Letters to Lucilius · 30 letters of 124 (30 files) "preparation meets opportunity" 0 hits "luck is what happens" 0 hits Aubrey Stewart, 1889 — Minor Dialogues · 10 dialogues, 6 aligned with Baillard chapter for chapter (10 files) "preparation meets opportunity" 0 hits "luck is what happens" 0 hits Elizabeth Carter, 1758 — Enchiridion · 52 chapters (Carter’s numbering) (1 file) "preparation meets opportunity" 0 hits "luck is what happens" 0 hits George Long, 1877 — Discourses (selection) and Enchiridion · a selection of the Discourses, without book or chapter numbers, plus the Enchiridion (1 file) "preparation meets opportunity" 0 hits "luck is what happens" 0 hits $ node tools/seo/grep-quote.mjs --lang fr "la préparation rencontre" "la chance, c'est ce qui arrive" Auguste Couat, 1904 — Pensées · 12 books, 487 chapters (IV, 19–20 and VII, 47–48 merged by the translator) (12 files) "la préparation rencontre" 0 hits "la chance, c'est ce qui arrive" 0 hits Jules Barthélemy-Saint-Hilaire, 1876 — Pensées · 12 books, 487 chapters — second French edition, shown beside Couat (12 files) "la préparation rencontre" 0 hits "la chance, c'est ce qui arrive" 0 hits Joseph Baillard, 1861 — Lettres à Lucilius · 29 letters of 124 (29 files) "la préparation rencontre" 0 hits "la chance, c'est ce qui arrive" 0 hits Joseph Baillard, 1861 — Dialogues et traités · 11 works, 6 aligned with Stewart chapter for chapter (11 files) "la préparation rencontre" 0 hits "la chance, c'est ce qui arrive" 0 hits Jean-Marie Guyau, 1875 — Manuel · 53 chapters (modern numbering) (1 file) "la préparation rencontre" 0 hits "la chance, c'est ce qui arrive" 0 hits Victor Courdaveaux, 1862 — Entretiens · 9 chapters of the Discourses (I, 1 · I, 15 · I, 18 · I, 24 · I, 25 · II, 13 · II, 18 · III, 16 · III, 24) (9 files) "la préparation rencontre" 0 hits "la chance, c'est ce qui arrive" 0 hits
This sentence appears 2 times in the list of circulating quotes we collected on 2026-08-09.
What the text says
There is no passage to quote: the wording is in none of the editions searched above.
How to cite
This sentence has no canonical reference: it is not in the editions we hold. Quoting it with a book and chapter would be a false reference.
Other sentences checked
All sentences attributed to SenecaAll quote checks
Every passage in Stoïque carries its reference. The 171 passages of Seneca are in Stoic+, each with its locator.