“It is not only possible to say a great deal in praise of play; it is really possible to say the highest things in praise of it. It might reasonably be maintained that the true object of all human life is play. Earth is a task garden; heaven is a playground.”
"Oxford from Without"
All Things Considered (1908)
Context: It is not only possible to say a great deal in praise of play; it is really possible to say the highest things in praise of it. It might reasonably be maintained that the true object of all human life is play. Earth is a task garden; heaven is a playground. To be at last in such secure innocence that one can juggle with the universe and the stars, to be so good that one can treat everything as a joke — that may be, perhaps, the real end and final holiday of human souls.
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
G. K. Chesterton229
English mystery novelist and Christian apologist 1874–1936Related quotes
Xenophon (-430–-354 BC) ancient Greek historian and philosopher
Hellenica Bk. 7, as translated by Rex Warner in A History of My Times (1979) p. 398.
Walt Whitman (1819–1892) American poet, essayist and journalist
Memories of President Lincoln, 14
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
Recollection by Gilbert J. Greene, quoted in The Speaking Oak (1902) by Ferdinand C. Iglehart and Latest Light on Abraham Lincoln (1917) by Ervin S. Chapman
Posthumous attributions
James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903) American-born, British-based artist
Propositions, 2
1870 - 1903, The Gentle Art of Making Enemies' (1890)
Charles Bowen (1835–1894) English judge
The Queen v. Justices of County of London, &c. (1893), L. R. 2 Q. B. 492.
Anthony de Mello (1931–1987) Indian writer
Source: One Minute Nonsense (1992), p. 96
("Leela" is more commonly spelled "Lila")