Quotes about gaming
page 18

“Rugby is a game for men with no fear of brain injury.”

Linda Smith (1958–2006) comedian

A Brief History of Timewasting, Room 101, The News Quiz

Agatha Christie photo

““No,” said Miss Marple. “Murder isn’t a game.”

Agatha Christie (1890–1976) English mystery and detective writer

A Murder is Announced (1950)

Leo Tolstoy photo
MF Doom photo

“And since when the rap game had to do with killin a cat, what type o' chitlins is that?”

MF Doom (1971) hip hop artist from America

With DANGERDOOM, "Old School", The Mouse and the Mask (2005)
Sourced Lines

Mike Lange photo

“Get in the fast lane, Grandma, the bingo game's ready to roll!”

Mike Lange (1948) Canadian sportscaster

Quoted in Michael Hasch and Karen Price, Ladies and gentlemen, Lange has left the building http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/penguins/s_460087.html, Trib Live Sports (2006-06-30)

John Maynard Keynes photo
Angelo Mathews photo

“We all want this game to be clean and whoever has done something wrong, we want them to bring before the courts and take certain decisions. As captain of the team I have to mention that the cricketers felt really uncomfortable the last few days because they are the ones who came forward and reported this to ICC [International Cricket Council] and SLC”

Angelo Mathews (1987) Sri Lankan cricketer

Quoted on Stuff.co.nz (January 20, 2016), "Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews defends his players in match-fixing scandal" http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/cricket/76058279/sri-lanka-captain-angelo-mathews-defends-his-players-in-matchfixing-scandal

Joyce Brothers photo
Roberto Clemente photo

“I want everybody in the world to know that this is the way I play all the time. All season, every season. I gave everything I had to this game.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

Speaking to Roger Angell before Game 7 of the 1971 World Series, as quoted in "Some Pirates and Lesser Men" https://books.google.com/books?id=7PP7VJ0gXa0C&pg=PA285&dq=%22I+want+everybody+in+the+world+to+know+that+this+is+the+way+I+play+all+the+time%22 by Angell, in The New Yorker (November 6, 1971), p. 148; reprinted in Angell's The Summer Game (2004), p. 285
Baseball-related, <big><big>1970s</big></big>, <big>1971</big>

Taylor Swift photo
Camille Paglia photo

“The balls-aching seriousness of life today comes from America and is terrible. In those days everybody was in plain clothes by lunchtime and then the officers and men would have a splendid time playing games or shooting – and we still won wars.”

Peter Hellings (1916–1990) Royal Marines general

Southby-Tailyour, Ewen (1998). Blondie – a Biography of Lieutenant–Colonel H. G. Hasler DSO OBE RM. Leo Cooper. p. 10. ISBN 9780850525168

Ben Croshaw photo

“Games should be remembered, not remastered.”

Ben Croshaw (1983) English video game journalist

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/extra-punctuation/9053-Extra-Punctuation-Keeping-Old-Games-Intact.2
Other Articles

Ira Glass photo

“What nobody tells people who are beginners — and I really wish someone had told this to me... is that all of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, and it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not.
But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase. They quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story.
It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”

Ira Glass (1959) American radio personality

The Taste Gap: Ira Glass on the Secret of Creative Success, Animated in Living Typography http://www.brainpickings.org/2014/01/29/ira-glass-success-daniel-sax/ at brainpickings.org
This American Life

Rex Stout photo
Gyles Brandreth photo

“I had to pull about twenty pieces of broken glass out of my hand using tweezers and antiseptic cream. I'm never going to have a game of arm wrestling with Michael Howard again.”

Gyles Brandreth (1948) British writer, broadcaster and former Member of Parliament

House of Commons (9 July 1996), Hansard.

Peter Greenaway photo
Sri Aurobindo photo

“Sin and virtue are a game of resistance we play with God in His efforts to draw us towards perfection. The sense of virtue helps us to cherish our sins in secret.”

Sri Aurobindo (1872–1950) Indian nationalist, freedom fighter, philosopher, yogi, guru and poet

Thoughts and Aphorisms (1913), Jnana

Richard Holbrooke photo
L. Ron Hubbard photo

“ENEMY: SP Order. Fair game. May be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist. May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed.”

L. Ron Hubbard (1911–1986) American science fiction author, philosopher, cult leader, and the founder of the Church of Scientology

"Penalties for Lower Conditions" (18 October 1967).
Scientology Policy Letters

Richard Nixon photo

“1 in 10 chance perhaps, but save Chile! worth spending; not concerned; no involvement of embassy; $10,000,000 available, more if necessary; full-time job — best men we have; game plan; make the economy scream; 48 hours for plan of action.”

Richard Nixon (1913–1994) 37th President of the United States of America

Notes taken down by CIA director Richard Helms on Nixon's orders for a plan against Salvador Allende of Chile. (15 September 1970); Document reproduced as part of George Washington University's National Security Archive. http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB8/ch26-01.htm
1970s

Roberto Clemente photo

“I don't know. I don't know. I want to be happy because I have never hit three home runs in one game. But how can I be happy when we lose?”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

As quoted in "Bob Says 'They Try': Feeble Pitching Takes Joy From Clemente's Night" https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=hBFOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=h_0DAAAAIBAJ&pg=5612%2C2872741 by Charley Feeney, in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Wednesday, May 17, 1967), p. 26
Baseball-related, <big><big>1960s</big></big>, <big>1967</big>

Thomas Flanagan (political scientist) photo

“Like all of mathematics, game theory is a tautology whose conclusions are true because they are contained in the premises.”

Thomas Flanagan (political scientist) (1944) author, academic, and political activist

Source: Game Theory and Canadian Politics (1998), Chapter 10, What Have We Learned?, p. 164.

Ayn Rand photo
Gregory Benford photo
Keiji Inafune photo

“Back in the day Japanese games were used to winning and were used to success. We celebrated all sorts of victories. However at some point these winners became losers. Not accepting that fact has led to the tragic state of Japanese games today.”

Keiji Inafune (1965) Japanese video game designer

Source: "Mega Man creator laments" https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-03-08-mega-man-creator-laments-tragic-state-of-japanese-games-industry. Eurogamer.net. Retrieved 2018-07-15.

Paul Klee photo

“[It].... is a real declaration of love toward art. Abstraction from this world more as a game, less as a failure of the earthly. Somewhere in between. The man in love no longer drinks and eats..”

Paul Klee (1879–1940) German Swiss painter

Diary entry (1912), # 922; as quoted by Francesco Mazzaferro, in 'The Diaries of Paul Klee Part Four', : Klee as an Expressionist and Constructivist Painter http://letteraturaartistica.blogspot.nl/2015/05/paul-klee-ev27.html
1911 - 1914

Harry Turtledove photo

“"The ability to see what is, sir, is essential for the leader of a great nation," the British minister said. He wanted to let Lincoln down easy if he could. "I see what is, all right. I surely do," the president said. "I see that you European powers are taking advantage of this rebellion to meddle in America, the way you used to before the Monroe Doctrine warned you to keep your hands off. Napoleon props up a tin-pot emperor in Mexico, and now France and England are in cahoots"- another phrase that briefly baffled Lord Lyons- "to help the Rebels and pull us down. All right, sir." He breathed heavily. "If that's the way the game's going to be played, we aren't strong enough to prevent it now. But I warn you, Mr. Minister, we can play, too." "You are indeed a free and independent nation," Lord Lyons agreed. "You may pursue diplomacy to the full extent of your interests and abilities." "Mighty generous of you," Lincoln said with cutting irony. "And one fine day, I reckon, we'll have friends in Europe, too, friends who'll help us get back what's rightfully ours and what you've taken away." "A European power- to help you against England and France?" For the first time, Lord Lyons was undiplomatic enough to laugh. American bluster was bad enough most times, but this lunacy- "Good luck to you, Mr. President. Good luck."”

Source: The Great War: American Front (1998), p. 9

Anita Sarkeesian photo

“Women always think that if they tell a man not to be pompous that will shut him up, but I am an old hand at that game. I know that if a man bides his time his moment will come.”

Robertson Davies (1913–1995) Canadian journalist, playwright, professor, critic, and novelist

The Great Queen is Amused.
High Spirits: A Collection of Ghost Stories (1982)

Rupert Boneham photo
Joanna MacGregor photo
Jonathan Pearce photo
Robin Sloan photo
Hideo Kojima photo
Chester W. Nimitz photo

“The war with Japan had been enacted in the game rooms at the War College by so many people and in so many different ways that nothing that happened during the war was a surprise—absolutely nothing except the kamikaze tactics toward the end of the war. We had not visualized these.”

Chester W. Nimitz (1885–1966) United States Navy fleet admiral

Writing the president of the US Naval War College shortly after World War II. Quoted by Donald C. Winter, Secretary of the Navy http://www.navy.mil/navydata/people/secnav/winter/SECNAV_Remarks_NWC_Current_Strategy_Forum.pdf]

Larry Niven photo

““Do you play games of chance?”
“Emphatically yes. The process of living is a game of chance. To avoid chance is insanity.””

Larry Niven (1938) American writer

There Is a Tide (p. 206)
Short fiction, Tales of Known Space (1975)

Jerome Bettis photo

“I played this game to win a championship. I am a champion, and I think The Bus’ last stop is here in Detroit.”

Jerome Bettis (1972) Former American football running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers

Bettis announcing his retirement following the Steelers’ Super Bowl victory in his hometown of Detroit (February 5, 2006http://www.hwwilson.com/_home/bios/1992060806.htm

Sarah Silverman photo
Paul Krugman photo
Douglas Coupland photo
Roberto Clemente photo

“Jackie, what is the matter with you? You did not lose this ball game. We all lost it. No one man loses any ball game. You remember that. You are a good ball player. We need you to play shortstop. Come now, get dressed, let's go out and have a steak.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

English translation of pep talk given on August 21, 1971, after Hernandez' 6th-inning miscue—scored as a hit—had contributed significantly to Cincinnati's 6-3 come-from-behind victory over Pittsburgh http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1971/B08210CIN1971.htm, as quoted in "Playing Games: Bad Day in Cincy" https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=iG8mAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Bm0DAAAAIBAJ&pg=5765%2C1664013&dq=clemente-began-talk-spanish by Charley Feeney, in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Tuesday, September 28, 1971), p. 23
Baseball-related, <big><big>1970s</big></big>, <big>1971</big>

Alan Hirsch photo

“This submission to the threshold of a cross is at the very root of our following Jesus; it changes the game completely.”

Alan Hirsch (1959) South African missionary

Source: The Faith of Leap (2011), p. 80

Ryan C. Gordon photo
Larry Bird photo

“Larry is different than people think. He really loves the game and is really smart. He has the innate ability to focus on what's important and has a great feel for players. He knows how to deal with people. He's direct and definite. I think the players appreciate that.”

Larry Bird (1956) basketball player and coach

Donnie Walsh — reported in Sam Smith (February 8, 2004) "Bird sets fast pace - Hall of Fame player and former coach Larry Bird finds 'every day's exciting' in his first go-around as general manager of the Indiana Pacers", Chicago Tribune, p. 11.
About

Lawrence M. Schoen photo

“Was all of the universe a fixed game, if one only knew where and how to look?”

Lawrence M. Schoen (1959) American writer and klingonist

Source: Barsk: The Elephants' Graveyard (2015), Chapter 27, “Blind Endgame Beginning” (p. 251)

Jonah Goldberg photo
Boris Johnson photo

“Had it been us staging the Games, I don't think we would necessarily have done the switcheroo with the girl with the braces”

Boris Johnson (1964) British politician, historian and journalist

" Boris Johnson In Beijing http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/blog/2008/aug/21/boris.politicsandsport?gusrc=rss&feed=politics", The Guardian, 21 August 2008

When asked whether he had any criticisms of the Beijing Olympic Games.
2000s, 2008

Erik Naggum photo
John Romero photo
Paul Morphy photo
Jonathan Pearce photo
Jack Buck photo
Kapil Dev photo

“What did it matter, Babe Ruth or Jersey Joe Stripp? If vector analysis was beyond me, I could still watch a ball game.”

Roger Kahn (1927–2020) American baseball writer

Source: The Boys Of Summer, Chapter 1, The Trolley Car That Ran By Ebbets Field, p. 19

Brett Favre photo

“With each game I play, with each season I play, I'm running out of chances… you're never guaranteed next year. You're never guaranteed the next game. You have to seize the opportunity when it's there in front of you.”

Brett Favre (1969) former American football quarterback

[Judy, Batista, http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C03E7D91338F93AA15752C0A9629C8B63&n=Top/News/Sports/Pro%20Football/National%20Football%20League/Green%20Bay%20Packers, PRO FOOTBALL: NOTEBOOK; Favre Knows That Time Is Quickly Running Out, The New York Times, January 29, 2004, 2007-11-12]

Roberto Clemente photo
Hillary Clinton photo

“It's not easy, it's not easy. And I couldn't do it if I just didn't, you know, passionately believe it was the right thing to do. You know, I've had so many opportunities from this country, I just don't want to see us fall backwards - no. So - you know, this is very personal for me. It's not just political, it's not just public. I see what's happening, and we have to reverse it. And some people think elections are a game, they think it's like who's up or who's down. It's about our country, it's about our kids' futures, and it's really about all of us together. You know some of us put ourselves out there and do this against some pretty difficult odds. And we do it, each one of us, because we care about our country. But some of us are right and some of us are wrong, some of us are ready and some of us are not, some of us know what we will do to do on day one and some of haven't really thought that through enough. And so when we look at the array of problems we have and the potential for it getting - really spinning out of control, this is one of the most important elections America's ever faced. So as tired as I am - and I am - and as difficult as it is to try to kind of keep up with what I try to do on the road like occasionally exercise and try to eat right - it's tough when the easiest food is pizza - I just believe so strongly in who we are as a nation. So I'm going to do everything I can to make my case and, you know, then the voters get to decide.”

Hillary Clinton (1947) American politician, senator, Secretary of State, First Lady

In response to the question, "How do you do it?" from Marianne Pernold The Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/07/AR2008010702954.html
Presidential campaign (January 20, 2007 – 2008)

Douglas Coupland photo
Anita Sarkeesian photo
Ilana Mercer photo
Tad Williams photo

“Everyone at the Hayholt had seemed obsessed with the empty ritual of power, something Miriamele had lived with for so long that it held no interest for her. It was like watching a confusing game played by bad-tempered children.”

Tad Williams (1957) novelist

Source: Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, To Green Angel Tower (1993), Part 2, Chapter 4, “A Thousand Leaves, A Thousand Shadows” (p. 99).

Jerome David Salinger photo

“Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules.”

Mr. Spencer
Source: The Catcher in the Rye (1951), Chapter 2

Hermann Hesse photo

“We were picking apart a problem in linguistic history and, as it were, examining close up the peak period of glory in the history of a language; in minutes we had traced the path which had taken it several centuries. And I was powerfully gripped by the vision of transitoriness: the way before our eyes such a complex, ancient, venerable organism, slowly built up over many generations, reaches its highest point, which already contains the germ of decay, and the whole intelligently articulated structure begins to droop, to degenerate, to totter toward its doom. And at the same time the thought abruptly shot through me, with a joyful, startled amazement, that despite the decay and death of that language it had not been lost, that its youth, maturity, and downfall were preserved in our memory, in our knowledge of it and its history, and would survive and could at any time be reconstructed in the symbols and formulas of scholarship as well as in the recondite formulations of the Glass Bead Game. I suddenly realized that in the language, or at any rate in the spirit of the Glass Bead Game, everything actually was all-meaningful, that every symbol and combination of symbols led not hither and yon, not to single examples, experiments, and proofs, but into the center, the mystery and innermost heart of the world, into primal knowledge. Every transition from major to minor in a sonata, every transformation of a myth or a religious cult, every classical or artistic formulation was, I realized in that flashing moment, if seen with a meditative mind, nothing but a direct route into the interior of the cosmic mystery, where in the alternation between inhaling and exhaling, between heaven and earth, between Yin and Yang, holiness is forever being created.”

The Glass Bead Game (1943)

Peter Greenaway photo

“Starting with the Swadeshi Movement in Bengal, this flattering of Muslims by praising Islam culminated in Mahatma Gandhi’s sarva-dharma-samabhava - the opiate which lulled the Hindus into a deep slumber such as they had never known vis-à-vis Muslim aggression…. Anyone who questioned the pious proposition that the Quran was as good as the Vedas and the Puranas, ran the risk of being nailed down as an “enemy of communal harmony”….. That part of the “Muslim minority” which had voted for Pakistan but had chosen to stay in India, restarted the old game when India was proclaimed a secular state pledged to freedom of propagation for all religions. It revived its tried and tested trick of masquerading as a “poor and persecuted minority”. It cooked up any number of Pirpur Reports. The wail went up that the “lives, liberties and honour of the Muslims were not safe” in India, in spite of India’s “secular pretensions”. At the same time, street riots were staged on every possible pretext. The “communal situation” started becoming critical once again. …. And once again, the political leadership came out with a make-belief. The big-wigs from all political parties were collected in a “National Integration Council”. It was pointed out by the leftist professors that the major cause of “communal trouble” was the “bad habit” of living in the past on the part of “our people”. Most of the politicians knew no history and no religion for that matter. They all agreed with one voice that Indian history, particularly that of the “medieval Muslim period”, should be re-written. That, they pleaded, was the royal road to “national integration.””

The Calcutta Quran Petition (1986)

Olivier Blanchard photo
Tristan Tzara photo
Andrea Pirlo photo
George Carlin photo
Omar Khayyám photo
Marilyn Manson photo
Louis C.K. photo
John Perkins photo
Glen Cook photo
John Updike photo
John Roberts photo
Babe Ruth photo
Francesco Berni photo
Neil Cavuto photo
Smokey Robinson photo

“Ooo la la la la
I did you wrong; my heart went out to play.
But in the game I lost you.
What a price to pay, hey I'm crying.

Ooo baby baby.
Ooo baby baby.”

Smokey Robinson (1940) American R&B singer-songwriter and record producer

Ooo Baby Baby, written by Smokey Robinson and Pete Moore (1965)
Song lyrics, With The Miracles

Frances Kellor photo

“A second principle of Americanization is identity of economic interest. At this time, after all America has united to win the war, one hesitates to turn a page so shameful in American history. And yet, if America reverts to its former industrial brutality and indifference, Americanization will fail. Identity of economic interest, generally speaking, has meant to the American getting the immigrant to work for him at as low a wage as possible, for as long hours as possible, and scrapping him at the end of the game, with as little compunction as he did an old machine. And the immigrant's successful fellow-countryman, elevated to be a private banker, a padrone, or a notary public, has shared the practices of the native American. Always the immigrant has been in positions of the greatest danger, and with less safeguards for his care. He has been called by number and nicknamed and ridiculed. Frequently trades-unions have excluded him from their benefits, compensation laws have discriminated against him, trades have been closed to him, until he has wondered in the bitterness of his spirit what American opportunity was and how he could pursue life, liberty, and happiness at his work. Whenever he has been discontented, the popular remedy has been higher wages or shorter hours, and rarely the expansion of personal relationships. Very little self-determination has been given to him; on the contrary he has been made a cog in a highly organized industrial machine. His spirit has been imprisoned in the hum of machinery. His special gifts have been lost, even as his lack of skill in mechanical work has injured delicate processes and priceless materials. His pride has been humiliated and his initiative stifled because he has been given little of the artisan's pleasure in seeing his finished product.”

Frances Kellor (1873–1952) American sociologist

What is Americanization? (1919)

Dhyan Chand photo

“Nowadays I hear of the princely comforts provided for national teams traveling overseas, and fuss players raise if they happen to miss even a cup of tea! When we used to travel the name of our country and the game were the only two things that mattered.”

Dhyan Chand (1905–1979) Indian field hockey player

During India’s title defense at the 1936 Berlin Olympics when he captained the hockey team to victory in the Olympics in page=59
Quote, Olympics - The India Story

Kanō Jigorō photo
Ted Ginn, Jr. photo

“I didn't end it [my career at Ohio State] the way I'd like to end it, but I ended the way I had to. That's a bad memory, but at the same time, we made it to the national championship game. I scored in the national championship game. That's the only way I can remember it.”

Ted Ginn, Jr. (1985) American football wide receiver, kick returner

[May, Tim, Gordon, Ken, They're gone: Ted Ginn Jr. and Antonio Pittman decide the time is right to leave Ohio State for the NFL, Columbus Dispatch, 2007-01-16, 2007-01-23]

Satoru Iwata photo

“Some argue that our success is short-lived and temporary. So, we now need to make efforts to constantly expand the player base by offering services and titles that can appeal, not only to those who have never played games, but also to those who play them hard.”

Satoru Iwata (1959–2015) Japanese video game programmer and businessman

Japan's Nintendo wins exclusive deal for Capcom's Monster Hunter 3 title http://www.sharewatch.com/story.php?storynumber=49593

“The 19th and first half of the 20th century conceived of the world as chaos. Chaos was the oft-quoted blind play of atoms, which, in mechanistic and positivistic philosophy, appeared to represent ultimate reality, with life as an accidental product of physical processes, and mind as an epi-phenomenon. It was chaos when, in the current theory of evolution, the living world appeared as a product of chance, the outcome of random mutations and survival in the mill of natural selection. In the same sense, human personality, in the theories of behaviorism as well as of psychoanalysis, was considered a chance product of nature and nurture, of a mixture of genes and an accidental sequence of events from early childhood to maturity.
Now we are looking for another basic outlook on the world -- the world as organization. Such a conception -- if it can be substantiated -- would indeed change the basic categories upon which scientific thought rests, and profoundly influence practical attitudes.
This trend is marked by the emergence of a bundle of new disciplines such as cybernetics, information theory, general system theory, theories of games, of decisions, of queuing and others; in practical applications, systems analysis, systems engineering, operations research, etc. They are different in basic assumptions, mathematical techniques and aims, and they are often unsatisfactory and sometimes contradictory. They agree, however, in being concerned, in one way or another, with "systems," "wholes" or "organizations"; and in their totality, they herald a new approach.”

Ludwig von Bertalanffy (1901–1972) austrian biologist and philosopher

Source: General System Theory (1968), 7. Some Aspects of System Theory in Biology, p. 166-167 as quoted in Lilienfeld (1978, pp. 7-8) and Alexander Laszlo and Stanley Krippner (1992) " Systems Theories: Their Origins, Foundations, and Development http://archive.syntonyquest.org/elcTree/resourcesPDFs/SystemsTheory.pdf" In: J.S. Jordan (Ed.), Systems Theories and A Priori Aspects of Perception. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science, 1998. Ch. 3, pp. 47-74.

Samantha Barks photo
Theodore Wilbur Anderson photo
Ai Weiwei photo