Top 500 Play Quotes (2026 Update)

1. “Play is the work of the child.”

— Maria Montessori

2. “There are two paths people can take. They can either play now and pay later, or pay now and play later. Regardless of the choice, one thing is certain. Life will demand a payment.”

— John C. Maxwell

3. “When you work, work. When you play, play. Don’t mix the two.”

— Jim Rohn

4. “It’s not how big you are, it’s how big you play.”

— John Wooden

5. “He does it with his hands, by experience, first in play and then through work. The hands are the instruments of man’s intelligence.”

— Maria Montessori

6. “Rest and play, are as vital to our health as nutrition and exercise.”

— Brené Brown

Also featured in: Exercise Quotes

7. “To get a great idea, come up with lots of them.”

— Thomas A. Edison

8. “Have regular hours for work and play; make each day both useful and pleasant, and prove that you understand the worth of time by employing it well. Then youth will bring few regrets, and life will become a beautiful success.”

— Louisa May Alcott

9. “Play the picture in your mind – focus on the end result.”

— Rhonda Byrne

Also featured in: Law Of Attraction Quotes

10. “The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.”

— Phil Jackson

11. “Pay now, play later; play now, pay later.”

— John C. Maxwell

Also featured in: Procrastination Quotes

12. “If you hit a wrong note, it’s the next note that you play that determines if it’s good or bad.”

— Miles Davis

13. “The rich are those who play to win. The middle class plays not to lose.”

— Robert T. Kiyosaki

Also featured in: Winning Quotes

14. “We are slowed down sound and light waves, a walking bundle of frequencies tuned into the cosmos. We are souls dressed up in sacred biochemical garments and our bodies are the instruments through which our souls play their music.”

— Albert Einstein

15. “All great men are play actors of their own ideal.”

— Friedrich Nietzsche

16. “Play the game, never let the game play you.”

— Tupac Shakur

17. “There is virtue in work and there is virtue in rest. Use both and overlook neither.”

— Alan Cohen

Also featured in: Virtue Quotes

18. “Never play with the feelings of others. Because you may win the game but the risk is that you will surely lose the person for a life time.”

— William Shakespeare

Also featured in: Winning Quotes, Quotes About Feelings

19. “Experience without theory is blind, but theory without experience is mere intellectual play.”

— Immanuel Kant

Also featured in: Philosophical Quotes

20. “Do not take life’s experiences too seriously. For in reality they are nothing but dream experiences. Play your part in life, but never forget that it is only a role.”

— Paramahansa Yogananda

Also featured in: Quotes About Reality

21. “So Einstein was wrong when he said, “God does not play dice.” Consideration of black holes suggests, not only that God does play dice, but that he sometimes confuses us by throwing them where they can’t be seen.”

— Stephen Hawking

Also featured in: Science Quotes

22. “We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.”

— Randy Pausch

23. “If you don’t play to win don’t play at all.”

— Tom Brady

24. “No one gets out of the game of life alive. You either die in the bleachers, or on the field. So, you might as well play out on the field, and go for it.”

— Les Brown

25. “I once cried because I had no shoes to play soccer, but one day, I met a man who had no feet.”

— Zinedine Zidane

Also featured in: Soccer Quotes

26. “Life is a play that does not allow testing. So, sing, cry, dance, laugh and live intensely, before the curtain closes and the piece ends with no applause.”

— Charlie Chaplin

Also featured in: Quotes About Laughing

27. “The question, O me! so sad, recurring – What good amid these, O me, O life? That you are here – that life exists and identity, that the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.”

— Walt Whitman

Also featured in: Powerful Quotes

28. “When you play a game of thrones you win or you die.”

— George R.R. Martin

29. “When work becomes play, and play becomes your work, your life unfolds.”

— Robert Frost

30. “I’d rather have ten people that want God than 10,000 people who want to play church.”

— Leonard Ravenhill

31. “Most gods throw dice, but Fate plays chess, and you don’t find out til too late that he’s been playing with two queens all along.”

— Terry Pratchett

Also featured in: Fate Quotes

32. “A gentleman is someone who can play the accordion, but doesn’t.”

— Tom Waits

33. “The powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse.”

— Walt Whitman

34. “Success isn’t determined by how many times you win, but by how you play the week after you lose.”

— Pelé

35. “Understanding physics is child’s play when compared to understanding child’s play.”

— Albert Einstein

36. “Hope for the Best. Expect the worst. Life is a play. We’re unrehearsed.”

— Mel Brooks

37. “There’s no question dolphins are smarter than humans as they play more.”

— Albert Einstein

38. “Life and love go on, let the music play.”

— Johnny Cash

39. “Remember: Matter: how tiny your share of it. Time: how brief and fleeting your allotment of it. Fate: how small a role you play in it.”

— Marcus Aurelius

40. “We got to roll with the punches, play all of our hunches, make the best of whatever comes your way. Forget that blind ambition, learn to trust your intuition – plowing straight ahead, come what may.”

— Jimmy Buffett

41. “You can tune a guitar, but you can’t tuna fish. Unless of course, you play bass.”

— Douglas Adams

42. “Create the kind of workplace and company culture that will attract great talent. If you hire brilliant people, they will make work feel more like play.”

— Richard Branson

43. “Don’t just play the game – change it for good.”

— Richard Branson

44. “Put all your soul into it, play the way you feel!”

— Frédéric Chopin

45. “You have comfort. You don’t have luxury. And don’t tell me that money plays a part. The luxury I advocate has nothing to do with money. It cannot be bought. It is the reward of those who have NO Fear or Discomfort.”

— Jean Cocteau

46. “This is the real secret of life – to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.”

— Alan Watts

Also featured in: Inspiring Quotes, Monday Quotes

47. “Every individual matters. Every individual has a role to play. Every individual makes a difference.”

— Jane Goodall

48. “Live boldly. Laugh Loudly. Love Truly. Play as often as you can Work as smart as you are able. Share your heart as deeply as you can reach.”

— Mary Anne Radmacher

Also featured in: Smart Quotes

49. “How do you beat Bobby Fischer? You play him at any game but chess. I try to stay in games where I have an edge.”

— Warren Buffett

50. “Life is more fun if you play games.”

— Roald Dahl

Also featured in: Fun Quotes