Richard Hofstadter Quotes

Play so that you may be serious.

Play doesn't have to be a frivolous thing. You may think of a Beethoven symphony as something serious, but it's still being played. I think Oscar Wilde said that life is too important to be taken seriously.

The real joy of life is in its play. Play is anything we do for the joy and love of doing it, apart from any profit, compulsion, or sense of duty. It is the real joy of living.

The true object of human life is play.

Play and pray; but on the whole do not pray when you are playing and do not play when you are praying.

You can take your play seriously as long as you seriously play.

I'm the type of guy that's always having a joke, messing around, but when it comes to the serious stuff, you know, your head's on the game.

Never neglect an opportunity to play leap-frog; it is the best of all games, and, unlike the terribly serious and conscientious pastimes of modern youth, will never become professionalized.

What work I have done I have done because it has been play. If it had been work I shouldn't have done it.

The creative writer does the same as the child at play; he creates a world of fantasy which he takes very seriously.

Man's most serious activity is play.

Surely all God's people, however serious or savage, great or small, like to play.

It is a commonplace among artists and children at play that they're not aware of time or solitude while they're chasing their vision. The hours fly. The sculptress and the tree-climbing tyke both look up blinking when Mom calls, 'Suppertime!'

The ability to play is one of the principal criteria of mental health.

One more thing: don't spend too much time merely reading. The best part of this work is the play, so play and enjoy!

Relax. Be yourself. Play a lot.

The human need to play is a powerful one. When we ignore it, we feel there is something missing in our lives.

I enjoyed being in movies when I was a boy. As a child you're not acting - you believe. Ah, if an adult could only act as a child does with that insane, playing-at-toy- soldiers concentration!

When I am on set or rehearsing for the play, the only thing I can talk about is the work I'm doing. In that way, I home in on what I am doing at the time. So maybe I am a terrible multitasker.

I had a teacher in Paris, who said that if an actor forgot what it's like to play as a child he shouldn't be an actor. I've always loved being with children. It's marvellous to see the fresh ways they see the world. Watching them look at a tree or a river helps you to understand something that's very important.

As soon as children find something that interests them they lose their instability and learn to concentrate.

While the work or play is on, it is a lot of fun if while you are doing one you don't constantly feel that you ought to be doing the other.

When the spirit of child's play enters into the creative process, it's a wonderful force and something to be nurtured.

The opposite of play is not work. It's depression.

Fiction is to grown men what play is to the child.