playing Quotes

“Nancy, WILL you tell me what this absurd ‘game’ is that the whole town seems to be babbling about? And what, please, has my niece to do with it? WHY does everybody, from Milly Snow to Mrs. Tom Payson, send word to her that they’re ‘playing it’? As near as I can judge, half the town are putting on blue ribbons, or stopping family quarrels, or learning to like something they never liked before, and all because of Pollyanna.”

“And he found that he actually had hind legs! Instead of dingy velveteen he had brown fur, soft and shiny, his ears twitched by themselves, and his whiskers were so long that they brushed the grass. He gave one leap and the joy of using those hind legs was so great that he went springing about the turf on them, jumping sideways and whirling round as the others did, and he grew so excited that when at last he did stop to look for the Fairy she had gone.”

″‘Why don’t you get up and play with us?’ one of them asked. ‘I don’t feel like it,’ said the Rabbit, for he didn’t want to explain that he had no clockwork. ‘Ho!’ said the furry rabbit. ‘It’s as easy as anything,’ And he gave a big hop sideways and stood on his hind legs. ‘I don’t believe you can!’ he said. ‘I can!’ said the little Rabbit. ‘I can jump higher than anything!’ He meant when the Boy threw him, but of course he didn’t want to say so.”

“He took the Velveteen Rabbit with him, and before he wandered off to pick flowers, or play at brigands among the trees, he always made the Rabbit a little nest somewhere among the bracken, where he would be quite cosy, for he was a kind-hearted little boy and he liked Bunny to be comfortable.”

“It was a long weary time, for the Boy was too ill to play, and the little Rabbit found it rather dull with nothing to do all day long. But he snuggled down patiently, and looked forward to the time when the Boy should be well again, and they would go out in the garden amongst the flowers and the butterflies and play splendid games in the raspberry thicket like they used to.”

“But very soon he grew to like it, for the Boy used to talk to him, and made nice tunnels for him under the bedclothes that he said were like the burrows the real rabbits lived in.”

“To love music is everything. First I will teach you to love music, after this slowly we shall learn to play.”

“Nate sat at the end of a sheetless mattress, bouncing a small rubber ball off the bare wall, keeping count of how many consecutive times he caught it.”

″‘It’s so unfair,’ said Bruno. ‘I don’t see why I have to be stuck over here on this side of the fence where there’s no one to talk to and no one to play with and you get to have dozens of friends and are probably playing for hours every day. I’ll have to speak to Father about it.‘”

“You certainly are a pretty pair of babies, playing with your live doll”

“Later Achilles would play the lyre, as Chiron and I listened. My mother’s lyre. He had brought it with him. ‘I wish I had known,’ I said, the first day when he showed it to me.

“Here was a gorgeous triumph; they were missed; they were mourned; hearts were breaking on their account; tears were being shed; accusing memories of unkindnesses to these poor lost lads were rising up, and unavailing regrets and remorse were being indulged: and best of all, the departed were the talk of the whole town, and the envy of all the boys, as far as this dazzling notoriety was concerned. This was fine. It was worth being a pirate, after all.”

“Ah, if he could only die temporarily!”

“There was no getting around the stubborn fact that taking sweetmeats was only “hooking,” while taking bacon and hams and such valuables was plain simple stealing — and there was a command against that in the Bible. So they inwardly resolved that so long as they remained in the business, their piracies should not again be sullied with the crime of stealing.”

“Oh, they just have a bully time - take ships, and burn them, and get the money and bury it in awful places in their island where there’s ghosts and things to watch, it, and kill everybody in the ships - make ‘em walk a plank. they don’t kill the women - they’re too noble. And the women’s always beautiful, too.”

“For it is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child himself.”

“Firstly, that God moves in extremely mysterious, not to say, circuitous ways. God does not play dice with the universe; He plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players,* to being involved in an obscure and complex version of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won’t tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time.”

“The pleasures connected with his work were pleasures of ambition; his social pleasures were those of vanity; but Ivan Ilych’s greatest pleasure was playing bridge.”

When evening came, the other tin soldiers were all placed in the box, and the people of the house went to bed. Then the playthings began to have their own games together, to pay visits, to have sham fights, and to give balls.

“When she played her music even the night demons stopped their work & it took them some time to remember what it was they were doing & the best of them had no stomach for it for a long time after that.”

“They played at hearts as other children might play at ball; only, as it was really their two hearts that they flung to and fro, they had to be very, very handy to catch them, each time, without hurting them.”

“I was thirty-five and I’d thought I was playing political poker and it turned out I’d been playing in some other game I didn’t even know about. ”

“When you act, you’re always playing a version of yourself. You can’t bring more to the role than what you are.”

“And every day the boy would come and he would gather her leaves and play king of the forest.”

“He would climb up her trunk and swing from her branches and eat apples.”

“And they would play hide and go seek and when he was tired, he would sleep in her shade.”

″‘Come, Boy,’ she whispered, ‘come and play.‘”

“I am too old and sad to play.”

“Is it true, the world works hard and we play? Is that why we’re hated so much?”

“I would like to play, but not games. I do not play games because I cannot—they twist my sweet heart like a wet rag, and what feels all right, fast becomes unworthy of us.”

“I would like to love you, but I do not know you and I value space more than even love, for in space we can play.”

“God is dead, haven’t you heard? He died a hundred years ago, gave out from sheer lack of interest, decided to play golf instead.”

“STOP You must not hop on Pop. ”

″ Crunch, crunch, crunch, his feet sank into the snow.”

″ He told his mother all about his adventures while she took of his wet socks. ”

″ Before he got into bed he looked in his pocket. His pockets was empty. The snowball wasn’t there. He felt very sad. ”

“After breakfast he called to his friends from across the hall, and they went out together into the deep, deep snow. ”

“The snow was piled up very high along the street to make a path for walking.”

″ He walked with his toes pointing out, like this: He walked with his toes pointing in, like this: ”

″ He dragged his feet s-l-o-w-l-y yo make tracks.”

Ed travels to the addresses and helps out the tangled lives of their occupants. Further playing cards appear in his life, and Ed continues to unravel their mysteries.

“Bear it in mind, simpleton! Boys who refuse to study, and turn their backs upon books, schools, and masters, to pass their time in play and amusements, sooner or later come to a bad end... I know it by experience... and I can tell you. A day will come when you will weep as I am weeping now... but then it will be too late!”

“Me and Jimmy have this special group of rocks where we like to play when we’re in the park. We play secret agent up there. Jimmy can imitate all kinds of foreign accents. Probably because his father’s a part-time actor.”

“Nick and Penny did come by, and they all played Store, Pirates, Castle, and, of course, their favorite... Space Base.”

“And so they all played Space Base until sunset.”

“Maisy plays in the Wendy house”

“We play hide-and-seek. I’m a good hide-and-seek players. I can find Clifford, no matter where he hides.”

“Dancing and playing and stomping their feet, as they move to the rhythm of this jungle beat.”

“I’ll play a game of make-believe and use my magic powers!”

“Double splashing in the tub. Double bubbles. Double scrub. Double brushing shiny teeth. ”

“Meggie’s smile wavered only slightly. She looked out across the vast lawn at Callum and Sephy. Her son and her employer’s daughter. There were good friends playing together. Real good friends. No barriers. No boundaries. Not yet anyway. It was a typical early summer’s day, light and bright and, in the Hadley household anyway, not a cloud in their sky.”

“One evening Mother Pig called the children to her as they were playing all over the house. ‘Now piglets,’ she said, ‘your father and I are going out this evening.’ There was a chorus of groans. ‘Not far,’ said Mrs Pig, ‘and I’ve asked a very nice lady to come and look after you.’ “

“All Christmas day Victor played hockey and Rose made herself beautiful and Betty mixed acids.”

“They took off their coats and Smudge swung like a monkey on the climbing frame.”

“They all played on the bandstand. The whole world seemed happy.”

“Your father might have a game with you when he’s had a little rest.”

“As long as they were there, the gerbils belonged to Sid. But, from that very first afternoon, Peggy was the one who loved them. Sid would be doing his homework, or out playing football, or just watching television.”

“Ramona thought of kindergarten as being divided into two parts. The first was the running part, which included games, dancing, finger painting, and playing. The second part was called seat work. Seat work was serious. Everyone was expected to work quietly in his own seat without disturbing anyone else.”

“Alfie sees the little boy all the way over by the parking lot. He is alive! He is all by himself, watching the big boys play.”

“The next day is Monday. The others are playing soccer again. Alfie doesn’t feel like it. He goes off by himself, looking for the little boy.”

“And the better in memory to fix the path of the children’s last retreat, they call that place Pied Piper Street, where anyone playing a pipe or drum was driven back the way he’d come; nor did they allow an inn or tavern to spill forth joy on a street so solemn.”

“I wouldn’t have complained about brushing my teeth, or taking a bath, or going to bed at eight o’clock every night. I would have played more. Laughed more. I would have hugged my parents and told them I loved them. But I was ten years old, and I had no idea of the nightmare that was to come. None of us did.”

“The little boy and the big, roaring, yellow, whiskery lion went to play in the other meadow. The dragon stayed where he was and nobody minded.”

One day Wolfy frightens Tom so badly while playing the game that the scared little rabbit rushes to his burrow and vows to never come out again.

“They play with the squirrels and frogs, and when fall comes, they collect and prepare food to see them through the long winter, until the warm spring breeze starts to blow.”

Young Claudio and his best friend the Painter spend hours playing backgammon and talking about everything from art to love to politics. One day Claudio comes home to find that his friend has died.

“They all hugged each other with joy and the children played until suppertime.”

“We shall exile Caius. He won’t be allowed to play with us, and none of us must talk to him.”

“There would be months of beautifully long, empty days, and each other to play with, and the books from the library.”

“Christopher often plays on his own in his garden...until one day, he discovers a whole new world.”

“They work for a while and then start up ‘Truth or Dare’ again, where Will asks Violet who she likes better, him or Jasmine. When Violet fails to respond, Will dares her to spend ten minutes in the attic.”

“The noise of the great waters filled Tarka with joy. A log rolled in front of him, and he scrambled on it, to jump off again with happy cries.”

“Clearly, to play unconsciously does not mean to play without consciousness.”