Quotes about player
page 2

“Multiculturalists encourage vagueness about 'contributions' to give the impression of equal participation, as in the 'new age' school sports where every player in the team must handle the ball before a goal can be scored. If one were to compose a more precise ethnic history it would read something like this: The English, Irish and Scots were the founding population; they and their children established the Australian nation.”

John Hirst (1942–2016) Australian historian

Sense and Nonsense in Australian History (2005)

Children, Age, School, History

“A writer who denies the need for structure in his work is like a squash player who claims his brilliance removes the need for a wall.”

David Baboulene (1960) UK author

The Story Book (2010)

“Blackjack does possess a memory (the interdependence of the cards) and a conscience (inferior play will inevitably be penalized) and is not democratic (the mental agility and retentiveness of the player are significant factors).”

Richard Arnold Epstein (1927) American physicist

Source: The Theory of Gambling and Statistical Logic (Revised Edition) 1977, Chapter Seven, Blackjack, p. 215

Memory

“I had a great time, and I always took care of my body. That's the thing some players don't. For a goalie, there's no reason he can't play until he's 40 if he takes care of himself. The reflexes are still there.”

Tony Esposito (1943) American ice hockey goaltender

Quoted in Andrew Podnieks, "One on One with Tony Esposito," http://www.legendsofhockey.net/html/spot_oneononep198801.htm Legends of Hockey.net (2002-03-04) Esposito comments on his NHL career.

Time

“I would like to be remembered as a player who gave all he had to give. I am no idol, but America needs idols. And don't talk 'Latin America' to me because I was born in Puerto Rico and that is America.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

As quoted in "Roberto Clemente, The Pirates' Thorobred
Other, <big><big>1970s</big></big>, <big>1971</big>

“Oh, hello," Dr. M says, shaking Balder's hand. "Wonderful costume. I'm a bit of a role player myself on the weekends. Tell me, where did you get the helmet?"
"It was forged in the North, blessed by the hands of Odin, given to me by my mother, Frigg," Balder answers.
"Lovely. I got mine on the Internet.”

Libba Bray Going Bovine

Source: Going Bovine (2009), p. 318

Love

“You know, Nellie, when I was young I would run on fly balls hit to the outfield. I'd go around second base and I suddenly realize the ball is going to be caught. Sometimes I would run across the infield and never re-touch second base. Sometimes the umpires wouldn't notice if the players wouldn't. I didn't know how to run the bases well the first couple of years.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

Speaking with Nellie King in 1967 or later; as quoted by King in "Frustration in the Fifties" https://books.google.com/books?id=03XsO25A3I8C&pg=PA60&dq=%22As+Nellie+King+recalls,+Clemente+occasionally%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi63oCQjcfNAhWEOyYKHUvbBrMQ6AEIFDAA#v=onepage&q&f=false, from Roberto Clemente: The Great One (1998) by Bruce Markusen, pp. 60-61 Baseball-related, <big><big>1960s</big></big>, <big>1967</big>

Flying

“My business strategy is either to be geographically focused with lots of businesses or you can be a global player in selected businesses. Since I chose the route of being global, that is where I am going. You have to be competitive. It’s a matter of choice.”

Sukanto Tanoto (1949) Indonesian businessman

Globe Asia Interview, Sep, 2015. http://www.inside-rge.com/Sukanto-Tanoto-Resource-King-GlobeAsia 2015

Business

“A thorough understanding of game theory, should dim these greedy hopes. Knowledge of game theory does not make one a better card player, businessman or military strategist.”

Anatol Rapoport (1911–2007) Russian-born American mathematical psychologist

Source: 1960s, "The Use and Misuse of Game Theory," 1962, p. 108

Hope, Game, Understanding, Knowledge

“Every now and then, when you're onstage, you hear the best sound a player can hear. It's a sound you can't get in movies or in television. It is the sound of a wonderful, deep silence that means you've hit them where they live.”

Shelley Winters (1920–2006) actress

Theatre Arts magazine, June 1956 http://books.google.com/books?id=9ENNAAAAYAAJ

Silence

“I have won several prizes as the world’s slowest alto player, as well as a special award in 1961 for quietness.”

Paul Desmond (1924–1977) American jazz musician

Unsourced

World

“[another part / version of Whistler's lecture:]
Nature contains the elements, in colour and form, of all pictures, as the keyboard contains the notes of all music. But the artist is born to pick, and choose, and group with science, these elements, that the result may be beautiful—as the musician gathers his notes, and forms his chords, until he bring forth from chaos glorious harmony. To say to the painter, that Nature is to be taken as she is, is to say to the player, that he may sit on the piano. That Nature is always right, is an assertion, artistically, as untrue, as it is one whose truth is universally taken for granted. Nature is very rarely right, to such an extent even, that it might almost be said that Nature is usually wrong: that is to say, the condition of things that shall bring about the perfection of harmony worthy a picture is rare, and not common at all.”

James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903) American-born, British-based artist

1870 - 1903, his lecture 'Ten O'Clock' (1885)
Source: James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903), Weinberg, H. Barbara, 'Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History'. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/whis/hd_whis.htm (April 2010)

Truth, Beauty, Music, Nature

“Genes are a play within a play, not the interior monologue of the players.”

Steven Pinker book How the Mind Works

Source: How the Mind Works (1997), p. 44

“Wilt had to fight people's dissatisfaction that his teams didn't win. There he was, this great dominating player, and his teams didn't win championships. Well, Wilt wasn't playing for the right team. As an individual, he was in a class by himself, but his teammates--they were OK, but not the supporting cast Russell had.”

Wilt Chamberlain (1936–1999) basketball player

citation needed
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on Chamberlain

People, Support, Fight

“The only thing as bad as bad comedy is bad action. Bad Boys II has plenty of both. In fact, those two things are all it has, unless you count the small helping of bad drama. When it comes to this movie, the word "bad" initially seems highly appropriate. But Bad Boys II isn't just bad — it's a catastrophic violation of every aspect of cinema that I as a film critic hold dear. It seems to have been constructed with terms like "unwatchable" and "godawful" as its slogans. There are motion picture failures every year — the resumes of Hollywood players are littered with them. But, when something this big — a would-be blockbuster with recognizable names in the cast and crew — collapses in such a spectacular fashion, it's worth taking note. Think of how many starving children could have been fed with the money that was poured into [director] Michael Bay's latest sinkhole.”

James Berardinelli (1967) American film critic

Review http://www.reelviews.net/php_review_template.php?identifier=293 of Bad Boys II (2002). Half-star reviews

Money, Children, Boy, Fashion

“4-5-1? Never. It was always 4-3-3 for me as a player and as manager, just like [Frank] Rijkaard at Barcelona. With 4-3-3, it's much easier to make combinations going forward. With only one forward, who is he going to pass to? Who is he going to make combinations with? Football is about having the best offensive play possible. I always like to play offensive football and nobody will convince me otherwise.”

Johan Cruyff (1947–2016) Dutch association football player

In an interview with Lawrence Donegan of The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/football/2005/oct/01/sport.comment6 (1 October 2005).

Football

“T. O., he's a phenomenal player and a good leader. A lot of people in the media try to make him to be a bad guy, which he's really not. He's a team player. He works hard.”

Terrell Owens (1973) former American football wide receiver

Alonzo Ephraim — reported in Alex Marvez (November 11, 2005) "Ephraim Says Owens Was A Good Teammate", South Florida Sun-Sentinel, p. 7C.
About

People, Guy

“Baseball players have to go in front of a grand jury and say, "Yeah, I did cocaine. Can you blame me? It's a slow goddamn game! Come on Jack! Standing out in left field for seven innings, and there's a long white line going down to home plate! I see the guy putting it out going "Heh heh heh heh!!!!" And that damn organ music too, the whole [does intro to "Charge!"]! Third base coach is always doing this…[wiping nose, fidgeting around]. When he's doing that, I don't know whether to slide or do a line! People sliding into home plate head first, umpire goes, "You're out!"”

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

"No, baby, I'm up now! Ha ha ha!"
A Night at the Met (1986)

People, Music, Guy, Home

“That was top football. It was all one touch, the ball was perfect into the player they were passing to and the first time finish with his right foot was great. Our philosophy is to play football like that and get the ball down and play fast one or two touch football.”

Aaron Ramsey (1990) Welsh association football player

(Published 20 October 2013 on the Arsenal Website http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/ramsey-it-was-breathtaking-at-times) Ramsey (EPL Player of the Month in September 2013) praising teammate Jack Wilshere's sublime 18th minute opener in a breathtaking 4-1 win over Norwich City at the Emirates Stadium. Newcomer Mesut Özil scored a brace while a wonderful individual effort from Rambo himself, coming on as a 38th minute substitute for the concussed Mathieu Flamini, saw the Gunners return to the top of the Premier League in October 2013

Time, Football, Perfection

“He's obviously a dynamic player that you have to pay attention to when he's out there.”

Alexander Ovechkin (1985) Russian ice hockey player

Mike Sullivan, interview in Agence France-Presse staff (April 11, 2006) "NHL Rookie Ovechkin reaches 100 point milestone", Agence France-Presse.
About

“Game theory is a theory of strategic interaction. That is to say, it is a theory of rational behavior in social situations in which each player has to choose his moves on the basis of what he thinks the other players’ countermoves are likely to be.”

John Harsanyi (1920–2000) hungarian economist

Source: "Games with Incomplete Information," 1997, p. 136

Behavior, Game, Thinking

“The judge smiled. Men are born for games. Nothing else. Every child knows that play is nobler than work. He knows too that the worth or merit of a game is not inherent in the game itself but rather in the value of that which is put at hazard. Games of chance require a wager to have meaning at all. Games of sport involve the skill and strength of the opponents and the humiliation of defeat and the pride of victory are in themselves sufficient stake because they inhere in the worth of the principals and define them. But the trial of chance or trial of worth all games aspire to the condition of war for here that which is wagered swallows up game, player, all.”

Cormac McCarthy book Blood Meridian

Blood Meridian (1985)

Men, War, Smile, Game

“To see his boxscore lines … is to have no idea that the Indians center fielder might very well be the angriest player in baseball.”

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

ESPN, Bradley knows only one way — the hard way, Alan Schwarz, July 10, 2003, 2009-01-04 http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/print?id=1574709&type=story, About

Idea

“Good to the heels the well-worn slipper feels
When the tired player shuffles off the buskin;
A page of Hood may do a fellow good
After a scolding from Carlyle or Ruskin.”

Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809–1894) Poet, essayist, physician

How not to settle it; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

Feeling

“I’d very much like to wake up one morning with a cow of the Friesian variety and walk her down to Soho to the Coach and Horses, stopping on the way to buy twenty Players, ply her with vodkas until closing time, whip her off to an Indian restaurant, take her up to the Colony Room till 5.30 and then to the Yorkminster, Swiss Tavern, Three Greyhounds, get beaten up by Chinese waiters at midnight, have a row with the taxi driver, set the bed on fire, put it out with tears and then wake up on the floor. Could you then milk said cow? I doubt it.”

Jeffrey Bernard (1932–1997) British journalist

Ibid. [when?]

Way, Tear, Time, Horse

“(In response to the question; "What are you going to tell a ten year old who wants to play guitar?") For me that's easy; when you expect anything from music, you expect too much. So you play for yourself, you play to enjoy it and you make the most of it for you, period. You don't - I never thought I would be doing this now. I feel so lucky to be doing this now - I can't believe this is what I do all the time. I know I'm not the greatest guitar player in the world, but I just love it. And I hope that's the only reason I'm here, you know? Because I think - I honestly think that that's enough.”

Josh Homme (1973) American musician

" Josh Homme - Guitar Moves - Episode 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJDUHq2mJx0" Noisey (May 29, 2013)

Love, World, Hope, Music

“On the trip to Russia with the Harlem Globetrotters, we were in Lenin Stadium, and they assigned a dressing room to the team. The players were getting dressed for one of their games. They were in rather close quarters. Remember, these were young kids-Wilt was 23. The others were his age. They were like kittens. You bump me, i'll bump you back. And before you know it, two of the guys set on Wilt. They started playfully pushing and shoving him. And finally one of his teammates hit Wilt a little too hard. He took these two guys, twisted each of their shirts, and lifted both of them off the ground. Each of these guys weighed over 200 pounds. It looked like he had two little crackers in his hands. I thought he was going to hit their heads together. It was an amazing demonstration of strength.”

Wilt Chamberlain (1936–1999) basketball player

Dr. Stan Lorber, team doctor on the Globetrotters' Russian trip
Strength

Age, Guy, Game

“The players will have each other's backs, and if you take a swipe at one of ours, we'll take a swipe at two of yours.”

Rex Ryan (1962) American football coach

[Jets welcome Ryan to New York, http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3848743, ESPN, Associated Press, January 22, 2009, http://www.webcitation.org/5x46uk5jD, March 9, 2011, March 9, 2011]

“Struggling to stay ahead of your rivals? No need. Instead of trying to match or beat them on cost or quality, make the other players irrelevant--by staking out new market space where competitors haven't ventured.”

W. Chan Kim (1951) South Korean economist

Kim, W. Chan, and Renée Mauborgne. "Value innovation." Harvard Business Review, January 1997 (2008).

“Take me. I'm an ordinary player in the key of C.
And my will was broken by my pride and my vanity.
Who's gonna love you when you're looks are gone?
God will. Like he waters the flowers on your window sill.”

Paul Simon (1941) American musician, songwriter and producer

Outrageous
Song lyrics, Surprise (2006)

Love, God, Flowers, Water

“When I was young, I never bought records because my brother Joseph played saxophone and had a record player. I loved listening to his records: The Dorsey Brothers, Duke Ellington, all the big American jazz bands, and vocalists like Ella Fitzgerald, Ernestine Anderson, and Kitty White, a singer from the US who was a friend of Nina Simone. Nobody in America seems to know about her, but she was quite popular in South Africa.”

Miriam Makeba (1932–2008) South African singer and civil rights activist

As quoted in Poet, J. (11 February 2009)

Love

“I was playing drums, and I had broken my wrist very bad playing football, and the bass player in the band… he wanted to split. So I just went to the bass; I went from Drums over to Bass. That was it. I was playing the bass within a week.”

Jaco Pastorius (1951–1987) Musician, producer, educator

On how he switched from drums to bass
Modern Electric Bass, Jaco Pastorius (1985)

Football

“Willie Mays is the greatest ball player I've ever seen. I never saw Joe DiMaggio play, but if Joe DiMaggio was better than Willie Mays, he belongs in Heaven.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

Roberto Clemente, as quoted in "For Clemente After 3,000ː Saturday Cheers Linger" https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=XOANAAAAIBAJ&sjid=u2wDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4491%2C127814 by Charley Feeney, in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Monday, October 2, 1972), p. 24 Baseball-related, <big><big>1970s</big></big>, <big>1972</big>

“The theory of games was first formalised by Von Neumann & Morgenstern (1953) in reference to human economic behaviour. Since that time, the theory has undergone extensive development… Sensibly enough, a central assumption of classical game theory is that the players will behave rationally, and according to some criterion of self-interest. Such an assumption would clearly be out of place in an evolutionary context. Instead, the criterion of rationality is replaced by that of population dynamics and stability, and the criterion of self-interest by Darwinian fitness.”

John Maynard Smith book Evolution and the Theory of Games

Source: Evolution and the Theory of Games (1973), p. 1-2.

Game, Time

“To acquire a reputation of being a dashing player at the cost of losing a game.”

Siegbert Tarrasch (1862–1934) German chess player, chess writer, and chess theoretician

Response to a question as to What was the object of playing a gambit opening, as quoted in The Treasury of Chess Lore (1959) by Fred Reinfeld

Game

“Gambling was the place where statistics and profound human consequences met most nakedly, after all, and cards, even more than dice or the numbers on a roulette wheel, seemed able to define and perhaps even dictate a player’s…luck.”

Tim Powers book Last Call

Source: Last Call (1992), Chapter 8 (p. 79)

“Unlike any other player on the board, the press has no oversight, no mandate, few penalties, and even fewer consequences. Because there are not enough reporters on the ground, too many bureaus have outsourced both their reporting and standards to third party stringers whose spectacular videos of explosions and inflated body counts have shown up on both jihadist recruiting sites and American television screens, simultaneously.”

Matt Sanchez (1970) writer, journalist

[Kelly, Jack, Tale of two atrocities: Iraq reporting rife with errors, Bucks County Courier Times, A5, July 6, 2007]

Penalty

“He knocked the chess set off his desk, screaming at me, “You’re not a stupid Mexican! You’re just lazy! I’m one of the best chess players in all Carlsbad and you treat me with no respect!” I was shocked. All my life I’d been called stupid because I was Mexican, not because I was lazy. This was really good.”

Victor Villaseñor (1940) American writer

Crazy Loco Love: A Memoir (2008)

Life, Stupidity

“Like my friend is saying the fans are saying that. No, the fans are saying "Louis Van Gaal's army! Louis Van Gaal's army!" So also the fans are satisfied with Louis Van Gaal and my players are also satisfied with me”

Louis van Gaal (1951) Dutch footballer and manager

Manchester United F.C.

“[make drawings of] series of instruments and players; their shapes, twisting of the hands, arms and neck of the violinist; for example, puffing out and hollowing of the cheeks of bassoonists, oboists, etc..”

Edgar Degas (1834–1917) French artist

Quote from Degas' Notebook (undated); as quoted in Impressionism: A Centenary Exhibition, Anne Distel, Michel Hoog, Charles S. Moffett, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, (New York, N.Y.) 1975, pp. 81-82
quotes, undated

Drawing

“He's a great player. Everybody knows that. He's a very dangerous player, but if you limit his speed and time to make plays it's tough for anybody. It wasn't just me, it was the whole team playing well defensively against that line.”

Alexander Ovechkin (1985) Russian ice hockey player

Zdeno Chara, interview in Rich Thompson (January 4, 2008) "Chara keeps star under wraps", Boston Herald.
About

Time, Speed

“MS Dhoni knew what to do. His plans showed that he was at the top of his game. Also, the commitment of the players was there to see as they tried to get India out of a sticky situation.”

Sunil Gavaskar (1949) Indian cricket player.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni was lauded for his coolness and his captaincy after India clung on for a one-run win over Bangladesh in the World Twenty20, quoted on Indian Express, "India vs Bangladesh: MS Dhoni knew what to do, says Sunil Gavaskar" http://indianexpress.com/article/sports/cricket/india-vs-bangladesh-ms-dhoni-praised-after-1-run-win-against-bangladesh/, March 25, 2016.

Game

“Since Sputnik and the satellites, the planet is enclosed in a manmade environment that ends "Nature" and turns the globe into a repertory theater to be programmed. Shakespeare at the Globe mentioning "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players" (As You Like It, Act II, Scene 7) has been justified by recent events in ways that would have struck him as entirely paradoxical. The results of living inside a proscenium arch of satellites is that the young now accept the public spaces of the earth as role-playing areas. Sensing this, they adopt costumes and roles and are ready to "do their thing" everywhere."”

Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980) Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar-- a professor of English literature, a literary critic, and a …

Source: 1970s, From Cliché to Archetype (1970), p.9-10

Women, Men, World, Way

“There is an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his tiger's heart wrapped in a player's hide supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you: and being an absolute Johannes Factotum, is in his own conceit the only Shake-scene in a country.”

Robert Greene (dramatist) (1558–1592) English author

Groatsworth of Wit; cited from William Shakespeare (ed. Stephen Orgel and A. R. Braunmuller) The Complete Works (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2002) p. xlvii.
Probably the earliest reference to Shakespeare as a figure in the theatrical world.

Heart, Country

“Ronaldinho is a special player, but Thierry Henry is probably technically the most gifted footballer ever to play the beautiful game.”

Thierry Henry (1977) French association football player

Zinedine Zidane http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/jan/16/thierry-henry-sky-sports-pundit-playaer About

Beauty, Game, Football

“People that are uptight about the kiss on the magazine are the same people that are gonna be watching macho football players in tight pants wrestle around and slap each other on the butt and think it's the all russian macho thing to do.”

Flea (musician) (1962) American musician

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnDGPVEo5q0&feature=related

People, Kiss, Thinking, Football

“He never asks the orchestra to do anything which contradicts the players' feeling of what the music signifies or what the printed notes of the score actually mean in plain musical language. To his credit he does not pretend to omniscience. When a certain progression of programs with the Philharmonic decreed that he conduct the Brahms Fourth Symphony two seasons ago, he disavowed intensive rehearsals with the simple statement to the orchestra: "Gentlemen, you know the work better than I do." Both the compliment and the attitude endeared themselves so much to the orchestra that they literally forgot themselves in a mass effort to justify his statement—and, as one of those who heard the performance, I can testify that they delivered one of the most powerful and integrated interpretations of the score that New York has experienced in years.”

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

On conductor George Enescu, in "Music in Aspic," Harper's Magazine (October 1939) and A Smattering of Ignorance (1940); as quoted in "Lightning Wit Plays On American Musical Scene; Oscar Levant Answers Unspoken Request for 'Information, Please' With Uncensored Comments on Exalted Persons" by Ray C. B. Brown, in The Washington Post (January 14, 1940), p. E4

Music, Feeling, Effort, Season

“It is shocking, It is quite obvious that security of the Sri Lankan players has been hopelessly inadequate. We condemn the shooting and we hope that players like Samaraweera and Mendis are safe and will recover.”

P. Chidambaram (1945) Indian politician

Security of Sri Lankan players hopelessly inadequate: Chidambaram, 3 March 2009, Times of India, Times of India, 3 March 2009, http://web.archive.org/20090306175548/timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Security-of-Sri-Lankan-players-hopelessly-inadequate-Chidambaram/articleshow/4216798.cms?, 6 March 2009 http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Security-of-Sri-Lankan-players-hopelessly-inadequate-Chidambaram/articleshow/4216798.cms,

Hope

“Baseball skill relates inversely to age. The older a man gets, the better a ball player he was when young, according to the watery eye of memory.”

Roger Kahn (1927–2020) American baseball writer

Source: The Boys Of Summer, Chapter 1, The Trolley Car That Ran By Ebbets Field, p. 10

Age, Memory

“This is a James Taylor moment and we are stuck with a piano player who wants to sound like Enya and a southern funk band that, somewhere along the line, fell into thinking Alabama is a sweet place to call home.”

Donald Miller (1971) American writer

Prayer and the Art of Volkswagen Maintenance (2000, Harvest House Publishers)

Home, Thinking

“I have three dogs, and to see some of the videos or go online and research how animals are treated for fur, the cruelty is worse than torture. I think it’s right that NFL players—with the platform that we have—can [spread] awareness that animals have lives and souls and they go through pain and suffering just as humans do, and they need to be treated accordingly. A lot of people think [that] wearing a fur is expensive, but you don’t know how expensive it is—lives are priceless. … Protecting animals is definitely something that in America we need to step up and do a better job of.”

Maurice Jones-Drew (1985) All-American college football player, professional football player, running back, kick returner

"NFL Star Maurice Jones-Drew Chooses 'Ink, Not Mink'" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0qJ0k8gaxg, video interview with PETA (5 November 2013).

Pain, People, Dogs, Soul

“The players in a game are said to be in strategic equilibrium (or simply equilibrium) when their play is mutually optimal: when the actions and plans of each player are rational in the given strategic environment – i. e., when each knows the actions and plans of the others.”

Robert Aumann (1930) Israeli-American mathematician

Source: War and peace (2005), p. 4

Game, Optimism

“Global economic competition is a game of unequal players … Consequently, it is only fair that we 'tilt the playing field' in favour of the weaker countries. In practice, this means allowing them to protect and subsidize their producers more vigorously and to put stricter regulations on foreign investment. These countries should also be allowed to protect intellectual property rights less stringently so that they can more actively 'borrow' ideas from more advanced countries.”

Ha-Joon Chang book Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism

Source: Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism (2008), Ch. 9, Tilting the playing field, p. 219

Game, Idea, Country

“I like my players to be married and in debt. That's the way you motivate them.”

Ernie Banks (1931–2015) American baseball player and coach

The New York Times (April 11, 1976).

Way, Motivation

“Mistrust is the most necessary characteristic of the Chess player.”

Siegbert Tarrasch book The Game of Chess

The Game of Chess (1931), Pt. 2 : The End Game, p. 79

“You ask me: 'Was he a fair player?' I say: 'No, I'm sorry, for me he was not a fair player.' I just think I respect him highly as a quality player. I did not like some things he did on the football pitch and I have the right to say that. It's not because you are older, suddenly, that you are a saint.”

Arsène Wenger (1949) French footballer and manager

On Paul Scholes, (August 2010) http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/aug/21/paul-scholes-unfair-arsene-wenger

Thinking, Football

“If one or two do go out, hopefully the players we get in will be better players.”

Phil Brown (footballer) (1959) English association football player and manager

4-Jan-2006, teamtalk.com
After the transfer window opened, PB made an obvious but worrying statement.

“Chess-players are so unsociable, they are no company for any but themselves.”

Anne Brontë book The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Source: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848), Ch. XXXIII : Two Evenings; Helen to Walter

“Most of the network related programming in games has to do with providing a good interactive experience when playing over the internet. This matter is very different from serving web pages. The primary concern there is to handle connection latency, latency fluctuations, packet loss and bandwidth limitations, and pretty much hide all of that from the player's experience.”

Timothee Besset French software programmer

Quoted in Brian Boyko, "ID Software Developer Timothee Besset on Network Performance in Games" http://www.networkperformancedaily.com/2007/01/id_software_developer_timothee.html Network Performance Daily (2007-01-29).

Game, Loss

“"Bergkamp. He had the finest technique [of all Dutch players]." — Guus Hiddink”

Dennis Bergkamp (1969) Dutch footballer

About

“He's like a PlayStation. I think he can take advantage of every mistake you make. Barcelona are a very good side but of course they have Messi who can make the difference at any moment in the game. He is very young but he can achieve a lot. There are not many players who can score four goals like he did. He has six or seven great years ahead of him and he can become unbelievable.”

Arsène Wenger (1949) French footballer and manager

On Lionel Messi, (7 April 2010) http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/apr/07/barcelona-arsenal-lionel-messi

Game, Thinking

“You can't just stand and say to yourself, 'OK, right now I'm the best. That's it. No more working.' If you're a good player you have to be working harder and harder. This is not just my goal, it's my team goal. We can improve more and we can probably be even better than last year. My dream is to be the best.”

Alexander Ovechkin (1985) Russian ice hockey player

Helene Elliott (October 16, 2008) "Ovechkin Is Good for NHL, Bad for Opposing Goalies", Los Angeles Times.

Dreams

“All my staff stood by me, the players stood by me, you stood by me, and your job now is to stand by our new manager. That’s important. My retirement doesn’t mean the end of my time at the club. I’ll now be able to enjoy watching them, rather than suffering with them. But, if you think about it, the last-minute goals, the comebacks, even the defeats, are all part of this great football club of ours. It’s been an unbelievable experience for all of us, so thank-you for that. I want to say thank-you to Manchester United. Not just the directors, coaching staff, medical staff, the players, the fans, but to all of you - you have been the most fantastic experience of my life. I’ve been very fortunate. I have been able to manage some of the greatest players in the country, let alone Manchester United. All the players here today have represented this club the proper way. They won the championship in a fantastic fashion, so well done to the players. To the players, I wish them every success in the future. You all know how good you are, you know the jersey you are wearing, you know what it means to everyone here and don’t ever let yourselves down.”

Alex Ferguson (1941) Scottish footballer and manager

Daily Mirror (12 May 2013) http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/manchester-united-manager-sir-alex-1885487].

Life, Way, Fashion, Thinking

“Let us assume that we invited an unknown person to a game of cards. If this person answered us, “I don’t play,” we would either interpret this to mean that he did not understand the game, or that he had an aversion to it which arose from economic, ethical, or other reasons. Let us imagine, however, that an honorable man, who was known to possess every possible skill in the game, and who was well versed in its rules and its forbidden tricks, but who could like a game and participate in it only when it was an innocent pastime, were invited into a company of clever swindlers, who were known as good players and to whom he was equal on both scores, to join them in a game. If he said, “I do not play,” we would have to join him in looking the people with whom he was talking straight in the face, and would be able to supplement his words as follows: “I don’t play, that is, with people such as you, who break the rules of the game, and rob it of its pleasure. If you offer to play a game, our mutual agreement, then, is that we recognize the capriciousness of chance as our master; and you call the science of your nimble fingers chance, and I must accept it as such, it I will, or run the risk of insulting you or choose the shame of imitating you.” … The opinion of Socrates can be summarized in these blunt words, when he said to the Sophists, the leaned men of his time, “I know nothing.””

Johann Georg Hamann (1730–1788) German philosopher

Therefore these words were a thorn in their eyes and a scourge on their backs.
Socratic Memorabilia, J. Flaherty, trans. (Baltimore: 1967), pp. 165-167.

Men, People, Pleasure, Imagination

“I don't believe everything Bill tells me about his players. Had they been that good, they'd not only have won the European Cup but the Ryder Cup, the Boat Race and even the Grand National.”

Jock Stein (1922–1985) Scottish footballer and manager

On Bill Shankly http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/lfc_story/a_quotes.shtml

“In my mind and my heart, I feel like I'm the better player. But I feel like I'm better than anybody who ever played the game, but that's just how it is, that's the only way you can succeed. And in his mind, he (Jackson) feels like he's the better player and the best player who has ever played the position. You have to have that attitude to succeed, but you can't have the ego to the point where you don't understand how him starting and me playing the role helps the team.”

Marshall Faulk (1973) All-American college football player, professional football player, running back, Pro Football Hall of Fame memb…

USA Today 2005-08-02.

Way, Feeling, Game, Understanding

“There's no way to know how good a player you are except by measuring against others.”

Aaron C. Brown (1956) American financial analyst

Source: The Poker Face of Wall Street (2006), Chapter 3, Finance Basics, p. 69

Way

“It should be noted that this duration is considerably longer than we naively expect. If two players with 500 dollars each toss a coin until one is ruined, the average duration of the game is 250,000 trials. If a gambler has only one dollar and his adversary has 1000, the average duration is 1000 trials.”

William Feller (1906–1970) Croatian-American mathematician

Source: An Introduction To Probability Theory And Its Applications (Third Edition), Chapter XIV, Random Walk And Ruin Problems, p. 349.

Game

“I used to always say when I went on the football field, 'You know I'm the best player out here on this field.”

Lawrence Taylor (1959) All-American college football player, professional football player, linebacker, Pro Football Hall of Fame member

Is that being cocky? Maybe it is. Source: Taylor made: 'L.T.' has a date with Canton, destiny http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/nfl/news/1999/08/06/pageone_lawrencetaylor/index.html, sportsillustrated.cnn.com, accessed January 29, 2007.

Football

“I'm out there on my own this season as a ball player. Right now, I don't think the fans care anything about me being a vice-president of the club or what I would do as a manager. That's all out this season. It's the old Babe on the old job—a ball player. It has been the only job I ever knew. It was the only job that put me where I happen to be right now. I'd rather make good as a ball player this season than anything I ever did. I'm not kidding myself. I'm not going to be any Tris Speaker in that outfield. The old dogs are going to do a lot of barking. But they've barked before. And you know—a barking dog seldom bites.”

Babe Ruth (1895–1948) American baseball player

As quoted in "'Never Happier in My Life' Ruth Tells Grantland Rice..."

Dogs, Thinking, Season

“I feel that I am respected. The other top players now realize what I am capable of. There is mutual respect among player at this ATP level, everyone knows the required quality one needs to have to be part of the elite.”

João Sousa (1989) Portuguese tennis player

On the feedback received from other ATP World Tour players. Source: João Sousa: "Partilho com o Nadal o gosto pelo Real Madrid" [Joao Sousa - 'I share with Nadal the fondness for Real Madrid' http://desporto.sapo.pt/mais_modalidades/tenis/artigo/2015/11/07/partilho-com-o-nadal-o-gosto-pelo-real-madrid,, SAPO, Portuguese, 9 November 2015]

Feeling, Parting

“But, their lack of effort today has just astounded me. It really has; you could just get ten people sitting around just to work harder than a lot of these players have worked today. Oh, yeah.”

Steve McManaman (1972) English footballer

2010s, 2014 FIFA World Cup, Brazil v. Germany (2014)

People, Effort

“Things have been invented because of alcohol. Like the taser, okay? Yeah! The morning after pill, okay? The reach-around. Judge Judy. What has pot given the world? Hackey sack? YEAH! Hilarious ring tones? OH GAH! Ultimate Frisbee Championships? It sucks to be a champion at a sport that can't get you laid. It's an unneeded skill like, I dunno, being the best banjo player. Or a squirter.”

Dave Attell (1965) comedian

"Captain Miserable"

Alcohol, World, Sport

“Paul Morphy was the greatest chess player that ever lived. Every student of the game, who has delved into the stories of the past, realizes that no one ever was so far superior to the players of his time, or ever defeated his opponents with such ease, and no one ever offered knight odds to the men who considered themselves his equal.”

Paul Morphy (1837–1884) American chess player

As quoted in Lasker's Chess Magazine
About

Men, Game, Time, Past

“Unlike Rachel, Player One has a complete overview both of the world and of time. Player One’s life is more like a painting than it is a story. Player One can see everything with a glance and can change tenses at will. Player One has ultimate freedom, the ultimate software on the ultimate hardware. That realm is also the one place where Player One feels, for lack of a better word, normal.”

Douglas Coupland book Player One

Player One (2010)

Life, World, Feeling, Freedom

“I would have to say myself, but it would not look good for me to say it. I just have confidence I am the best because I believe in myself. If I had to pick another player, it would be Hank Aaron. He does everything so well.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

As quoted in "The Scoreboard" https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=DsQbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=pU8EAAAAIBAJ&pg=5159%2C3057259&dq=roberto-clemente-recently-asked-best-hank-aaron-everything by Les Biederman, in The Pittsburgh Press (Tuesday, December 26, 1967), p. 40 Baseball-related, <big><big>1960s</big></big>, <big>1967</big>

Confidence

“It’s quite controversial for some, but it’s very human. Everybody remembers it and people love it. It’s not because there’s great combat or there’s insanely complicated gameplay, but it’s because there’s a very interesting story where you have a lot of choice that include tough moral decisions. This causes intrigue into how the story will end and that’s something I’ve always wanted to achieve. Putting people into situations and letting the player experience them, is ideal in my eyes.”

Daniel Vávra (1975) Czech entrepreneur

Kingdom Come: Deliverance, an Interview with Daniel Vávra https://80.lv/articles/kingdom-come-deliverance-an-interview-with-daniel-vavra/ (July 7, 2015)

Love, People, Decision

“If I'm ISIS, I call her (Hillary Clinton) up and I give her the most valuable player award. … And I guarantee you with Libya, which was her baby, and all of the other mistakes she has made. Obama takes now, because obviously, for him, that's the better alternative, all right? But he has been an incompetent president. He has done a horrible job.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

2010s, 2016, August, Speech at rally in Wilmington, North Carolina (August 9, 2016)

Baby

“In soccer, the blindest player is the one who sees nothing but the ball.”

Nélson Rodrigues (1912–1980) Brazilian writer and playwright

"À sombra das chuteiras imortais: crônicas de futebol", de Nelson Rodrigues, Ruy Castro - Publicado por Companhia das Letras, 1993 ISBN 8571643202, 9788571643208 - 197 páginas, Página 102

“I assume most guitar players are like me. They're playing, having fun; then they get a magazine in the mail that says "Shred Is Dead" and they say, "What the Hell?"”

Joe Satriani (1956) American guitar player

They throw it away and keep on playing.
As quoted in "Shred on Arrival" in Guitar World (November 1993).

Hell, Dead

“The new D&D is too rule intensive. It's relegated the Dungeon Master to being an entertainer rather than master of the game. It's done away with the archetypes, focused on nothing but combat and character power, lost the group cooperative aspect, bastardized the class-based system, and resembles a comic-book superheroes game more than a fantasy RPG where a player can play any alignment desired, not just lawful good.”

Gary Gygax (1938–2008) American writer and game designer

GameSpy interview, Pt. 2 (16 August 2004) http://pc.gamespy.com/articles/538/538820p3.html

Books, Law, Game

“I was just a youngster and believed everything everybody told me. The Dodgers told me a big bonus was no good and they said other players would resent it. Better for me to take small amount and work my way use [sic]. So my father signed for me. Next day, the Braves offer me $27, 500 and I say, "Where were you yesterday?" In the workout with the Dodgers, I hit 10 balls over the fence and I go back to 400-foot mark and throw to the plate. The Dodgers hid me as Montreal in 1954 and I seldom played. Maybe the late innings. Once I started and before I could bat in first inning they take me out for pinch-hitter.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

As quoted in "The Scoreboard: Hitting in Daylight" (.411 Vs. .302) Best For Clemente; Roberto 'Feels Good' In Sunshine; Chicago's Wrigley Field His Favorite; Clemente Can Hit to All Field; Pirates Paid Only $4,000 For Him" https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=YGscAAAAIBAJ&sjid=t04EAAAAIBAJ&pg=4128%2C3280138 by Les Biederman, in The Pittsburgh Press (Sunday, March 11, 1962), Sec. 4. p. 3 Baseball-related, <big><big>1960s</big></big>, <big>1962</big>

Way

“A good rugby player is a child, by the way. That's the beauty of it. And that's why I dictate - but only when I know I'm right!”

Danie Craven (1910–1993) South African rugby union player and administrator

Sunday Times interview (1980s)

Beauty, Way

“While it is possible to play a single game, unrelated to any other game events past or future, it is the campaign for which these rules are designed. It is relatively simple to set up a fantasy campaign, and better still, it will cost almost nothing. In fact you will not even need miniature figures, although their occasional employment is recommended for real spectacle when battles are fought. A quick glance at the Equipment section of this booklet will reveal just how little is required. The most extensive requirement is time. The campaign referee will have to have sufficient time to meet the demands of his players, he will have to devote a number of hours to laying out the maps of his "dungeons" and upper terrain before the affair begins.”

Gary Gygax (1938–2008) American writer and game designer

Preface of the Original Dungeons & Dragons, (1 November 1973)

Game, Time, Past, Future

“I think winning the batting championship again (he won the title in 1961) would be my biggest thrill. I put it above the Most Valuable Player award. After all, hundreds of players are trying for the title. If I win, that means I'm best. It also means the first championship I won was no fluke. A lot of people like to say it was. I believe I stand a good chance of winning this year if my weight holds up. Right now I think it will.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

As quoted in "Change of Pace"
Baseball-related, <big><big>1960s</big></big>, <big>1963</big>

People, Thinking, Chance

“I have more respect for this man than any of my previous managers, and I played for Fred Haney, Danny Murtaugh and Bobby Bragan. This fellow makes me feel that he really appreciates what I do. When he has something to tell you, he tells you in front of everybody. You don’t hear it from some newspaperman. I don’t see why people say he has a big mouth. He knows this business real good and he is doing a great job. He works with the players and he gives them more confidence. Matty Alou never did anything until he came to this man. Donn Clendenon is having his best year and also Willie Stargell. And me, too. That is the reason I want to win so bad. I never played with a club that put out 100 percent like this one. If somebody gets down he comes and talks to the others. No matter what happens, we get together and solve everything. I don’t even think we tried this hard to win in 1960 when they won the pennant and the World Series.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

As quoted in "Walker, Clemente Bury Hatchet, Spread Praise" https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=SnQsAAAAIBAJ&sjid=wssEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3539%2C4912308 by the Associated Press, in The Spartanburg Herald (Wednesday, September 28, 1966), p. 12 Baseball-related, <big><big>1960s</big></big>, <big>1966</big>

People, World, Feeling, Confidence

“He must have decided (to retire) during the course of the day. He spoke to me during tea time and said that he has decided to call it quits. It`s the end of an era. A lot of players in the team, I cannot tell you the names, were in tears when he told them his decision. It was an emotional moment for the team and me. He was an extraordinary cricketer, a great role model, not only for the youngsters but also for the future generations.”

Anil Kumble (1970) Former Indian cricketer

By Krishnamachari Srikanth.
Kumble Calls it a Day: Quotes... For and By Kumble...

Decision, Tear, Time, Future

“As a non-Arsenal player I would say Ryan Giggs is my Premier League player of the decade because he has combined style with winning. Also I feel sorry he could never attend the World Cup, somewhere where people get a lot of compliments when they do well.”

Arsène Wenger (1949) French footballer and manager

On Ryan Giggs, (2009) http://www.insideworldsoccer.com/2009/12/ryan-giggs-player-of-decade.html

People, World, Feeling

“The paper develops a new theory for the analysis of games with incomplete information where the players are uncertain about some important parameters of the game situation, such as the payoff functions, the strategies available to various players, the information other players have about the game, etc. However, each player has a subjective probability distribution over the alternative possibilities.
In most of the paper it is assumed that these probability distributions entertained by the different players are mutually "consistent," in the sense that they can be regarded as conditional probability distributions derived from a certain "basic probability distribution" over the parameters unknown to the various players. But later the theory is extended also to cases where the different players' subjective probability distributions fail to satisfy this consistency assumption.”

John Harsanyi (1920–2000) hungarian economist

Source: "Games with Incomplete Information Played by “Bayesian” Players," 1967, p. 159 : Abstract

Game, Sense

“He's a fantastic player. I don't know what else you guys can write about him, but he's the best I've ever played with.”

Alexander Ovechkin (1985) Russian ice hockey player

Olie Kolzig, interview in The Capital staff (March 6, 2008) "March is meaningful for Ovechkin, Capitals", The Capital, Capital-Gazette Newspapers, p. C5.
About

Guy

“Ever since I was a little girl, I felt that I wanted to be of service here on the earth: I felt that was my job somehow. And whatever I was going to do, I was going to find a way to do that. And so, as I got a larger audience -- a broader audience worldwide, and more and more people were listening to me -- it became important for me to share that thought. And the song "Get on Your Feet" -- which I didn't write, it was written actually by my guitar player, bass player and keyboardist... They knew how I felt. [They knew] what my thoughts were... So although it was written before my accident, it was thrown back at me so many times... But that really is my motto. I look always forward. I look ahead. And that's why I chose to record that song, because I really loved the message. Then "Coming Out of the Dark," which came on the heals of that accident and my rehab, and the incredible love that I felt from everyone worldwide that helped me through that difficult moment when I broke my back in 1990, is a big thank you to my fans -- and an expression of how ultimately we are here for each other to help one another. And the strength of prayer... That's why I say I know the love that saved me, you're sharing with me. We do have the power to save one another... And I wanted to thank everyone for being there for me.”

Gloria Estefan (1957) Cuban-American singer-songwriter, actress and divorciada

iTunes interview (released June 2, 2007)
2007

Love, People, Way, Girl

“As Kurt Vonnegut pointed out in his first novel, Player Piano, some people love problem-solving and tinkering—and that is the final, irreducible driver of human history. Wars and faiths and leaders come and go, but the problem-solvers’ slow, steady work is the fulcrum upon which history turns.”

Gregory Benford (1941) Science fiction author and astrophysicist

Afterword to Nooncoming, p. 104
In Alien Flesh (1986)

Love, War, People, Faith

“Did you hear about the high school football coach who got in trouble for letting his players have sex with his wife? How does that work? "Robinson! Get in there!"”

Larry the Cable Guy (1963) American stand-up comedian, actor, country music artist, voice artist

Tailgate Party (2009)

School, Sex, Football

“If you're a singer you lose your voice. A baseball player loses his arm. A writer gets more knowledge, and if he's good, the older he gets, the better he writes.”

Mickey Spillane (1918–2006) American writer

Writers on Writing interview (1986)

Knowledge

“Talking about the definition of the niche, or niche market, I really have the completely opposite opinion. The people the other companies are targeting are very limited to those who are high-tech oriented, and core game players. They cannot expand beyond that population. We are trying to capture the widest possible audience all around the world. In other words, we are trying to capture the people who are even beyond the gaming population. So for that kind of company, we don't think the term 'niche' is appropriate.”

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

Q&A: Video-game industry maverick promises a Revolution, 2007-03-03, Bishop, Todd, 2005-05-20, Seattle Post-Intelligencer http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/225097_e3iwata20.html, In response to Bill Gates' labeling Nintendo as a "niche player" in the seventh generation console wars

People, World, Game, Thinking

“Scotland's long-term prosperity does not depend solely - or even predominantly - on oil and gas. It will also be based on our success in the other industries of the future - sectors such as renewable energy and the life sciences, where we are already a major European player.”

Alex Salmond (1954) Scottish National Party politician and former First Minister of Scotland

Vision for Scotland in the European Union (December 12, 2007)

Life, Science, Success, Future

“Baseball players or cricketers do not need to be able to solve explicitly the non-linear differential equations which govern the flight of the ball. They just catch it.”

Paul Ormerod book The Death of Economics

Part I, Chapter 5, Mechanistic Modelling, p. 108
The Death of Economics (1994)

“I have a lot of respect for Ovechkin as a player. I like his enthusiasm. I know the kid has a zest for life and a joy for the game.”

Alexander Ovechkin (1985) Russian ice hockey player

Ryan Miller, interview in John Vogl (December 4, 2006) "Ovechkin's star eclipsed by few - Briere hit a rare misstep for Capitals' boy wonder", The Buffalo News, p. D7.
About

Life, Game, Joy

“It is a fallacy that one can capture the moment through audio recording – that the recording can really represent that 'creative process'. We all know that the moment is gone forever, that the recording can never reproduce all the specifics of the situation, the room, the feeling of the players, their history and backgrounds, the conditions, reasons and interests for producing such a recording.”

Mattin (1977) Spanish musician

Page 170.
"Anti-Copyright: Why Improvisation and Noise Run Against the Idea of Intellectual Property" (October 2008)

Feeling, History

“On the tennis court, one needs a cool temperament, tremendous ball sense, reflexes, speed, hand-eye co-ordination, power, timing and peak physical fitness. Off the court, the player and support team need skills in planning, execution, travel, an ability to raise funds when needed, and several other talents.”

Sania Mirza (1986) Indian tennis player

Source: Arun Sharma Sachin's my inspiration - he's also excellent at tennis: Sania Mirza http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/interviews/Sachins-my-inspiration-hes-also-excellent-at-tennis-Sania-Mirza/articleshow/26167479.cms, The Times of India, 22 November 2013

Travel, Support, Sense, Time

Quotes about player page 2

Quotes about player
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