The man who has planned badly, if fortune is on his side, may have had a stroke of luck; but his plan was a bad one nonetheless.
Interpretation
Luck cannot replace a good plan; poor planning can lead to misfortune despite favorable circumstances.
This quote by Herodotus emphasizes that while luck may occasionally benefit those who fail to plan properly, it does not rectify the inherent flaws in their planning. The essence of successful endeavors lies in careful and thoughtful planning, as luck is unreliable and does not change the quality of one's strategy.
In practice
In a motivational speech about the importance of preparation, this quote can be used to emphasize careful planning.
The Scythians take kannabis seed, creep in under the felts, and throw it on the red-hot stones. It smolders and sends up such billows of steam-smoke that no Greek vapor bath can surpass it. The Scythians howl with joy in these vapor-baths, which serve them instead of bathing, for they never wash their bodies with water.
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I want [my daughter] to look at the world through the underside of a glass-bottom boat, to look through a microscope at the galaxies that exist on the pinpoint of a human mind.
There are but very few men clever enough to know all the mischief they do.
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