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Chance (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠a belief that takes some education: for the child, the primitive and many others, no one dies without having been killed by someone — preferably the doctor.

Chance (n.) cannot ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠excuse even a tiny slip: to let one event drop out of the chain of causes is to throw the whole scientific worldview overboard.

Chance (n.) decides ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠for the obsessional when arguments balance exactly: he lets chance events decide as though by the hand of God.

Chance (n.) may ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠help form a symptom just as wording helps make a joke.

Chance (n.) governs ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠everything in our life from the meeting of sperm and ovum, yet shares in nature's law; to think it unworthy of shaping our fate is to relapse into piety.

Chance (n.) only ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠provokes, in a delusion, what was bound to assert itself — the click in the lover's room was the sound a listening child fears to make or hears.