Play Quotes - Page 25

• There are like to be short graces where the devil plays host.

  Charles Lamb

  Grace, Devil, Host

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• The most important part of education is right training in the nursery. The soul of the child in his play should be trained to that sort of excellence in which, when he grows to manhood, he will have to be perfected.

  Plato

  Education, Children, Soul

  Plato (1883). “Plato's Best Thoughts”

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• Laughter puts your brain, your central nervous system and your whole being into a state of free play.

  Max Eastman

  Laughter, Brain, Nervous

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• The United States does not have a choice as to whether or not is will or will not play a great part in the world. Fate has made that choice for us. The only question is whether we will play the part well or badly.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Fate, Choices, United States

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• Explain to me how he [her son] can ride a bicycle, run, play ball, set up a camp, swing, fight a war, swim and race for eight hours ... and has to be driven to the garbage can.

  Erma Bombeck

  Running, War, Fighting

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• There are few things in this world more satisfying than having your son teach you how to play tennis, unless it is having a semi-truck run over your foot.

  Erma Bombeck

  Running, Son, Feet

  Erma Bombeck (2013). “Forever, Erma: Best-Loved Writing From America's Favorite Humorist”, p.211, Open Road Media

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• For some unexplained reason, it's always the other end of the table that's wild and raucous, with screaming laughter and a fella who plays 'Holiday for Strings' on water glasses.

  Erma Bombeck

  Laughter, Holiday, Glasses

  Erma Bombeck (2011). “I Lost Everything in the Post-Natal Depression”, p.11, Fawcett

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• It might be argued, that to be a knave is the gift of fortune, but to play the fool to advantage it is necessary to be a learned man.

  William Hazlitt

  Men, Might, Knaves

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1317, Delphi Classics

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• Nothing is so unpredictable as a throw of the dice, and yet every man who plays often will at some time or other make a Venus-cast: now and then he indeed will make it twice and even thrice in succession. Are we going to be so feebleminded then as to aver that such a thing happened by the personal intervention of Venus rather than by pure luck?

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Men, Gambling, Luck

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• My musical genius reached its apex thirty years ago when I played the triangle in Haydn's children's symphony, so I could not play unless you needed someone to make one sustained note!

  May Sarton

  Children, Musical Genius, Years

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• I have been devoured all my life by an incurable and burning impatience: and to this day find all oratory, biography, operas, films, plays, books, and persons, too long.

  Margot Asquith

  Book, Long, Burning

  Margot Asquith (1933). “More Memories”

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• anyone who writes plays is unbelievably persistent, because there isn't a need in the world for plays. Somehow you internally have to feel a need to write a play.

  Wendy Wasserstein

  Writing, Needs, World

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• Even kings but play; and when their part is done, some other, worse or better, mounts the throne.

  John Dryden

  Kings, Acting, Thrones

  John Dryden (1870). “The Poetical Works of John Dryden”, p.558

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• The propriety of thoughts and words, which are the hidden beauties of a play, are but confusedly judged in the vehemence of action.

  John Dryden

  Drama, Vehemence, Action

  John Dryden (1808). “The works of John Dryden: now first collected in eighteen volumes. Illustrated with notes, historical, critical, and explanatory, and a life of the author”, p.379

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• Men who ape the saint and play the sinner.

  Juvenal

  Men, Saint, Apes

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• There can be no freedom in the large sense of the word, no harmonious development, so long as mercenary and commercial considerations play an important part in the determination of personal conduct.

  Emma Goldman

  Determination, Business, Long

  Emma Goldman, Candace Falk (2008). “Emma Goldman”, p.341, University of Illinois Press

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• Play not for gain, but sport. Who plays for more
  Than he can lose with pleasure, stakes his heart;
  Perhaps his wife's too, and whom she hath bore.

  George Herbert

  Sports, Heart, Gambling

  Jeremy Taylor, John Wheeldon, George Herbert (1768). “Sacred Prolusions: Or, Select Pieces from Bishop Taylor and Mr. Herbert. By the Rev. John Wheeldon, ... With a Preface and a Discourse on Rev.xviii. 21. By the Editor”, p.102

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• He plaies well that winnes.
  [He plays well that wins.]

  George Herbert

  Winning, Wells

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• The House Beautiful is the play lousy.

  Dorothy Parker

  Beautiful, House

  Dorothy Parker (2004). “Dorothy Parker in Her Own Words”, Taylor Trade Publishing

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• Anticipated rents, and bills unpaid,
  Force many a shining youth into the shade,
  Not to redeem his time, but his estate,
  And play the fool, but at the cheaper rate.

  William Cowper

  Shining, Debt, Shade

  William Cowper (1830). “Poems ... With a sketch of his life and a vindication of his religious principles and character. Third edition, corrected and enlarged. [With a portrait.]”, p.145

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• Fancy restrained may be compared to a fountain, which plays highest by diminishing the aperture.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  May, Fancy, Aperture

  Oliver Goldsmith (1820). “Letters from a citizen of the world, to his friends in the East”, p.154

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• Popular glory is a perfect coquette; her lovers must toil, feel every inquietude, indulge every caprice, and perhaps at last be jilted into the bargain. True glory, on the other hand, resembles a woman of sense; her admirers must play no tricks. They feel no great anxiety, for they are sure in the end of being rewarded in proportion to their merit.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Hands, Perfect, Anxiety

  Oliver Goldsmith (1856). “The Works of Oliver Goldsmith: Comprising His Poems, Comedies, Essays, and Vicar of Wakefield”, p.193

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• The first act's doubtful, but we say, it is the last commends the play.

  Robert Herrick

  Theatre, Lasts, Firsts

  Robert Herrick, Samuel Weber Singer (1856). “Hesperides: Or, The Works Both Humane and Divine of Robert Herrick ...”, p.160

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• Kings play at war unfairly with republics; they can only lose some earth, and some creatures they value as little, while republics lose in every soldier a part of themselves.

  Walter Savage Landor

  Kings, War, Soldier

  Walter Savage Landor (1853). “The Works of Walter Savage Landor”, p.25

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• If sex is a war, I am a conscientious objector: I will not play.

  Marge Piercy

  Sex, War, Conscientious Objectors

  Marge Piercy (2013). “Braided Lives”, p.66, PM Press

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