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Pructus Posted 19 years ago
Vocabulary

Harry Potter, again

"I have been careless, and so have been thwarted by luck and chance, those wreckers of all but the best-laid plans. But I know better now. I understand those things that I did not understand before"

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The underlined part is so hard to understand....

What does it man?
  

Top answer

Luck and chance (which are wreckers [destroyers] of all except the most carefully made plan) have prevented me from doing what I want. However, I now know what is the better thing to do.

— Feebs11

  • Luck and chance (which are wreckers [destroyers] of all except the most carefully made plan) have prevented me from doing what I want.
  • However, I now know what is the better thing to do.
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9 Answers
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Luck and chance (which are wreckers [destroyers] of all except the most carefully made plan) have prevented me from doing what I want. However, I now know what is the better thing to do.
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Thanks Feebs11!

"I have been careless, and so have been thwarted by luck and chance, those wreckers of all but the best-laid plans"

I still have question on this sentence...

"those wreckers of all but the best-laid plans".............. this part is difficult to understand......
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those wreckers of all but the best-laid plans.:

Luck and chance stopped (wrecked) the plan from working. Only a better plan (which prepares for ALL problems) can't fail because of luck.

But I know better now.

I now know that I have to make better plans.
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Thanks Vorpar!

Do you mean that the sentence should be understood as:



"I have been careless, and so I have been thwarted by luck and chance, and by those wreckers of all but the best-laid plans"
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Almost. Luck and chance are what wrecks all but the best-laid plans.

Luck and chance wreck all but the best-laid plans, so luck and chance have thwarted my plan, because I have been careless and have not made my plans carefully enough.
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"I have been careless, and so I have been thwarted by luck and chance: those wreckers of all but the best-laid plans"

Luck and chance are the wreckers. By putting "and by" where I've inserted the semi-colon it reads: Luck, chance, and something else are the wreckers...
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Which means you have added in a third element to the equation.
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As a footnote:

"Best-laid plans" is a version of a phrase by Robert Burns, which he uses in his poem "To a Mouse":


The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men,
Gang aft agley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promis'd joy!
This means:

"The most carefully prepared plans often go wrong, and leave us nothing but grief
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I see.....

I understand....

Thanks Gurus, Vorpar and Feebs11!!!

And special acknowledgement for Robert Burns' line.....
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