"The facts of nature cannot in the long run be violated. Penetrating and seeping through everything like water, they will undermine any system that fails to take account of them, and sooner or later they will bring about its downfall. But an authority wise enough in its statesmanship to give sufficient free play to nature - of which spirit is a part - need fear no premature decline."
Play quotes
Play
12.5K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Explore further
Topics related to Play
Browse quotes that often appear alongside play — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
Quote collection
Play quotes (page 82 of 627)
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"Power feminism is just another scam in which women get to play patriarchs and pretend that the power we seek and gain liberates us."
". . .there is an element of Play that is almost ritualistic in Black folk life. It serves to mediate the tensions, stress, and pain of constant exploitation and oppression."
"It's a lot of fun to just say to people, proudly, 'I get to play the First Lady.' It's just fun to say."
"You eat and sleep it all day long and play on the streets until mom calls you in. My story is no different than anybody else's."
"If I'm inspired and music inspires me, then I will continue to play it."
"I work, and then I leave the office, and I'm with my kids and just sort of enjoy them on a visceral level, and I don't feel like I'm exorcising my own deep ideas about parenthood and about how my life will come into play in my work."
"You look at Ray Lewis, you look at Brett Favre. I know it's different positions, but you think about the mental mindset it takes to continue to grind and play at a high level. Those are the guys that I look at that motivate me."
"Part of my success was having a place to play as a kid."
"I remember doing "As Cool As I Am" and Steve Miller, the producer, saying "I really hear a drum loop here. I want to play it for you." When I wrote it, I thought, "This isn't going to sound very folky. I don't think it's going to go with mandolins and banjos." Then he played the loop for me and it sounded right."
"A song versus an album is not like a scene versus a play."
"There's always people who came 600 miles to hear the song you didn't play."
"Press on! If Fortune play thee false To-day, tomorrow she'll be true; Whom now she sinks she now exalts, Taking old gifts and granting new, The wisdom of the present hour Makes up the follies past and gone; To weakness, strength succeeds, and power From frailty springs! Press on, press on!"
"There's a good television programme called 'Disco 2.' It's quite good but again it's average, average. It's all on a down play. You know we've got this thing in England to be hip is to speak very down - like John Peel. And that just about sums up England. They don't realize when they talk like that, then that is what they represent - absolutely."
"I am a D.J., I am what I play."
"I mean the people who seriously, seriously play devote their lives to it sort of the way monks do. I mean you don't date, you go to bed at a certain time, you eat certain ways, you practice 10-12 hours a day. And I mean, the difference between practicing three hours a day and practicing 12 hours a day is everything. And I certainly never - I never trained seriously after the age of 16."
"If have the choice, to play or not play, I would rather be in there, ... But I appreciate Willie calling me in and being concerned."
"Sometimes I use my jokes as building blocks for larger bits. I like to draw and play music, so sometimes I do those things along with the jokes."
"When I was younger, I'd get very empirical with myself. "I have a hypothesis about myself. I'll put myself in a situation, see what happens, then I'll draw a conclusion based on the empirical evidence. Hypothesis: I can play basketball." So I'd try. "Conclusion: I cannot play basketball.""
"I didn't play music, nobody in my family had an instrument or played music, we didn't even have any books at my house. I think about it and I'm like, I don't know how I climbed out of there."