Quotes about play
page 11

William Golding photo
Bob Hope photo
Karen Marie Moning photo
John Updike photo
Jodi Picoult photo
Alfred North Whitehead photo

“There are no whole truths; all truths are half-truths. It is trying to treat them as whole truths that plays the devil.”

Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) English mathematician and philosopher

Prologue.
Attributed from posthumous publications, Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead (1954)

Leo Buscaglia photo
Brandon Sanderson photo
John Steinbeck photo
Warren Buffett photo
Stephen Fry photo

“Those who rule the world get so little opportunity to run about and laugh and play in it.”

Stephen Fry (1957) English comedian, actor, writer, presenter, and activist

Source: The Fry Chronicles

“She taught me to play the piano, and what it meant to miss somebody.”

Eric Roth (1945) American screenwriter

Source: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Screenplay

Richelle Mead photo
F. Scott Fitzgerald photo
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar photo
Kathy Reichs photo
Albert Einstein photo
Richelle Mead photo
Doris Lessing photo
Tom Robbins photo
Bob Dylan photo

“Ain't it just like the night to play tricks when you're trying to be so quiet.”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Song lyrics, Blonde on Blonde (1966), Visions of Johanna
Source: Lyrics: 1962-2001

F. Scott Fitzgerald photo

“No point in playing if your goal is to lose.”

Rachel Hawthorne (1950) American author

Source: Moonlight

David Klass photo
Eoin Colfer photo
Kelley Armstrong photo
A.A. Milne photo

“Wherever they go, and whatever happens to them on the way, in that enchanted place on the top of the forest, a little boy and his Bear will always be playing.”

Source: The House at Pooh Corner (1928)
Context: Then Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh walked hand in hand down the forest path and they said goodbye. So they went off together. But wherever they go, and whatever happens to them on the way, in that enchanted place on the top of the forest a little boy and his bear will always be playing.

Chuck Klosterman photo
Christopher Hitchens photo
Lisa Scottoline photo
Dennis Lehane photo
Suzanne Collins photo
Sylvia Day photo
Patrick Rothfuss photo

“The sidelines may be safer but life is played on the field”

Wendy Mass (1967) American children's writer

Source: 13 Gifts

Cheryl Strayed photo

“I came ready to fight Genghis Khan and I walk in on a shut-in playing the biggest Dungeons and Dragons game in history.”

Richard Kadrey (1957) San Francisco-based novelist, freelance writer, and photographer

Source: Sandman Slim

John Mayer photo

“So scared of getting older
I'm only good at being young
So I play the numbers game to find a way to say that life has just begun.”

John Mayer (1977) guitarist and singer/songwriter

Source: Continuum: Music by John Mayer

Robert Frost photo
Kelley Armstrong photo
Walt Whitman photo

“The powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse.”

Source: Leaves of Grass

James Patterson photo

“Is dere anysing special about you? Anysing vorth saving?"

Besides my fashion sense? I play a mean harmonica.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports

Robert Fulghum photo
Ralph Ellison photo
Mary Roach photo
Brandon Flowers photo
Gustav Stresemann photo
Conan O'Brien photo

“Now that this mess is almost behind me – I just have one last request: HBO, when you make the movie about this whole NBC late night fiasco, I’d like to be played by Academy-Award winning actress Tilda Swinton.”

Conan O'Brien (1963) American television show host and comedian

January 22, 2010 Monologue Variety, 23 Jan 2010 http://weblogs.variety.com/on_the_air/
The Tonight Show

Mark Tobey photo

“There has been 32 isms since the advent of Cubism, yet after all there are essentially the same two old strings, the Romantic and the Classical. We've just be confused by the storm. Science and psychology have played a great part to say nothing of sex.”

Mark Tobey (1890–1976) American abstract expressionist painter

The Tigers Eye 1, Mark Tobey, 1952; as quoted in Abstract Expressionist Painting in America, W.C, Seitz, Cambridge Massachusetts, 1983, p. 103
1950's

George S. Patton photo
Mary Martin photo

“It was all role playing. I felt Larry was my little brother, Ben my big brother. Role playing was something I had known since I was born, but it wasn't a good basis for a marriage.”

Mary Martin (1913–1990) American actress

On her early married life with her first husband Ben Hagman, p. 39
My Heart Belongs (1976)

Lawrence Lessig photo

“Stuart Wheeler says women are no good at poker?! If he fancies playing a bit of Heads Up, he knows where to find me.”

Victoria Coren (1972) British writer, presenter and poker player

Responding to Stuart Wheeler's suggestion that women are not good at chess, bridge or poker.
Evening Standard Quote of the Day, Friday 16 Aug 2013, p. 16

Luís de Camões photo

“Now let the judging reader mark what rex
The idol gold (which all the world adoreth)
Plays both in poor and rich: by money's thurst
All laws and ties (divine, and human) burst.”

Luís de Camões (1524–1580) Portuguese poet

Veja agora o juízo curioso
Quanto no rico, assim como no pobre,
Pode o vil interesse e sede inimiga
Do dinheiro, que a tudo nos obriga.
Stanza 96, lines 5–8 (tr. Richard Fanshawe)
Epic poetry, Os Lusíadas (1572), Canto VIII

Arthur Cecil Pigou photo
Jean Piaget photo
William H. Gass photo
Jeffrey Montgomery photo

“Buchanan is worse than a child playing with matches because he understands the dangerous impact of what he says.”

Jeffrey Montgomery (1953–2016) American LGBT rights activist and public relations executive

Commenting on candidate for President of the United States, Pat Buchanan, The Detroit News, March 17, 1996 July 20, 2016, Hornbeck, Mark; Cain, Charlie; Willing, Richard, Fiery Buchanan preaches to converted in Clawson, The Detroit News, 9A, Newspapers.com, March 17, 1996 https://www.newspapers.com/clip/5946417/detroit_free_press/,

Ralph Waldo Emerson photo

“Why should we make account of time, or of magnitude, or of figure? The soul knows how to play with them as a young child plays with graybeards and in churches.”

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

1840s, Essays: First Series (1841), History

Daniel Johns photo
Albrecht Thaer photo

“The word " economy" has latterly been used in various senses; the Germans give it a very indefinite signification.
Judging from its etymology and original signification, the Greeks seem to have understood by it the establishment and direction of the menage, or domestic arrangements.
Xenophon, in his work on economy, treats of domestic management, the reciprocal duties of the members of a family and of those who compose the household; and only incidentally mentions agriculture as having relation to domestic affairs. This word is never applied to agriculture by Xenophon, nor, indeed, by any Greek author; they distinguish it by the terms, georgic geoponic.
The Romans give a very extensive and indefinite signification to the word "economy." They understand by it, the best method of attaining the aim and end of some particular thing; or the disposition, plan, and division of some particular work. Thus, Cicero speaks of oeconomia causae, oeconomia orationis; and by this he means the direction of a law process, the arrangement of an harangue. Several German authors use it in this sense when they speak of the oekonomie eines schauspiels, or eines gedichtes, the economy of a play or poem. Authors of other nations have adopted all the significations which the Romans have attached to this word, and understand by it the relation of the various parts of any particular thing to each other and to the whole—that which we are accustomed to term the organization. The word "economy" only acquires a real sense when applied to some particular subject: thus, we hear of "the economy of nature," "the animal economy," and " the economy of the state" spoken of. It is also applied to some particular branch of science or industry; but, in the latter case, the nature of the economy ought to be pointed out, if it is not indicated by the nature of the subject.”

Albrecht Thaer (1752–1828) German agronomist and an avid supporter of the humus theory for plant nutrition

Source: The Principles of Agriculture, 1844, Section II. The Economy, Organization and Direction of an Agricultural Enterprise, p. 54-55.

Marilyn Monroe photo

“The studio people want me to do "Good-bye Charlie" for the movies, but I'm not going to do it. I don't like the idea of playing a man in a woman's body — you know? It just doesn't seem feminine.”

Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer

On turning down a role, eventually played by Debbie Reynolds, as quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) p. 41

Gore Vidal photo
Woody Allen photo
Roberto Clemente photo

“No, no. Bill should play two or three more years. Talk to him. Tell him he can get in shape. I know he can play better second base than anybody. He is two years younger than I am. He is the greatest second baseman of all time, a real super star. But people forget too fast what he has done for the Pirates. Nobody I ever saw could field with him. He won the World Series with his home run against the Yankees. I don't like to see him retire.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

As quoted in "Sidelights on Sports: Monday Morning's Sports Wash" https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=XOANAAAAIBAJ&sjid=u2wDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7387%2C128274 by Al Abrams, in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Monday, October 2, 1972), p. 24
Baseball-related, <big><big>1970s</big></big>, <big>1972</big>

Joanna MacGregor photo
Park Benjamin, Sr. photo
Rousas John Rushdoony photo
Bill Gates photo

“Instead of buying airplanes and playing around like some of our competitors, we've rolled almost everything back into the company.”

Bill Gates (1955) American business magnate and philanthropist

Comment to reporters during the IBM PC launch (1981), interpreted as a jab at Gary Kildall
1980s

Milton Bradley (baseball) photo

“I really haven't even thought about it," he said. "If I somehow miraculously made it to the All-Star Game, I would be floored. I'd really be totally humbled by that. I'm just happy right now to play, to produce and to be with a good group of guys.”

Milton Bradley (baseball) (1978) Major League Baseball player

Star glows, ballots grow for Texas Rangers' Bradley, The Dallas Morning News, Time Cowlishaw, June 6, 2008, 2009-01-04 http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/stories/060608dnspocowlishaw.3022001.html?npc,

Louisa May Alcott photo
Lewis Mumford photo
Margaret Cho photo
John Hennigan photo
Terrell Owens photo

“He's a coach's dream. He's been really wonderful for the other guys I coach. Why? His work ethic, he has a great passion for playing the game; he's made my job easier.”

Terrell Owens (1973) former American football wide receiver

David Culley — reported in Doug Lesmerises (February 2, 2005) "Receivers coach says Owens a gem - T.O. a role model for young players", The News Journal, p. C7.
About

Ted Lindsay photo
Susan Cooper photo
Lee Kuan Yew photo

“[Unnamed actress on the set of Grand Prix] never had eyes for me. Hell, she wouldn't even talk to me, after she'd found out that I was just an unimportant actor. Good grief! Then, this is what happened: We were sitting in the foyer of the Hotel de Paris in Monte Carlo. She, myself and Antonio. Then an assistant director crossed our path. That actress was trying to get him to take us to the theatre where they were showing the rushes of the day before. After some discussion, she persuaded him. He said: `Be quiet, I'm gonna lose my job…' So we hid in the balcony, looking down, where that wonderful director Frankenheimer was sitting. After some minutes of racing cars, finally her scene came, and she was doing a phone call - she was playing a sophisticated magazine editor -, and suddenly you could hear the director, who had this loud, resonant voice, howling in rage, because he didn't like her at all. `Oh my God, she's awful! She can't walk, she can't talk, look at her hair!' So he turned to that faggot hairdresser, who was like Katherine the Great, and this guy said: `Well, usually she plays this peasant types. I don't know why you cast her for this role in the first place!”

Donald O'Brien (actor) (1930–2003) Italian film and TV actor

And remember, this actress was sitting there with us, and she nearly went crazy! She was squirming with embarrassment. This is an actor's nightmare, you know. The next day she was fired.
Euro Trash Cinema magazine interview (March 1996)

Conor Oberst photo
Daniel Kahneman photo
Robert T. Kiyosaki photo

“True, I have lost money on many occasions. But I only play with money I can afford to lose.”

Robert T. Kiyosaki (1947) American finance author , investor

Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money-That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not!

“Computer-aided design also is not automatic programming, although automatic programming techniques must necessarily play an important role in computer-aided design.”

Douglas T. Ross (1929–2007) American computer scientist

Source: Computer-Aided Design: A Statement of Objectives (1960), p. 2.

William Cowper photo

“I play with syllables and sport in song”

William Cowper (1731–1800) (1731–1800) English poet and hymnodist

From:First of the Moral Satires
Table Talk (1782)