Quotes about fun
page 10

Arthur Schopenhauer photo

“If from the wilderness the righteous and honest John were actually to come who, clothed in skins and living on locusts and untouched by all the terrible mischief, were meanwhile to apply himself with a pure heart and in all seriousness to the investigation of truth and to offer the fruits thereof, what kind of reception would he have to expect from those businessmen of the chair, who are hired for State purposes and with wife and family have to live on philosophy, and whose watchword is, therefore, Primum vivere, deinde philosophari [first live and then philosophize]? These men have accordingly taken possession of the market and have already seen to it that here nothing is of value except what they allow; consequently merit exists only in so far as they and their mediocrity are pleased to acknowledge it. They thus have on a leading rein the attention of that small public, such as it is, that is concerned with philosophy. For on matters that do not promise, like the productions of poetry, amusement and entertainment but only instruction, and financially unprofitable instruction at that, that public will certainly not waste its time, effort, and energy, without first being thoroughly assured that such efforts will be richly rewarded. Now by virtue of its inherited belief that whoever lives by a business knows all about it, this public expects an assurance from the professional men who from professor’s chairs and in compendiums, journals, and literary periodicals, confidently behave as if they were the real masters of the subject. Accordingly, the public allows them to sample and select whatever is worth noting and what can be ignored. My poor John from the wilderness, how will you fare if, as is to be expected, what you bring is not drafted in accordance with the tacit convention of the gentlemen of the lucrative philosophy? They will regard you as one who has not entered in the spirit of the game and thus threatens to spoil the fun for all of them; consequently, they will regard you as their common enemy and antagonist. Now even if what you bring were the greatest masterpiece of the human mind, it could never find favor in their eyes. For it would not be drawn up ad normam conventionis [according to the current pattern]; and so it would not be such as to enable them to make it the subject of their lectures from the chair in order to make a living from it. It never occurs to a professor of philosophy to examine a new system that appears to see whether it is true; but he at once tests it merely to see whether it can be brought into harmony with the doctrines of the established religion, with government plans, and with the prevailing views of the times.”

Sämtliche Werke, Bd. 5, pp. 160-161, E. Payne, trans. (1974) Vol. 1, pp. 148-149
Parerga and Paralipomena (1851), On Philosophy in the Universities

Phil Brooks photo
Douglas Coupland photo
Ben Kowalewicz photo

“You get bored on the road and even a bottle, of water can be fun, if you're bored enough.”

Ben Kowalewicz (1975) musician

From "The Diary of Billy Talent":

Shahrukh Khan photo
Lionel Richie photo

“Well, my friends, the time has come
To raise the roof and have some fun.
Throw away the work to be done.
Let the music play on.”

Lionel Richie (1949) American singer-songwriter, musician, record producer and actor

All Night Long.
Song lyrics, Can't Slow Down (1983)

Ben Croshaw photo
Roger Waters photo
Eino Leino photo

“The others got heart, I got the harp.
They grieved, had fun, me not, me not.
O wretched me, can't live, nor part:
my heart throbs not, but tingles, and rings!

O dire fate, the hardest lot:
no peace grants the night, the day no less,
no mercy shows time, nor eternity:
just a jeering and tingling heart-less-ness.”

Eino Leino (1878–1926) Finnish poet and journalist

Eino Leino. "The Harp-Of-the-Wind," (1905), Leevi Lehto (transl.), in: Leevi Lehto. Leevi Lehto. Finnish poetry: then and now, January 2005. Published online at upenn.edu. Accessed 20-03-2013

Aimee Mann photo

“Soon enough
you can say we made it up
just for fun I guess
to make a mess
cause what’s more fun
than other people’s hell”

Aimee Mann (1960) American indie rock singer-songwriter (born 1960)

"Soon Enough"
Song lyrics, Charmer (2012)

Cindy Sheehan photo
Stephen L. Carter photo
Charles Stross photo
John Leguizamo photo

“Yeah, that came out of a reading. It was great. It's such a fun crew to be with, and we all went out the night before and that really encouraged us to go out and get drunk.”

John Leguizamo (1964) Colombian and American actor, film producer, voice artist, and comedian

John Leguizamo Talks About "Assault on Precinct 13", January 16, 2005.

Ben Stiller photo

“As you get older, you realize you need balance. If it’s not fun, what’s the point?”

Ben Stiller (1965) actor, Comedian, director, writer

As quoted in "Born Funny" by Margot Dougherty in Reader's Digest (September 2007)
Context: When I didn’t have a family, I was much more of a workaholic … I still like to work, but I also want to be home with them. As you get older, you realize you need balance. If it’s not fun, what’s the point?

Patrick Warburton photo

“All you’ve got to do is just be inventive with this character and have fun. That’s the definition of an ingenious character. To get to step into the shoes of the Tick, I just felt that was an honor.”

Patrick Warburton (1964) American actor

"Interview with Patrick Warburton" by Josh Bell at AboutDOTcom (2 March 2009)]
Context: It is more inspirational, I’d say, with the Tick. Because once you grasp or realize who this guy is, the fact that you’re inventing a world and an atmosphere and a persona that, really, his past is a mystery. So everything that he looks at or perceives can be brand new, and he can get really, really excited and intrigued by something that’s just a commonality for everybody else, that’s humorous. He’s like a child; everything’s new. So you just bring that attitude to him, a childlike attitude of discovering things.
Yet you’ve got this great writing, where everything’s mixed metaphor, and he’s articulate, and he describes everything in a new way. It’s inspiring as an actor to be able to go to that place. Anything you do is not going to be wrong. All you’ve got to do is just be inventive with this character and have fun. That’s the definition of an ingenious character. To get to step into the shoes of the Tick, I just felt that was an honor. Once again, I will reiterate that Fox apparently didn’t have a clue.

Cole Porter photo

“It must be fun to be you
And play with love as you do”

Cole Porter (1891–1964) American composer and songwriter

"It Must Be Fun To Be You"
Mexican Hayride (1944)
Context: It must be fun to be you
And play with love as you do
To treat each new romance
As merely one more dance
Or just another book to glance through
It must be fun to acquire
Whatever heart you desire,
And when you're bored with it
To tear it in two,
It must be fun to be you.

Randy Pausch photo

“And as you get older you may find that enabling-the-dreams-of-others thing is even more fun.”

The Last Lecture (2007)
Context: So what is today's talk about then? It's about my childhood dreams and how I've achieved them — I've been very fortunate that way; how I believe I've been able to enable the dreams of others, and to some degree, lessons learned: I'm a professor — there should be some lessons learned — and how you can use the stuff you hear today to enable your dreams or enable the dreams of others. And as you get older you may find that enabling-the-dreams-of-others thing is even more fun.

Salman Rushdie photo

“It’s fun to read things when you don't know all the words. Even children love it.”

Salman Rushdie (1947) British Indian novelist and essayist

Salon interview (1996)
Context: It’s fun to read things when you don't know all the words. Even children love it. One of the things any great children’s writer will tell you is that children like it if in books designed for their age group there is a vocabulary just slightly bigger than theirs. So they come up against weird words, and the weird words excite them. If you describe a small girl in a story as “loquacious,” it works so much better than “talkative.” And then some little girl will read the book and her sister will be shooting her mouth off and she will say to her sister, “Don't be so loquacious.” It is a whole new weapon in her arsenal.

P. J. O'Rourke photo
Gottfried Helnwein photo

“I never understood why some people seemed to have fun causing pain to someone smaller.”

Gottfried Helnwein (1948) Austrian photographer and painter

Interview by Brendan Maher http://www.gottfried-helnwein-interview.com/index.html, Start, Ireland, November 24, 2004
Context: When I started to paint, I painted children because I just felt that I wanted to take their side. What always upset me was how children are getting abused simply because they are physically weaker and not capable of defending themselves – how they get raped, enslaved and killed. I never understood why some people seemed to have fun causing pain to someone smaller.

Alex Kozinski photo

“But much of their livelihood - and much of the vibrancy of our culture - also depends on the existence of other intangible rights: The right to draw ideas from a rich and varied public domain, and the right to mock, for profit as well as fun, the cultural icons of our time”

Alex Kozinski (1950) American judge

Discussing the right of publicity issue raised in the case White v. Samsung Elec. Am., Inc., 989 F.2d 1512 (9th Cir. 1993). http://notabug.com/kozinski/whitedissent.
Context: For better or worse, we are the Court of Appeals for the Hollywood Circuit. Millions of people toil in the shadow of the law we make, and much of their livelihood is made possible by the existence of intellectual property rights. But much of their livelihood - and much of the vibrancy of our culture - also depends on the existence of other intangible rights: The right to draw ideas from a rich and varied public domain, and the right to mock, for profit as well as fun, the cultural icons of our time.

John Updike photo

“Vocations drying up, nobody wants to be selfless any more, everybody wants their fun.”

Rabbit at Rest (1990)
Context: Now nuns have blended into everybody else or else faded away. Vocations drying up, nobody wants to be selfless any more, everybody wants their fun. No more nuns, no more rabbis. No more good people, waiting to have their fun in the afterlife. The thing about the afterlife, it kept this life within bounds somehow, like the Russians. Now there's just Japan, and technology, and the profit motive, and getting all you can while you can.

Richard Wright photo
Charles Sanders Peirce photo

“It's fun to be in the game, and it's even more fun to win.”

Michael Korda (1933) British writer

Source: Success! (1977), p. 145
Context: Your chances of success are directly proportional to the degree of pleasure you derive from what you do. If you are in a job you hate, face the fact squarely and get out. You may earn a good living, you may have a safe career, but you will never be a success. Find out what you enjoy doing, and your chances of succeeding will be dramatically better. We play the game every day, sometimes without even recognizing that we're doing it. We compete with other people, or other teams, or other companies, not only because it is essential to business survival, but because we frankly enjoy competition. It's fun to be in the game, and it's even more fun to win.

Rachel McAdams photo

“I’ve been able to stay afloat and also get to do things that are fun. I don’t know where that puts me in the grand scheme of things but I’ve really enjoyed the journey and the course it’s taken so far.”

Rachel McAdams (1978) Canadian actress

"Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana Interview - The Time Traveller's Wife by Steve Weintraub at Collider (13 August 2009) http://www.collider.com/2009/08/13/rachel-mcadams-and-eric-bana-interview-the-time-travelers-wife/
Context: I’m still employed and that’s a good thing. I’ve gotten to do a wide variety of things and different roles. I’ve met different kinds of challenges on each and every film and I never get bored. So that’s been success to me, that I’ve been able to stay afloat and also get to do things that are fun. I don’t know where that puts me in the grand scheme of things but I’ve really enjoyed the journey and the course it’s taken so far.

Wisława Szymborska photo

“He's no end of fun, for all you say.
Poor little beggar.
A human, if ever we saw one.”

Wisława Szymborska (1923–2012) Polish writer

"No End of Fun"
Poems New and Collected (1998), No End of Fun (1967)

Nina Paley photo

“Making more of a thing
That is what we call copying
Sharing ideas with everyone
That's why copying…
…Is fun!”

Nina Paley (1968) US animator, cartoonist and free culture activist

"Copying Is Not Theft - let the re-recording begin! (15 December 2009) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djVaJN0f0VQ ; also quoted in "Calling All Musicians: Can You Arrange This Song?" at QuestionCopyright.org http://questioncopyright.org/copying_isnt_theft ·  "We Are Creators Too: Nina Paley " (2009) — introduced by Paley singing a variant of the first stanza of her song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uN7upUXSFk · "Copying Is Not Theft - Official Version" (1 April 2010) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeTybKL1pM4
Context: Copying is not theft
Stealing a thing leaves one less left
Copying it makes one thing more
That's what copying's for.
Copying isn't theft
If I copy yours, you have it too
One for me and one for you
That's what copies can do.
If I steal your bicycle,
You have to take the bus
But if I just copy it,
There's one for each of us!
Making more of a thing
That is what we call copying
Sharing ideas with everyone
That's why copying...
... Is fun!

P. J. O'Rourke photo
Iggy Pop photo

“Everybody's a little more worldly now, and there's more exposure to things. When I made Fun House, back in 1970, nobody wanted to interview me. It was wonderful.”

Iggy Pop (1947) American rock singer-songwriter, musician, and actor

Interview interview (1999)
Context: Everybody's a little more worldly now, and there's more exposure to things. When I made Fun House, back in 1970, nobody wanted to interview me. It was wonderful. I was like one of those little white things you find living under rocks, that every once in a while people pull up by mistake and go, "aagh!" But now everybody has a video camera, and that may have changed the nature of "the message from below," as it were.

Don Marquis photo

“Of middle age the best that can be said is that a middle aged person has likely learned how to have a little fun in spite of his troubles.”

Don Marquis (1878–1937) American writer

The Almost Perfect State (1921)
Context: Of middle age the best that can be said is that a middle aged person has likely learned how to have a little fun in spite of his troubles.
It is to old age that we look for reimbursement, the most of us. And most of us look in vain. For the most of us have been wrenched and racked, in one way or another, until old age is the most trying time of all.
In the Almost Perfect State every person shall have at least ten years before he dies of easy, carefree, happy living... things will be so arranged economically that this will be possible for each individual.

Hunter S. Thompson photo

“The only other important thing to be said about Fear & Loathing at this time is that it was fun to write, and that's rare — for me, at least, because I've always considered writing the most hateful kind of work.”

Hunter S. Thompson (1937–2005) American journalist and author

Comments on Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas in The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time (1979), p. 109
1970s
Context: The only other important thing to be said about Fear & Loathing at this time is that it was fun to write, and that's rare — for me, at least, because I've always considered writing the most hateful kind of work. I suspect it's a bit like fucking — which is fun only for amateurs. Old whores don't do much giggling. Nothing is fun when you have to do it — over and over, again and again — or else you'll be evicted, and that gets old. So it's a rare goddamn trip for a locked-in, rent-paying writer to get into a gig that, even in retrospect, was a kinghell, highlife fuck-all from start to finish... and then to actually get paid for writing this kind of manic gibberish seems genuinely weird; like getting paid for kicking Agnew in the balls. So maybe there's hope. Or maybe I'm going mad... In a nation ruled by swine, all pigs are upward mobile — and the rest of us are fucked until we can put our acts together: Not necessarily to Win, but mainly to keep from Losing Completely... The Swine are gearing down for a serious workout this time around... So much, then, for The Road — and for the last possibilities of running amok in Las Vegas... Well, at least, I'll know I was there, neck deep in the madness, before the deal went down, and I got so high and wild that I felt like a two-ton Manta ray jumping all the way across the Bay of Bengal.

“Life’s so simple when we simply work to make it fun.”

Dawud Wharnsby (1972) Canadian musician

"Simple Life"
A Picnic of Poems in Allah's Green Garden (2011)
Context: There’s always work that must be done... Life’s so simple when we simply work to make it fun.

Bill Bailey photo

“Even if you’re not particularly religious, then you have to admit that religion surrounds us even in the most mundane aspects of our lives. I was trying to rent a car, and the bloke said to me: "You’re not covered for acts of God."
I said: "What do you mean by that?", he said: [waving arms] "Woooooh!"
I said, "Can you be a bit more specific?", and he went, [vaguely gesticulating] "Eh… ooooh… uh?"
I said, "I’m intrigued because you said 'acts of God', and not gods, or spirits, or jinn, or nymphs, but 'God', a capital God, a monotheistic religion, maybe a Judeo-Christian religion, which would imply a belief system, which would perhaps lead to free-will and determinism, so logically anything that man does directly or indirectly is in fact an act of God, so I’m not covered for anything!"
He said, "I’ll get the manager."
Then I said, "What do you mean by an act of God? What do you mean by that?"
He said, "I dunno, a plague of locusts or something."
"'A plague of locusts'? They swarm round the vehicle, rip the wing mirrors off, and I’m liable for a fifty pound excess?”
And he said, "No, like, rain or something."
I said, "Yeah, but how much rain? It’s drizzling a bit now, is that an act of God? At what point does the rain reach a certain level beyond which it takes on the more apocalyptic mantle of the water-based punishment of the Lord!?"
And he said, [despairing] "I just work Saturdays."
I said "You can’t answer me, can you? Your policy is riddled with theological inconsistency. You disgust me. You twist and turn. You remind me of the Siberian hunting spider, which adopts a highly-convincing limp in three of its eight legs in order to attract its main prey, the so-called Samaritan squirrel, which takes pity on the spider, and then the spider jumps on it and injects the paralysing venom, and the squirrel remains bafflingly philosophical about the whole thing. Not to be confused with the Ukrainian hunting spider, which actually has got a limp and is, as such, completely harmless, and a little bit bitter about the whole thing: [imitating spider] 'Siberian spider have good leg, have nice day, can catch fly, can make web, can catch fly for family, I can do nothing, my leg, it drags behind! It drags! [audience laughs] And you laugh! You make fun! Oh, ha, big joke! I am failure! I am freak! [singing] But in my dreams I can fly, I'm the greatest spider in town. But I wake and it's cold, and I feel so old, and my legs are dragging me down.'"
And then the manager came out, and he said: “Stop all that spider singing."”

Bill Bailey (1965) English comedian, musician, actor, TV and radio presenter and author

Pointed to a sign on the wall: a spider with a line through it. "Oh, fair enough."
He said "I can offer you an upgrade, fifty quid, and we can include in it policies set in place by the Marquis de Laplace, the French scientist who declared that all things in the universe are predetermined, so you would be covered even if time-travel was invented during the period of rental.”
I said, "Nah, probably leave it."
Part Troll (2004)

Richard Wright photo
P. J. O'Rourke photo
Tom Cruise photo

“I have to tell you something. It really is, you know, it's rough and tumble. It's wild and woolly. It's a blast…it's a blast. It really is fun, because dammit, there's nothing better than to going out there and fighting the fight…”

Tom Cruise (1962) American actor and film producer

Transcript of Tom Cruise on Scientology (January 16, 2008)
Context: I have to tell you something. It really is, you know, it's rough and tumble. It's wild and woolly. It's a blast... it's a blast. It really is fun, because dammit, there's nothing better than to going out there and fighting the fight...

P. J. O'Rourke photo
Alan Watts photo

“Furthermore, the younger members of our society have for some time been in growing rebellion against paternal authority and the paternal state. For one reason, the home in an industrial society is chiefly a dormitory, and the father does not work there, with the result that wife and children have no part in his vocation. He is just a character who brings in money, and after working hours he is supposed to forget about his job and have fun. Novels, magazines, television, and popular cartoons therefore portray "Dad" as an incompetent clown. And the image has some truth in it because Dad has fallen for the hoax that work is simply something you do to make money, and with money you can get anything you want.
It is no wonder that an increasing proportion of college students want no part in Dad's world, and will do anything to avoid the rat-race of the salesman, commuter, clerk, and corporate executive. Professional men, too—architects, doctors, lawyers, ministers, and professors—have offices away from home, and thus, because the demands of their families boil down more and more to money, are ever more tempted to regard even professional vocations as ways of making money. All this is further aggravated by the fact that parents no longer educate their own children. Thus the child does not grow up with understanding of or enthusiasm for his father's work. Instead, he is sent to an understaffed school run mostly by women which, under the circumstances, can do no more than hand out mass-produced education which prepares the child for everything and nothing. It has no relation whatever to his father's vocation.”

Alan Watts (1915–1973) British philosopher, writer and speaker

Source: The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are (1966), p. 111

Ellen Willis photo

“In its original literal sense, "moral relativism" is simply moral complexity. That is, anyone who agrees that stealing a loaf of bread to feed one's children is not the moral equivalent of, say, shoplifting a dress for the fun of it, is a relativist of sorts.”

Ellen Willis (1941–2006) writer, activist

"Our Mobsters, Ourselves", The Nation (2 April 2001) https://www.thenation.com/article/our-mobsters-ourselves/
Context: In its original literal sense, "moral relativism" is simply moral complexity. That is, anyone who agrees that stealing a loaf of bread to feed one's children is not the moral equivalent of, say, shoplifting a dress for the fun of it, is a relativist of sorts. But in recent years, conservatives bent on reinstating an essentially religious vocabulary of absolute good and evil as the only legitimate framework for discussing social values have redefined "relative" as "arbitrary." That conflation has been reinforced by social theorists and advocates of identity politics who argue that there is no universal morality, only the value systems of particular cultures and power structures. From this perspective, the psychoanalytic – and by extension the psychotherapeutic – worldview is not relativist at all. Its values are honesty, self-knowledge, assumption of responsibility for the whole of what one does, freedom from inherited codes of family, church, tribe in favor of a universal humanism: in other words, the values of the Enlightenment, as revised and expanded by Freud's critique of scientific rationalism for ignoring the power of unconscious desire.

Brad Bird photo

“In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little, yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so.”

Brad Bird (1957) American director, screenwriter, animator, producer and occasional voice actor

"Anton Ego" in Ratatouille (2007)
Context: In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little, yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so. But there are times when a critic truly risks something, and that is in the discovery and defense of the new. The world is often unkind to new talents, new creations. The new needs friends. Last night, I experienced something new; an extraordinary meal from a singularly unexpected source. To say that both the meal and its maker have challenged my preconceptions about fine cooking, is a gross understatement. They have rocked me to my core. In the past, I have made no secret of my disdain for Chef Gusteau's famous motto, "Anyone can cook". But I realize — only now do I truly understand what he meant. Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere. It is difficult to imagine more humble origins than those of the genius now cooking at Gusteau's, who is, in this critic's opinion, nothing less than the finest chef in France. I will be returning to Gusteau's soon, hungry for more.

Robert M. Pirsig photo

“Degeneracy can be fun but it's hard to keep up as a serious lifetime occupation.”

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974), Afterword (1984)
Context: The hippies had in mind something that they wanted, and were calling it "freedom," but in the final analysis "freedom" is a purely negative goal. It just says something is bad. Hippies weren't really offering any alternatives other than colorful short-term ones, and some of these were looking more and more like pure degeneracy. Degeneracy can be fun but it's hard to keep up as a serious lifetime occupation.

“Fortunately, there seem to be few of his kind, and my subsequent friendships with university professors have proved exciting, stimulating and fun.”

Louis L'Amour (1908–1988) Novelist, short story writer

Source: Education of a Wandering Man (1989), Ch. 11
Context: Once, when hitchhiking, I was picked up by a professor from some small college. He noticed a book in my coat pocket, and was curious. It was a Modern Library edition, in the limp bindings they used to have, which sold at the time for 95 cents. This one contained Nietzsche‎‎'s Ecce Homo, and The Birth of Tragedy.
The professor was a pedantic man of limited imagination and seemed almost offended that I was reading such a book. Obviously I did not fit some category in which he decided I belonged, and when he dropped me off in town, I suspect he was relived to be rid of me.
He kept asking me why I wanted to read such a book. At first, he doubted I was reading it. Where had I heard of Nietzsche‎‎?
When I told him I thought it was in the preface to a book on Schopenhauer, he was even more disturbed and probably believed I was lying. Fortunately, there seem to be few of his kind, and my subsequent friendships with university professors have proved exciting, stimulating and fun.

Ty Cobb photo

“When I played ball, I didn't play for fun.”

Ty Cobb (1886–1961) American baseball player

Source: My Life In Baseball : The True Record (1961), Ch. 23 : "To Plant One Rose —", p. 280
Context: When I played ball, I didn't play for fun. To me it wasn't parchesi played under parchesi rules. Baseball is a red-blooded sport for red-blooded men. It's no pink tea, and mollycoddles had better stay out. It's a contest and everything that implies, a struggle for supremacy, a survival of the fittest. Every man in the game, from the minors on up, is not only fighting against the other side, but he's trying to hold onto his own job against those on his own bench who'd love to take it away. Why deny this? Why minimize it? Why not boldly admit it?
Many a writer has said that I was "unfair." Well, that's not my understanding of the word. When my toes were stepped on, I stepped right back.

Alan Watts photo

“Whatever work you undertake to do in your lifetime, it is very important that first you have a passion for it — you know, get excited about it — and second, that you have fun with it.”

Julius Sumner Miller (1909–1987) American physicist

Why Is It So?, episode 1 (1963) http://www.abc.net.au/science/features/whyisitso/, Australian ABC Television show
Context: Whatever work you undertake to do in your lifetime, it is very important that first you have a passion for it — you know, get excited about it — and second, that you have fun with it. That's important. Otherwise, you see, your work becomes nothing but an idle chore. Then, you hate the life you live.

Paul Glover photo

“Located in a low-income Philadelphia neighborhood, the Patch Adams free clinic will provide  community-based health care that is genuinely non-profit, preventive, humane and fun.”

Paul Glover (1947) Community organizer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; American politician

http://www.paulglover.org/patchadams.html (Patch Adams free clinic manifesto), June 2010
Context: “Located in a low-income Philadelphia neighborhood, the Patch Adams free clinic will provide  community-based health care that is genuinely non-profit, preventive, humane and fun.  It is a refuge for doctors and nurses who want time to heal patients.  It is a refuge for patients who want to be treated with dignity.”

Jane Roberts photo

“I only knew what had been said and when the trance (or the fun) was over.”

Jane Roberts (1929–1984) American Writer

Source: Seth, Dreams & Projections of Consciousness, (1986), p. 97
Context: Rob liked Seth immediately. the two of them set up an excellent rapport. Through me, Seth related to Rob. Almost from the beginning he was an objectified personality to Rob; a visitor regardless of the unconventional situation; someone in whose ideas Rob was tremendously interested. On the other hand, I only knew what had been said and when the trance (or the fun) was over.

Miley Cyrus photo
Gene Roddenberry photo
Walt Disney photo
John C. Maxwell photo

“Losses in life are never fun, but there is one loss no one can afford to experience, the loss of hope.”

John C. Maxwell (1947) American author, speaker and pastor

Book Sometimes you win Sometimes you Learn

Pelé photo
Sophia Loren photo
Jackie Kay photo
Pete Escovedo photo

“If you can strum the guitar a little, hit the drums — it’s always fun and a good way to release tensions…You can have a hard day at work, pick up your instrument and just feel better. You also can appreciate why a performer is up on stage and see how they have spent their life learning their craft.”

Pete Escovedo (1935) Mexican-American jazz musician and percussionist

On the benefits of being a musician in “Drummer Pete Escovedo will stick with what he knows at Thornton Winery” https://www.pe.com/2017/07/06/drummer-pete-escovedo-will-stick-with-what-he-knows-at-thornton-winery/ in The Press-Enterprise (2017 Jul 6)

Johnny Rivers photo
Antonio Fresco photo

“I enjoy DJing and watching people having fun, but now, I am throwing my music in the mix, and to watch people enjoy themselves and let go to something you created, is an out of this world feeling.”

Antonio Fresco (1983) American DJ, music producer, and radio personality

Company Rules Interview https://companyrules.home.blog/2019/05/27/welcome-guest-dj-antonio-fresco/ (2019)

William Blake photo

“Fun I love, but too much Fun is of all things the most loathsom. Mirth is better than Fun & Happiness is better than Mirth.”

William Blake (1757–1827) English Romantic poet and artist

1790s, Letter to Revd. Dr. Trusler (1799)

Reggie Fils-Aimé photo

“Part of my job is finding a way for you, the game experts, to have fun.”

Reggie Fils-Aimé (1961) American businessman

Source: E3 2004 Press Conference

Algis Budrys photo
Daniel Abraham photo

“It was less fun being the chosen one and prophet when the gods were violent and capricious and their spokesman was insane and powerless.”

Daniel Abraham (1969) speculative fiction writer from the United States

Source: Cibola Burn (2014), Chapter 34 (p. 345)

Adam West photo
Carl Sagan photo

“The price we pay for the anticipation of our future is anxiety about it. Foretelling disaster is probably not much fun; Pollyanna was much happier than Cassandra. But the Cassandric components of our nature are necessary for survival.”

Carl Sagan (1934–1996) American astrophysicist, cosmologist, author and science educator

Source: The Dragons of Eden (1977), Chapter 3, “The Brain and the Chariot” (p. 74)

Jonah Goldberg photo
Anu Garg photo

“Garg works in the great tradition of Wilfred Funk and Norman Lewis… Garg, however, is more fun.”

Anu Garg (1967) Indian author

Minneapolis Star Tribune
Robert
Armstrong
2003-02-23
Just the right books for when words fail you

Anu Garg photo

“Only Anu Garg, the founder of Wordsmith. org, can make word facts this much fun.”

Anu Garg (1967) Indian author

Samantha
Puckett
St. Petersburg Times
2003-01-19
Writing Life

Mohammad Hidayatullah photo
Indra Nooyi photo

“Indra can drive as deep and hard as anyone I have ever met, but she can do it with a sense of heart and fun.”

Indra Nooyi (1955) Indian-born, naturalized American, business executive

Roger Enrcio, Chief Executive, quoted in [Runkle, Beck Sheetz-, Sun Tzu for Women: The Art of War for Winning in Business, http://books.google.com/books?id=Q9V9mNj0Wd0C&pg=PA112, 18 December 2010, Adams Media, 978-1-4405-1178-3, 112–]

A. R. Rahman photo

“We didn’t know what kind of music we’d make, we didn’t know if it would be any good, but we hoped we’d have fun. He brings so much musical knowledge, amazing musicianship, melody and singing power from a different culture.”

A. R. Rahman (1966) Indian singer and composer

Mick Jagger’s views Superheavy, 16 December 2013, Official website of ARRahman http://www.arrahman.com/superheavy.aspx,

“A good part — and definitely the most fun part — of being a feminist is about frightening men. American and Australian feminists have always known this, and absorbed it cheerfully into their act; one thinks of Shere Hite julienning men on phone- in shows, or Dale Spender telling us that a good feminist is rude to a man at least three times a day on principle.”

Julie Burchill (1959) British writer

Of course, there's a lot more to feminism... but scaring the shit out of scumbags is an amusing and necessary part because, sadly, a good many men still respect nothing but strength,
Burchill (1990) The Sunday Times; as cited in: Christopher W. Tindale (1999) Acts of arguing: a rhetorical model of argument. p. 58

Maureen O'Hara photo

“Bette Davis was right—bitches are fun to play.”

Maureen O'Hara (1920–2015) Irish-American film actress and singer

Source: Tis Herself (2004), p.241

Andrea Dworkin photo
Roger Federer photo

“He hits shots that other guys don’t hit. You want to go over and give him a high five sometimes, but you can’t do that. You want to beat him but he’s fun to watch, too.”

Roger Federer (1981) Swiss tennis player

Sam Querrey was in awe after Federer flashed his racquet between his legs to lob him at Wimbledon 2015 https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/jul/02/roger-federer-sam-querrey-wimbledon-2015

John Muir photo
Ray Bradbury photo
Ernest Hemingway photo

“Darling, would you like to grow a beard?'
'Would you like me to?'
'It might be fun. I'd like to see you with a beard.”

'All right. I'll grow one. I'll start now this minute. It's a good idea. It will give me something to do.'
Catherine and Henry discussing whether he should grow a beard, in Ch. 38
A Farewell to Arms (1929)

David Sedaris photo

“It's fun to see where people live.”

David Sedaris (1956) American author

20.01.1979 - p.29
Theft by Finding: Diaries, Volume 1 (1977-2002) (2017)

Sophia Loren photo
Steven Crowder photo
Steven Crowder photo
James McBride (writer) photo
Jonathan Mitchell photo
Bob Black photo

“As for "decadence," that is an eminently bourgeois swear-word for people perceived to be having more fun than you are.”

Bob Black (1951) American anarchist

Source: Anarchy after Leftism (1997), Chapter 1: Murray Bookchin, Grumpy Old Man

Arthur C. Clarke photo

“Though I've often made fun of the scientists, they’ve freed us forever from the stagnation that was overtaking your race.”

The Road to the Sea, p. 298
2000s and posthumous publications, The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke (2001)

David Pearce (philosopher) photo

“No amount of happiness enjoyed by some organisms can notionally justify the indescribable horrors of Auschwitz. [...] Nor can the fun and games outweigh the sporadic frightfulness of pain and despair that occurs every second of every day. For there's nothing inherently wrong with non-sentience or [...] non-existence; whereas there is something frightfully and self-intimatingly wrong with suffering.”

David Pearce (philosopher) (1959) British transhumanist

2.7 Why Be Negative? https://www.hedweb.com/hedethic/hedon2.htm#negative*Negative-utilitarianism is only one particular denomination of a broad church to which the reader may well in any case not subscribe. Fortunately, the program can be defended on grounds that utilitarians of all stripes can agree on. So a defence will be mounted against critics of the theory and application of a utilitarian ethic in general. For in practice the most potent and effective means of curing unpleasantness is to ensure that a defining aspect of future states of mind is their permeation with the molecular chemistry of ecstasy: both genetically precoded and pharmacologically fine-tuned. Orthodox utilitarians will doubtless find the cornucopian abundance of bliss this strategy delivers is itself an extra source of moral value. Future generations of native ecstatics are unlikely to disagree.

2.7 Why Be Negative? https://www.hedweb.com/hedethic/hedon2.htm#negative
The Hedonistic Imperative https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/514875 (1995)