Quotes about play
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“Whatever games are played with us, we must play no games with ourselves, but deal in our privacy with the last honesty and truth.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Illusions
1860s, The Conduct of Life (1860)
Source: The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson

Truth, Game

“I've played the powerless in too many dark scenes. I was blessed with a birth and a death and I guess I just want some say in between”

Ani DiFranco (1970) musician and activist

Talk To Me Now
Song lyrics
Variant: I was blessed with a birth and a death, and I guess I just want some say in-between.

Death, Birth

“As I look back on my own life, I recognize this simple truth: The greatest opportunities were the scariest lions. Part of me has wanted to play it safe, but I’ve learned that taking no risks is the greatest risk of all.”

Mark Batterson (1969) American pastor and writer

Source: In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day: How to Survive and Thrive When Opportunity Roars

Life, Truth, Learning, Parting

“Bren MacGuff: Well, honey, doctors are sadists who like to play God and watch lesser people scream…”

Diablo Cody (1978) Screenwriter and author

Source: Juno: The Shooting Script

God, People

“I want to be in fifth grade again. Now, that is a deep dark secret, almost as big as the other one. Fifth grade was easy -- old enough to play outside without Mom, too young to go off the block. The perfect leash length.”

Laurie Halse Anderson Speak

Source: Speak

Secret, Moms, Perfection

“Death did not play favorites—He loved all equally.
What you cannot escape, you must fight; what you cannot fight, you must endure.
The god's voice—not quite words, just a thread of meaning laid in my receptive mind”

Lilith Saintcrow (1976) American writer

Source: Dead Man Rising

Love, Death, God, Fight

“I finished your song, she said. Our last song. And I want to play it for you.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Last Song

Source: The Last Song

“I have forced myself to begin writing when I've been utterly exhausted, when I've felt my soul as thin as a playing card…and somehow the activity of writing changes everything.”

Joyce Carol Oates (1938) American author

Soul, Change

“Were you playing with Stuart?" she asked.
The question was loaded. I was a filthy, filthy woman, and even the five-year-old knew it.”

Maureen Johnson book Let It Snow

Source: Let It Snow: Three Holiday Romances

Question

“Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Mom's. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own.”

Nelson Algren book A Walk on the Wild Side

In jail, Cross-Country Kline to Dove Linkhorn.
Source: A Walk on the Wild Side (1956)
Context: But blow wise to this, buddy, blow wise to this: Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Mom's. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own. Never let nobody talk you into shaking another man's jolt. And never you cop another man's plea. I've tried 'em all and I know. They don't work. / Life is hard by the yard, son. But you don't have to do it by the yard. By the inch it's a cinch. And money can't buy everything. For example: poverty.

Moms, Sleep

“See the TURTLE of enormous girth,
On his shell he holds the earth.
If you want to run and play,
Come along the BEAM today.”

Stephen King book The Gunslinger

Source: The Gunslinger

“When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said "Let us pray." We closed our eyes. When we opened them, we had the Bible and they had the land.
:This quote, often attributed to Jomo Kenyatta, was first written in a fiction play published by holocaust doubter Rolf Hochhuth, in his controversial The Deputy, a Christian tragedy (1964), Grove Press, p. 144. No reference to any historical or original source was given. Other citations are found in books written by critics of religion, such as Christos Tzanetakos's "The Life and Work of an Atheist Pioneer", iUniverse; and Jack Huberman's "Quotable Atheist: Ammunition for Nonbelievers, Political Junkies, Gadflies, and Those Generally Hell-Bound" (2008), 175. No references are given.
: In Desmond Tutu: A Biography (2004) by Steven Gish, p. 101; is clarified Tutu used it as a joke which was not of him.”

Desmond Tutu (1931) South African churchman, politician, archbishop, Nobel Prize winner

Misattributed

Life, Books, Religion, Quotes

“Hi."

"Hi." I shrug, as though to say "Whatever."

In my peripheral vision I can see Magnus exhale. He looks a teeny bit nervous.

"So."

"So." I can play this game too.

"Poppy."

"Poppy. I mean, Magnus." I scowl. He caught me out.”

Sophie Kinsella book I've Got Your Number

Source: I've Got Your Number

Game

“If you don't like vampire games, don't play”

Vivian Vande Velde (1951) American writer

Source: Companions of the Night

Game

“In the short term, it would make me happy to go play outside. In the long term, it would make me happier to do well at school and become successful. But in the VERY long term, I know which will make better memories.”

Bill Watterson (1958) American comic artist

Source: It's a Magical World: A Calvin and Hobbes Collection

Happiness, School, Memory, Success

“Yep, my daddy was an undependable drunk. But he'd never missed any of my organized games, concerts, plays, or picnics. He may not have loved me perfectly, but he loved me as well as he could. (189)”

Sherman Alexie book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Source: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Love, Game

“Whoever coined the phrase 'a man's got to play the hand that was dealt him' was most certainly one piss-poor bluffer.”

Jeannette Walls book The Glass Castle

Source: The Glass Castle

“All that day she had had the feeling that she was playing in the theatre with actors better than herself and that her poor playing spoiled the whole thing.”

Leo Tolstoy book Anna Karenina

Source: Anna Karenina

Feeling

“It is wonderful what tricks our dreams play us, and how conveniently we can imagine.”

Bram Stoker book Dracula

Source: Dracula

Dreams, Imagination

“That's a sure way to tell about somebody--the way they play, or don't play, make-believe.”

Madeleine L'Engle Dragons in the Waters

Source: Dragons in the Waters

Way

“You're a man who has suffered and wants revenge,' she said. 'Your heart is dead, your soul is in darkness. The devil by your side is smiling because you are playing the game he invented.”

Paulo Coelho book The Devil and Miss Prym

Source: The Devil and Miss Prym

Smile, Soul, Game, Revenge

“Werewolf games," Mercy said solemnly, "play for keeps, or go home." She was so cute sometimes it made Adam's heart hurt.”

Patricia Briggs book Frost Burned

Source: Frost Burned

Home, Game, Heart, Hurt

“I played it for my bride, and one day you will play for yours.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

“Before it is science and career, before it is livelihood, before even it is family or love, freedom is sound sleep and safety to notice the play of morning sun.”

Richard Rhodes The Making of the Atomic Bomb

Source: The Making of the Atomic Bomb

Love, Family, Sleep, Freedom

“You've got to be quick on your feet in this world if you want to survive. Though once you know the rules, it is not too hard to play the game.”

Bryce Courtenay The Power of One

Source: The Power of One

World, Game

“I wanted to tell her not to entertain despair like this. Despaire wasn't a guest, you didn't play its favorite music, find it a comfortable chair. Despair was the enemy."
-white oleander”

Janet Fitch book White Oleander

Source: White Oleander

Music, Despair

“We know now that a man can read Goethe or Rilke in the evening, that he can
play Bach and Schubert, and go to his day's work at Auschwitz in the
morning.”

George Steiner (1929–2020) American writer

Preface.
Language and Silence: Essays 1958-1966 (1967)
Context: We come after. We know now that a man can read Goethe or Rilke in the evening, that he can play Bach and Schubert, and go to his day's work at Auschwitz in the morning. To say that he has read them without understanding or that his ear is gross, is cant. In what way does this knowledge bear on literature and society, on the hope, grown almost axiomatic from the time of Plato to that of Matthew Arnold, that culture is a humanizing force, that the energies of spirit are transferable to those of conduct?

Reading

“On the off chance that you have children, don't clean up at all. As children, my brother and sister and I loved waking up early and playing cocktail party with the leftover debris”

Amy Sedaris (1961) American comedian

Love, Children, Sister, Chance

“Writing free verse is like playing tennis with the net down.”

Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet

Address at Milton Academy, Massachusetts (17 May 1935)
1930s
Variant: Writing free verse is like playing tennis with the net down.

“That’s the one nice thing about being a dork about men: you can sometimes play it off as restrained and classy.”

Mindy Kaling (1979) actress, writer, comedian

Men

“They played at hearts as other children might play at ball; only, as it was really their two hearts that they flung to and fro, they had to be very, very handy to catch them, each time, without hurting them.”

Gaston Leroux book The Phantom of the Opera

Source: The Phantom of the Opera

Children, Time, Heart, Hurt

“When you’ve lost all your play, guess what love becomes. Work. Work that gets harder every hour.”

Martin Amis book House of Meetings

Source: House of Meetings

Love

“The banjo is such a happy instrument--you can't play a sad song on the banjo - it always comes out so cheerful.”

Steve Martin (1945) American actor, comedian, musician, author, playwright, and producer

Happiness, Sadness

“No man can call himself liberal, or radical, or even a conservative advocate of fair play, if his work depends in any way on the unpaid or underpaid labor of women at home, or in the office.”

Gloria Steinem (1934) American feminist and journalist

Women, Way, Home, Dependency

“Alright, you'll get your bonus, buy play nice with her. Keep your sarcasm to a minimum. (Kyrian)
Yes, O Great Lord and Master. Be nice to woman, keep mouth shut. (Nick)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon book Night Pleasures

Source: Night Pleasures

“I meant what I said to you. I wasn't playing some kind of summer game. Everything I said was true, from the first day. EVERY GODDAMN WORD.”

Sarah Dessen book This Lullaby

Source: This Lullaby

Game, Summer

“One wild card was yet to be played.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

“the important thing is not what we (look) like, but the role we play in our best friend's life.”

Cecelia Ahern book If You Could See Me Now

Source: If You Could See Me Now

Life

“God does not play dice with the universe.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Source: The Born-Einstein Letters 1916-55

God, Universe

“He lifted the violin to his shoulder then, and raised the bow. And he played.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

Source: Clockwork Princess

“When the sins of our fathers visit us
We do not have to play host.
We can banish them with forgiveness
As God, in his His Largeness and Laws.”

August Wilson Fences

Source: Fences

God, Law, Forgiveness

“I was not so sure, but Jem told me I was being a girl, that girls always imagined things, that’s why other people hated them so, and if I started behaving like one I could just go off and find some to play with.”

Harper Lee book To Kill a Mockingbird

Source: To Kill a Mockingbird

Hate, People, Imagination, Girl

“What would you give someone who likes to play the piano?”
“A piano.”
“Simon.”
“A really huge metronome that could also double as a weapon?”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Source: City of Heavenly Fire

“Little Fly,
Thy summer’s play
My thoughtless hand
Has brushed away.

Am not I
A fly like thee?
Or art not thou
A man like me?

For I dance,
And drink, and sing,
Till some blind hand
Shall brush my wing.”

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

The Fly, st. 1–3
1790s, Songs of Experience (1794)

Art, Drink, Singing, Dance

“There are much worse games to play.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Source: Mockingjay

Game

“O YOU whom I often and silently come where you are, that I may be with you;
As I walk by your side, or sit near, or remain in the same room with you,
Little you know the subtle electric fire that for your sake is playing within me.”

Walt Whitman (1819–1892) American poet, essayist and journalist

“Your old home town's so far away, but inside your head there's a record that's playing, a song called 'Hold On”

Tom Waits (1949) American singer-songwriter and actor

Home

“And what is wrong with playing with words? Words love to be played with, just like children or kittens do!”

David Almond book My Name Is Mina

Source: My Name Is Mina

Love, Children

“Life plays the same lovely and agonizing joke on all of us.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald book The Beautiful and Damned

Source: The Beautiful and Damned

Love, Life

“He could not play the game without hope; could not play the game without a dream. They had taken it all away from him now, they had turned away from him and there was nothing for him now… He was alone and there was nothing for him.”

Gary Paulsen book Hatchet

Source: Hatchet

Dreams, Hope, Game

“Destiny, I feel, is also a relationship - a play between divine grace and willful self-effort.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

Feeling, Effort

“You got dealt some crappy cards. But you're the one who has to decide how to play them.”

Diane Chamberlain (1950) American writer

Source: The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes

“And if all of us are play-acting, there can be no such thing as a soul mate, because we don't have genuine souls.”

Gillian Flynn book Gone Girl

Source: Gone Girl

Soul

“I feel sad for people and the queer part we play in our own distasters.”

Don DeLillo book White Noise

Source: White Noise

People, Sadness, Feeling, Parting

“Play along, the wink said. I'll get you out of this.

At least Artemis hoped this was what his wink communicated and not something like 'Any chance of another kiss later?”

Eoin Colfer (1965) Irish author of children's books

Source: The Time Paradox

Hope, Communication, Kiss, Chance

“Time can play all sorts of tricks on you. In the blink of an eye, babies appear in carriages, coffins disappear into the ground, wars are won and lost, and children transform, like butterflies, into adults.”

Brian Selznick book The Invention of Hugo Cabret

Source: The Invention of Hugo Cabret

War, Children, Appearance, Time

“I am determined that only the deepest love will induce me into matrimony. So, I shall end an old maid, and teach your ten children to embroider cushions and play their instruments very ill.”

Jane Austen book Pride and Prejudice

Source: Pride and Prejudice

Love, Children

“The play was a great success, but audience was a dismal failure.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

Failure, Success

“On horseback you feel as if you're moving in time to classical music; a camel seems to progress to the beat of a drum played by a drunk.”

Walter Moers The 13½ Lives of Captain Bluebear

Source: The 13½ Lives of Captain Bluebear

Music, Feeling, Time

“Nick glowered at Ash. "Are we through now, Dad? Can I go play with my friends if I promise to be a good boy? I'll even try and make it home by curfew."

Ash laughed evilly. "Oh, absolutely, son. In fact, here come your new playmates now.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Dream Warrior

Home, Boy

“This Lullaby is only a few words, a simple run of chords, quiet here in this spare room, but you can hear it, hear it, wherever you may go, even if I let you down, this lullaby plays on…”

Sarah Dessen book This Lullaby

Source: This Lullaby

“I stayed up all night playing poker with tarot cards. I got a full house and four people died.”

Steven Wright (1955) American actor and author

People, Housing, Night

“Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quietest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey.”

Pat Conroy (1945–2016) American novelist

Travel

“How was life before Pop-Tarts, Prozac and padded playgrounds? They ate strudel, took opium and played on the grass.”

Jennifer Michael Hecht (1965) Philosopher, poet, historian, author

Source: The Happiness Myth: The Historical Antidote to What Isn't Working Today

Life, Grass

“Memories are nice little possessions. As long as you don't ignore the present when you take them out to play.”

Nora Roberts (1950) American romance writer

Memory

“One thing in my defense, not that it matters: I know something Carter never knew, or Helene, or maybe you. I know what "nothing" means, and keep on playing.”

Joan Didion book Play It as It Lays

Source: Play It as It Lays

“You’re playing the creepy vibe a little hard,” I said. “Might as well go for broke, put on a black top hat and pipe in some organ music.”

Jim Butcher book Small Favor

Source: Small Favor

Music

“It doesn't really matter what chords I play, what words I say or time of day it is, as it's only a Northern Song.”

George Harrison (1943–2001) British musician, former member of the Beatles

Time

“There are some nights when
sleep plays coy,
aloof and disdainful.
And all the wiles
that I employ to win
its service to my side
are useless as wounded pride,
and much more painful.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

Pain, Sleep, Night

“How about a cheer
For all those bad girls
And all the boys
That play that rock and roll?
They love it
Like you love Jesus.
It does the same thing
To their souls.”

Tom Petty (1950–2017) American musician

Have Love Will Travel
Lyrics, The Last DJ (2002)

Love, Soul, Girl, Boy

“I love everybody. Each one plays the role they have to play…”

Meher Baba (1894–1969) Indian mystic

Statement to Delia DeLeon in 1948, as quoted in How A Master Works (1975) by Ivy Oneita Duce, p. 457.
General sources
Context: I love everybody. Each one plays the role they have to play, but in the spiritual arena there are people who are even closer to me than that.
Context: I don't usually explain about Mehera to anyone. But I will tell you this. Don't you think I love Mani? Well, Mehera plays the same role to me that the Virgin Mary played to Jesus. She is like my skin — she protects, she feels every thought I feel. But I love everybody. Each one plays the role they have to play, but in the spiritual arena there are people who are even closer to me than that.

Love