Top 500 Play Quotes (2026 Update)
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101. “To escape boredom, man works either beyond what his usual needs require, or else he invents play, that is, work that is designed to quiet no need other than that for working in general.”

— Friedrich Nietzsche

102. “I don’t want to be a tiger, tigers play too rough. I don’t want to be a lion, cause lions ain’t the kind you love up.”

— Elvis Presley

103. “Play is a child’s work and this is not a trivial pursuit.”

— Alfred Adler

104. “Also, go inside and listen to your body, because your body will never lie to you. Your mind will play tricks, but the way you feel in your heart, in your guts, is the truth.”

— Miguel Ruiz

105. “Music is the soundtrack to life. It plays the melody of our being.”

— Michael Jackson

106. “Bring into play the almighty power within you, so that on the stage of life you can fulfill your high destined role.”

— Paramahansa Yogananda

107. “Surrealism is based on the belief in the omnipotence of dreams, in the undirected play of thought.”

— André Breton

108. “Robots will play an important role in providing physical assistance and even companionship for the elderly.”

— Bill Gates

109. “If you’re having trouble waking up for fajr, set your alarm to play Quran. It works!”

— Yasmin Mogahed

110. “Kings play the fool, and the people suffer for it.”

— Horace

111. “Oh, grant me my prayer, that I may never lose the touch of the one in the play of the many.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

112. “Football is a part of I. When I play, the world wakes up around me.”

— Bob Marley

Also featured in: Football Quotes

113. “Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on; Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear’d, Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone.”

— John Keats

114. “Don’t play what’s there, play what’s not there.”

— Miles Davis

115. “I could never be a woman, ’cause I’d just stay home and play with my breasts all day.”

— Steve Martin

116. “My life is not a game that I play to entertain you.”

— Madonna

117. “This is how you play tennis without the net.”

— Sam Harris

118. “Being privileged to work hard for long hours at something you think is worth doing is the best kind of play.”

— Robert A. Heinlein

119. “Every time you pick up your guitar to play, play as if it’s the last time.”

— Eric Clapton

120. “When you are lonely, when you feel yourself an alien in the world, play Chess. This will raise your spirits and be your counselor in war.”

— Aristotle

121. “It’s hard to play well, but it’s easy to work hard.”

— Kevin Durant

122. “When I step onto the court, I’m ready to play. If you’re going up against me, you’d better be ready. If you’re not going to compete, I will dominate you.”

— Michael Jordan

123. “Play the Piano Drunk Like a Percussion Instrument Until the Fingers Begin to Bleed a Bit.”

— Charles Bukowski

124. “I shall have poetry in my life. And adventure. And love, love, love, above all. Love as there has never been in a play. Unbiddable, ungovernable, like a riot in the heart and nothing to be done, come ruin or rapture.”

— Tom Stoppard

125. “In the end, we are not the roles we play. We are the light that animates every soul in the dance we call life.”

— Alan Cohen

126. “Architecture is the masterly, correct, and magnificent play of masses brought together in light. Our eyes are made to see forms in light: light and shade reveal these forms.”

— Le Corbusier

127. “You set the standards for how you will be treated. People will treat you the exact way you treat yourself. So be good to you. Take time for yourself. Rest. Play. Shower yourself with affection, support, and gifts.”

— Iyanla Vanzant

128. “Someone told me the smile on my face gets bigger when I play the guitar.”

— Niall Horan

129. “I still climb Mount Everest just as often as I used to. I play polo just as often as I used to. But to walk down to the hardware store I find a little bit more difficult.”

— Dr. Seuss

130. “We don’t want to be free from fear. All that we want to do is to play games with it and talk about freeing ourselves from fear.”

— U.G. Krishnamurti

131. “Might we not say that every child at play behaves like a creative writer, in that he creates a world of his own, or, rather, rearranges the things of his world in a new way which pleases him?”

— Sigmund Freud

132. “The time at length arrives, when grief is rather an indulgence than a necessity and the smile that plays upon the lips, although it may be deemed a sacrilege, is not banished.”

— Mary Shelley

133. “To me, life is like the back nine in golf. Sometimes you play better on the back nine. You may not be stronger, but hopefully you’re wiser. And if you keep most of your marbles intact, you can add a note of wisdom to the coming generation.”

— Clint Eastwood

134. “The devotion of the greatest is to encounter risk and danger, and play dice for death.”

— Friedrich Nietzsche

135. “We are here to abet creation and to witness to it, to notice each other’s beautiful face and complex nature so that creation need not play to an empty house.”

— Annie Dillard

136. “Indeed, the great Leonardo (da Vinci) remained like a child for the whole of his life in more than one way. It is said that all great men are bound to retain some infantile part. Even as an adult he continued to play, and this was another reason why he often appeared uncanny and incomprehensible to his contemporaries.”

— Sigmund Freud

137. “It would have been impossible, completely and entirely, for any woman to have written the plays of Shakespeare in the age of Shakespeare.”

— Virginia Woolf

138. “When men differ in opinion, both sides ought equally to have the advantage of being heard by the public; when Truth and Error have fair play, the former is always an overmatch for the latter.”

— Benjamin Franklin

139. “The hollow horn plays wasted words, proves to warn that he not busy being born is busy dying.”

— Bob Dylan

140. “It takes a smart brunette to play a dumb blonde.”

— Marilyn Monroe

141. “Win, lose, or tie, you’re gonna play like champions!”

— Herb Brooks

142. “It’s not the notes you play, it’s the notes you don’t play.”

— Miles Davis

143. “I can play in the 11 positions because a good player can play anywhere on the pitch.”

— Zlatan Ibrahimovic

144. “Say what you want, but don’t play games with my affection. Take what you need, but don’t leave me with no direction.”

— Michael Jackson

145. “You play a part in every aspect of your life going the way you want or not going the way that you want. It has very little to do with other people.”

— Will Smith

146. “Life plays the same lovely and agonizing joke on all of us.”

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

147. “What I do is play soccer, which is what I like.”

— Lionel Messi

148. “The day may dawn when fair play, love for one’s fellow men, respect for justice and freedom, will enable tormented generations to march forth serene and triumphant from the hideous epoch in which we have to dwell. Meanwhile, never flinch, never weary, never despair.”

— Winston Churchill

149. “I never play cricket. It requires one to assume such indecent postures.”

— Oscar Wilde

150. “The tragic hero prefers death to prudence. The comedian prefers playing tricks to winning. Only the villain really plays to win.”

— Mason Cooley