Play quotes
12.5K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
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Browse quotes that often appear alongside play — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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"Even the simple act that we call "going to visit a person of our acquaintance" is in part an intellectual act. We fill the physical appearance of the person we see with all the notions we have about him, and in the totality of our impressions about him, these notions play the most important role."
"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."
"I haven't purposefully set out to play heroes. I'm interested in playing the character who finds himself in extraordinary circumstances. But he's really either just saving himself or acting in the service of something that's important to him."
"I love soccer. That's all I ever watch. I'll watch it all day if I can. But I'm too bloody old to play now."
"There aren't any songs that I would call impossible to play live, but some are difficult. A lot of Queensryche songs are difficult to play live. It's quite a difficult question to answer because everybody (In the band) has their own opinion of what's difficult to play."
"Once you get on the playing field it's not about whether you're liked or not liked. All that matters is to play at a high level and do whatever it takes to help your team win. That's what it's about."
"Play is the way that human beings learn about the world. That's how we discover how things work."
"It's an under-represented demographic and it's a really loyal fan base and it's really nice to play those roles without making a big deal about it or making too much comment, because the more we normalise it the better. You're not defined by your sexuality but by what you do."
"So that's how we live our lives. No matter how deep and fatal the loss, no matter how important the thing that's stolen from us--that's snatched right out of our hands--even if we are left completely changed, with only the outer layer of skin from before, we continue to play out our lives this way, in silence. We draw ever nearer to the end of our allotted span of time, bidding it farewell as it trails off behind. Repeating, often adroitly, the endless deeds of the everyday. Leaving behind a feeling of immeasurable emptiness."
"I used to play one job and have 125 pair of shoes on the floor. What was I doing? I couldn't wear but one pair."
"The play was a great success, but audience was a dismal failure."
"I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend... if you have one."
"I have nothing to tell except travellers' stories, which are always tiresome, like the description of a play which was very exciting to those who saw it."
"You must love your work and not always be looking over the edge of it wanting your play to begin."
"War is not a polite recreation but the vilest thing in life, and we ought to understand that and not play at war."
"It is being common-born that is dangerous, when the great lords play their game of thrones."
"I've played for crowds as small as 30 people. As long as people want to see me play then I'll perform."
"She was the amoureuse of all the novels, the heroine of all the plays, the vague “she” of all the poetry books."
"There is no reason to believe ... that the "essential purpose" of language is "communication". Language can be used to transmit information, but it also serves many other purposes: to establish relations among people, to express or clarify thought, for play, for creative mental activity, to gain understanding, and so on. In my opinion, there is no reason to accord privileged status to one or the other of these modes."
"You never win any games you don't play."
