"How is it the great pieces of good luck fall to us?"
About this Quote
A line like this lands because it treats fortune less like a prize and more like a conspiracy against our self-image. Howells’s question isn’t really asking for an explanation; it’s staging a small moral wobble: the moment when gratitude shades into suspicion. The phrasing “great pieces” makes luck feel tangible, almost clumsy - something that drops into your lap with the weight of an object. And “fall to us” carries the quiet scandal: we didn’t earn it, we didn’t even reach for it. It happened to us.
That’s very Howells. As the American realist-in-chief, he spent a career prying open the polite fictions that made the Gilded Age comfortable: the story that virtue rises, that success is proof, that merit and reward line up neatly. This question punctures that alignment with a genteel pin. It also smuggles in a democratic unease. In a country increasingly devoted to self-making, good luck is an awkward fact - it suggests that outcomes aren’t cleanly authored by character.
The subtext is double-edged. On one side, it’s humble: who are we to deserve this? On the other, it’s faintly accusatory, as if luck is a misallocation in need of auditing. That tension is the engine of the line. It captures a very American discomfort with the arbitrary - we want blessings, but we also want them to make sense, to validate a narrative. Howells lets the luck stand, and lets the reader feel the itch of not being able to justify it.
That’s very Howells. As the American realist-in-chief, he spent a career prying open the polite fictions that made the Gilded Age comfortable: the story that virtue rises, that success is proof, that merit and reward line up neatly. This question punctures that alignment with a genteel pin. It also smuggles in a democratic unease. In a country increasingly devoted to self-making, good luck is an awkward fact - it suggests that outcomes aren’t cleanly authored by character.
The subtext is double-edged. On one side, it’s humble: who are we to deserve this? On the other, it’s faintly accusatory, as if luck is a misallocation in need of auditing. That tension is the engine of the line. It captures a very American discomfort with the arbitrary - we want blessings, but we also want them to make sense, to validate a narrative. Howells lets the luck stand, and lets the reader feel the itch of not being able to justify it.
Quote Details
| Topic | Free Will & Fate |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite | Cite this Quote |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Howells, William Dean. (n.d.). How is it the great pieces of good luck fall to us? FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/how-is-it-the-great-pieces-of-good-luck-fall-to-us-159942/
Chicago Style
Howells, William Dean. "How is it the great pieces of good luck fall to us?" FixQuotes. Accessed February 1, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/how-is-it-the-great-pieces-of-good-luck-fall-to-us-159942/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"How is it the great pieces of good luck fall to us?" FixQuotes, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/how-is-it-the-great-pieces-of-good-luck-fall-to-us-159942/. Accessed 1 Feb. 2026.
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