Quotes about play
page 24

Nikos Kazantzakis photo
Larry Bird photo

“Guys like Larry Bird -- he played so hard, he wants everybody else to play hard. That's not unreasonable. Any coach would want that and demand that.”

Larry Bird (1956) basketball player and coach

Magic Johnson — reported in David Steele (May 9, 1997) "Magic Says Bird Will Succeed", San Francisco Chronicle, p. B8.
About

Michael Savage photo
William O. Douglas photo

“The rules when the giants play are the same as when the pygmies enter the market.”

William O. Douglas (1898–1980) Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

Dissenting, Scherk v. Alberto-Culver Co., 417 U.S. 506, 526 (1974)
Judicial opinions

George Benson photo
Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse photo

“Government must keep the ring, and leave it for individuals to play the game.”

Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse (1864–1929) British sociologist

Source: Liberalism (1911), Chapter III, The Movement Of Theory, p. 34 .

Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo
Frank Klepacki photo
Burkard Schliessmann photo
Vanessa Redgrave photo
Grigori Sokolnikov photo
Bette Davis photo

“In the beginning was the Word,' and you must not be tempted with a script just because you have a great part. You want a great role to play, but the whole - the whole - must be good. It'll never succeed if it's just the role you like.”

Bette Davis (1908–1989) film and television actress from the United States

Louise Sweeney (December 28, 1987) "Bette Davis: On the heels of a new honor and a new film, a screen legend looks back over her 60-year career", Christian Science Monitor, p. 19.

Alfred North Whitehead photo
Alex Salmond photo
Henry Knox photo

“The eyes of all America are upon us, as we play our part in posterity will bless or curse us.”

Henry Knox (1750–1806) Continental Army and US Army general, US Secretary of War

Knox on the Declaration of Independence. Reported in David McCullough, 1776 (2005), p. 83.

Sarah Palin photo
Aron Ra photo

“A few months ago I read an interview with a critic; a well-known critic; an unusually humane and intelligent critic. The interviewer had just said that the critic “sounded like a happy man”, and the interview was drawing to a close; the critic said, ending it all: “I read, but I don’t get any time to read at whim. All the reading I do is in order to write or teach, and I resent it. We have no TV, and I don’t listen to the radio or records, or go to art galleries or the theater. I’m a completely negative personality.”
As I thought of that busy, artless life—no records, no paintings, no plays, no books except those you lecture on or write articles about—I was so depressed that I went back over the interview looking for some bright spot, and I found it, one beautiful sentence: for a moment I had left the gray, dutiful world of the professional critic, and was back in the sunlight and shadow, the unconsidered joys, the unreasoned sorrows, of ordinary readers and writers, amateurishly reading and writing “at whim”. The critic said that once a year he read Kim, it was plain, at whim: not to teach, not to criticize, just for love—he read it, as Kipling wrote it, just because he liked to, wanted to, couldn’t help himself. To him it wasn’t a means to a lecture or an article, it was an end; he read it not for anything he could get out of it, but for itself. And isn’t this what the work of art demands of us? The work of art, Rilke said, says to us always: You must change your life. It demands of us that we too see things as ends, not as means—that we too know them and love them for their own sake. This change is beyond us, perhaps, during the active, greedy, and powerful hours of our lives, but during the contemplative and sympathetic hours of our reading, our listening, our looking, it is surely within our power, if we choose to make it so, if we choose to let one part of our nature follow its natural desires. So I say to you, for a closing sentence: Read at whim! read at whim!”

Randall Jarrell (1914–1965) poet, critic, novelist, essayist

“Poets, Critics, and Readers”, pp. 112–113
A Sad Heart at the Supermarket: Essays & Fables (1962)

Angelique Rockas photo
Paul Desmond photo

“I tried practicing for a few weeks and ended up playing too fast.”

Paul Desmond (1924–1977) American jazz musician

About the value of practice
Unsourced

Samuel Pepys photo
Revilo P. Oliver photo
Venus Williams photo
Pierre Monteux photo

“How I regret not having told César Franck of my profound admiration for him and his music. After playing he Sonata for violin for the first time, I nearly wept over certain phrases. The beauty of it overwhelmed me.”

Pierre Monteux (1875–1964) French conductor

Quoted in Monteux, Doris G (1965). It's All in the Music: The Life and Work of Pierre Monteux. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. OCLC 604146, p. 196

Mitt Romney photo
William Saroyan photo
John Green photo

“He just wanted to play robot, for God's sake. Was that so wrong?”

Colin Singleton, p. 20
An Abundance of Katherines (2006)

Roger Manganelli photo
Bethany Kennedy Scanlon photo
Edward Albee photo
James D. Watson photo

“If we don't play God, who will?”

James D. Watson (1928) American molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist.

The Lives to Come: The Genetic Revolution and Human Possibilities (1996)

Eyal Berkovic photo

“I am prepared to retire (from playing) today…and coach the national team. Maybe it's time to bring in new blood, people who understand today's players, their psyche. If they ask me, I'll do it. It's an honour to coach the national team.”

Eyal Berkovic (1972) Israeli footballer and manager

When asked about what the IFA should do after Avraham Grant did not qualify the national team for the World Cup in 2006. [Berkovic ready to coach national side, Eurosport, 23 October 2005, http://www.eurosport.com/football/world-cup-2006-qualifying2/2004/sport_sto781152.shtml, 27 March, 2007]

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg photo
Thomas Little Heath photo
Laurie Penny photo
Vilfredo Pareto photo
Victor Borge photo

“I learned to play the piano on my mother's knee - that was before we got a piano.”

Victor Borge (1909–2000) Danish and US-American comedian and musician

From the obit in the Boston Globe.
Quotations from Borge's performances
Source: Richard Dyer, "Laughter Was at the Heart of Victor Borge's Many Talents", Boston Globe, 29 December 2000

Ernest Thayer photo
Umberto Eco photo
Rufus Wainwright photo
Roberto Clemente photo

“These were great fans when I first play here, and they are still great. These fans never boo. They become frustrated because the Dodgers used to bring up some of the better minor-league players from here, but they never boo. Now, they are happy to have a big league team, and they are willing to wait five years, like the Mets' fans did, for the team to begin winning. But the thing that amazes me more than the players not being booed is the umpires. They never hear it from the fans, either, no matter if it does seem to be a bad call.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

On revisiting Montreal, 15 years later; as quoted in "Sports Beat: Expo Fans OK -- Clemente" https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Mc8yAAAAIBAJ&sjid=DZYEAAAAIBAJ&pg=7275%2C865101 by Bill Christine, in The Pittsburgh Press (Friday, July 18, 1969), p. 22
Baseball-related, <big><big>1960s</big></big>, <big>1969</big>

Boutros Boutros-Ghali photo
Russ Feingold photo

“I strongly disagree with the President's characterization today of NAFTA as a "success", and with his call on Congress to pass CAFTA this year. These comments are out of touch with American businesses and workers who have been forced to compete on an uneven playing field for years under bad deals like NAFTA.”

Russ Feingold (1953) Wisconsin politician; three-term U.S. Senator

[U.S. Senator Russ Feingold On the President's Remarks Today Regarding Trade (press release), http://feingold.senate.gov/~feingold/statements/05/03/2005323A53.html, feingold.senate.gov, 20 August 2018, https://web.archive.org/web/20080412072321/http://feingold.senate.gov/~feingold/statements/05/03/2005323A53.html, April 12, 2008, March 23, 2005]
2005

Beck photo
Louis-ferdinand Céline photo

“I clearly see you a tapeworm, but not a cobra, not a cobra at all…no good at the flute! (…) I’ll go applaud you when you finally become a true monster, when you’ll have paid them, the witches, what you have to, their price, so they transmute you, blossom you, into a true phenomenon. Into a tapeworm that plays the flute.”

Louis-ferdinand Céline (1894–1961) French writer

To the Fidgeting Lunatic
in Albert Paraz, Le Gala des Vaches, Éditions de l’Élan, Paris, 1948 ; À l'agité du bocal, et autres textes de L.-F. Céline, l'Herne / Carnets de l'Herne ISBN 9782851976567 2006, 85 p. ; To the Fidgeting Lunatic (Céline on Sartre), translation by Constantin Rigas.

William Saroyan photo

“Genius is play, and man's capacity for achieving genius is infinite, and many may achieve genius only through play.”

William Saroyan (1908–1981) American writer

Three Times Three (1936)

Lionel Richie photo
John Armstrong photo
Edward O. Wilson photo
Donald Barthelme photo
Achille Starace photo
Jay Leno photo

“[about the Chicago Cubs being swept by the L. A. Dodgers in the 2008 NLDS]: How about next year, we only let the Cubs play using steroids?”

Jay Leno (1950) American comedian, actor, writer, producer, voice actor and television host

Monologue, 7 October, 2008
The Tonight Show

Roberto Clemente photo

“If a woman has her PhD in physics, has mastered quantum theory, plays flawless Chopin, was once a cheerleader, and is now married to a man who plays baseball, she will forever be "former cheerleader married to star athlete."”

Maryanne Ellison Simmons (1949) American printmaker

The Waiting Room http://books.google.com/books?id=rhzwAAAAMAAJ&q=%22If+a+woman+has+her+Ph+D+in+physics+has+mastered+quantum+theory+plays+flawless+Chopin+was+once+a+cheerleader+and+is+now+married+to+a+man+who+plays+baseball+she+will+forever+be+former+cheerleader+married+to+star+athlete%22&pg=PA24#v=onepage magazine (May 1982)

Daniel Radcliffe photo
Edgar Rice Burroughs photo
Harry Dean Stanton photo

“I play myself all the time… on camera and off. What else can I do?”

Harry Dean Stanton (1926–2017) American actor, musician, and singer

HBO: Big Love - Interviews - Harry Dean Stanton http://www.hbo.com/biglove/interviews/harry_dean_stanton.html

Amy Lowell photo
Mickey Spillane photo

“I always wanted to have Mike Mazurki play Hammer… too bad he couldn't act.”

Mickey Spillane (1918–2006) American writer

Crime Time interview (2001)

Sarah Kofman photo
Joan Robinson photo

“But once we bring historical time into the argument, it is not so easy to present the free play of the market as an ideal mechanism for maximizingwelfare and securing social justice.”

Joan Robinson (1903–1983) English economist

Source: Economic Heresies (1971), Chapter IV, Increasing and Diminishing Returns, p. 63

Angelique Rockas photo
Dean Acheson photo
Danish Kaneria photo

“Those who are excluded from meaningful work are, by and large, excluded from meaningful play.”

David Riesman (1909–2002) American Sociologist

“The Themes of Work and Play,” p. 333
Individualism Reconsidered (1954)

Norbert Wiener photo
Clarence Thomas photo
Bryan Adams photo
V. V. S. Laxman photo

“Watch him. But don't try to imitate. Only VVS can play them.”

V. V. S. Laxman (1974) former Indian cricketer

Source: John Wright to young batsman on VVS Laxman. http://www.scrolldroll.com/quotes-about-vvs-laxman-that-show-he-is-truly-very-very-special/

Muhammad Iqbál photo

“Would we have played with our lives for nothing but worldly gain?
If our people had run after earth's goods and gold,
Need they have smashed idols, and not idols sold?…
Fake gods that men had made, who did break and shatter?
Who routed infidel armies and destroyed them with bloody slaughter?
Who put out and made cold the sacred flame in Iran?”

Muhammad Iqbál (1877–1938) Urdu poet and leader of the Pakistan Movement

Shikwa. https://archive.org/details/ShikwaJawabIShikwaIqbalsDialogueWithAllahTrKhushwantSinghIqbal
Shikwa & Jawab Shikwa : The complaint and the answer : the human grievance and the divine response

John Ogilby photo
Oscar Levant photo

“An epigram is only a wisecrack that's played at Carnegie Hall.”

Oscar Levant (1906–1972) American comedian, composer, pianist and actor

As quoted in Coronet Magazine (September 1968).

Erwin Schrödinger photo
James Braid photo
Isaac Leib Peretz photo

“Youth is fair, a graceful stag,
Leaping, playing in a park.
Age is gray, a toothless hag,
Stumbling in the dark.”

Isaac Leib Peretz (1852–1915) Yiddish language author and playwright

Sewing the Wedding Gown, 1906. Nine One-Act Plays from Yiddish. Translated by Bessie F. White, Boston, John W. Luce & Co., 1932, p. 127.

Laisenia Qarase photo

“WTO (the World Trade Organization) is trying to impose equality of trade in an unequal world, but for developing countries like Fiji there is no level playing field, just a slippery slope.”

Laisenia Qarase (1941) Prime Minister of Fiji

Address to the 18th Australia-Fiji Business Forum, Shangri-La Fijian Resort, Sydney, Australia, 17 October 2005 (excerpts)

“You can play the piano with the white keys only or you can play it with only the black keys. But for harmony you must use the black and the white keys.”

Ernest Debrah (1947–2016) Ghanian politician

On the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), in Will Ross, " Africans wary of Europe's trade offer http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7134407.stm", BBC (8 December, 2007).

Larry Niven photo
Buckminster Fuller photo
Béla Lugosi photo
Roger Manganelli photo
Anatoliy Tymoshchuk photo

“I told Robben, that Ukraine will play Holland in the Euro-2012 final, and that they don't stand a chance”

Anatoliy Tymoshchuk (1979) Ukrainian footballer

http://www.sports.ru/football/139897638.html] (2012)

Maggie Stiefvater photo
Henri of Luxembourg photo

“Each of us, within the limits of our resources, is set to be an actor, in having a lead role in one's own life, but above all by committing to others…a profound truth [is] that everyone has a role to play in society beyond their own fate.”

Henri of Luxembourg (1955) Grand Duke (head of state) of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg

Jidderee vun eis ass, an der Mooss vun sengen Mëttelen, dozou opgeruff selwer Akteur ze sinn, an dem e säi Liewen an d’Hand hëlt, mee och an dem en sech fir déi aner engagéiert...eng profund Wourecht, an zwar dass Jiddereen an der Gesellschaft eng Roll ze spillen huet, déi säin eegent Schicksal iwwertrëfft.
Christmas message http://www.monarchie.lu/fr/actualites/discours/2014/12/discours-noel-lu/index.html (25 December 2014)
Society

Helen Hayes photo
Rhodri Morgan photo

“Therefore, the only thing that is not up for grabs is no change. It is fair to say that it is all to play for, except in ruling out no change.”

Rhodri Morgan (1939–2017) British politician

Record of Proceedings http://www.wales.gov.uk/cms/2/ChamberSession/380313AC00046B17000028C300000000/N0000000000000000000000000037726.html#_Toc120595420, National Assembly for Wales, 15 November 2005.
Morgan won the "Foot in Mouth" award for a second time for this statement, which refers to changes in policing arrangements in Wales.

Robin Williams photo

“Thank you. How-DY! Whoops, wrong opera house. How do you like the play, Mr. Lincoln? Duck!”

Robin Williams (1951–2014) American actor and stand-up comedian

A Night at the Met (1986)