"Luck's always to blame"
About this Quote
“Luck’s always to blame” is La Fontaine at his most sly: a four-word alibi that sounds like folk wisdom but functions as a moral trap. As a poet of fables, he specialized in showing how people narrate their own innocence. Blaming luck is not just an excuse; it’s a posture. It lets the speaker keep the flattering parts of agency (I deserved the win) while outsourcing the humiliating parts (the loss was cosmic bad weather).
The line works because it’s double-edged. On the surface, it consoles. Life is unfair, the dice are loaded, don’t take it personally. Underneath, it’s a jab at self-deception and social theater. “Always” is the tell: if luck is perpetually culpable, then responsibility is permanently unavailable. That absolutism makes the sentiment sound suspiciously like a practiced script, the kind delivered by characters in La Fontaine’s world who make bad choices and then dress them up as misfortune.
Context matters: 17th-century France was a culture of courtly performance, patronage, and precarious status, where success often did hinge on favor and timing. La Fontaine isn’t naive about contingency; he’s cynical about how readily humans weaponize it. The quote reduces fate to a convenient scapegoat, exposing a psychological economy: blaming luck is cheaper than admitting greed, laziness, pride, or fear.
It’s also a warning about power. If outcomes are “luck,” injustice becomes naturalized. Structural advantage gets renamed “fortune,” and failure becomes a personal meteor strike. La Fontaine’s brilliance is making that whole ethical dodge fit inside a shrug.
The line works because it’s double-edged. On the surface, it consoles. Life is unfair, the dice are loaded, don’t take it personally. Underneath, it’s a jab at self-deception and social theater. “Always” is the tell: if luck is perpetually culpable, then responsibility is permanently unavailable. That absolutism makes the sentiment sound suspiciously like a practiced script, the kind delivered by characters in La Fontaine’s world who make bad choices and then dress them up as misfortune.
Context matters: 17th-century France was a culture of courtly performance, patronage, and precarious status, where success often did hinge on favor and timing. La Fontaine isn’t naive about contingency; he’s cynical about how readily humans weaponize it. The quote reduces fate to a convenient scapegoat, exposing a psychological economy: blaming luck is cheaper than admitting greed, laziness, pride, or fear.
It’s also a warning about power. If outcomes are “luck,” injustice becomes naturalized. Structural advantage gets renamed “fortune,” and failure becomes a personal meteor strike. La Fontaine’s brilliance is making that whole ethical dodge fit inside a shrug.
Quote Details
| Topic | Free Will & Fate |
|---|
More Quotes by Jean
Add to List
