50 of the Greatest and Most Inspirational Quotes About Play

50 OF THE MOST INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES ABOUT PLAY

50 of the greatest and most inspirational quotes about play

Iโ€™ve written before about what play is and why itโ€™s so important for a childโ€™s development here.

In this post I wanted to collect together some of the greatest and most inspirational quotes about play by some of the worldโ€™s leading scientists, educators, writers and thinkers.

I hope that these amazing quotes about the importance of play will inspire you to play more and encourage our children to play more as well!

Play Matters!

50 Inspirational Quotes About Play

Here goes:

quotes about play - "Play is the work of the child" ~ Maria Montessori
โ€œPlay is the work of the childโ€ ~ Maria Montessori

โ€œPlay is essential to development because it contributes to the cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being of children.โ€ ~ Kenneth R. Ginsburg

โ€œIt is paradoxical that many educators and parents still differentiate between a time for learning and a time for play without seeing the vital connection between them.โ€ ~ Leo F. Buscaglia

โ€œWe donโ€™t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.โ€ ~ George Bernard Shaw

โ€œPlay is the only way the highest intelligence of humankind can unfold.โ€ ~ Joseph Chilton Pearce

โ€œThe creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct.โ€ ~ Carl Jung

โ€œAlmost all creativity involves purposeful play.โ€ ~  Abraham Maslow

โ€œPlay is training for the unexpected.โ€ ~ Marc Bekoff

โ€œIt is a happy talent to know how to play.โ€ ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

โ€œThe true object of all human life is play.โ€ ~ G. K. Chesterton

โ€œChildren need the freedom and time to play. Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity.โ€ ~ Kay Redfield Jamison

quotes about play - "children need the freedom and luxury to play"

โ€œDo not keep children to their studies by compulsion but by play.โ€ ~ Plato

โ€œPlay and playful forms of activity potentially lead towards increasingly complex forms of knowledge, skills and understanding.โ€ ~ Elizabeth Wood

โ€œChildren learn as they play. Most importantly, in play children learn how to learn.โ€ ~ O. Fred Donaldson

โ€œThe playing adult steps sideward into another reality; the playing child advances forward to new stages of mastery.โ€ ~ Erik H. Erikson

โ€œPlay is the brainโ€™s favourite way of learningโ€ ~ Diane Ackerman

โ€œPlay is the work of the child.โ€ ~ Maria Montessori

โ€œNecessity may be the mother of invention, but play is certainly the father.โ€ ~ Roger Von Oech

โ€œChildren donโ€™t need more things. The best toys a child can have is a parent who gets down on the floor and plays with them.โ€ ~ Anonymous

โ€œA little nonsense now and then is cherished by the wisest men.โ€ ~ Roald Dahl

โ€œPeople tend to forget that play is serious.โ€ ~ David Hockney

Some More Amazing Play Quotes

Quotes About Play

โ€œDeep meaning lies often in childish play.โ€ ~ Johann Friedrich von Schiller

โ€œGive childhood back to children: if we want our offspring to have happy, productive and moral lives, we must allow more time for play, not less.โ€ ~ Peter Gray

โ€œIf animals play, this is because play is useful in the struggle for survival; because play practices and so perfects the skills needed in adult life.โ€ ~ Susanna Miller

โ€œThis is the real secret of lifeโ€”to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.โ€ ~ Alan W. Watts

โ€œIn every real man a child is hidden that wants to play.โ€ ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

โ€œMan is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play.โ€ ~ Heraclitus

โ€œPlay keeps us vital and alive. It gives us an enthusiasm for life that is irreplaceable. Without it, life just doesnโ€™t taste goodโ€ ~ Lucia Capocchione.

โ€œChildren at play are not playing about. Their games should be seen as their most serious minded activity.โ€ ~ Michel de Montaigne

โ€œPlay is the royal road to childhood happiness and adult brilliance.โ€ ~ Joseph Chilton Pearce

โ€œIn play a child always behaves beyond his average age, above his daily behavior. In play it is as though he were a head taller than himself.โ€ ~ Lev Vygotsky

"Nothing lights up a child's brain like play"

โ€œPeople rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.โ€ ~ Dale Carnegie

โ€œIn our play we reveal what kind of people we are.โ€ ~ Ovid

โ€œAll play is associated with intense thought activity and rapid intellectual growth.โ€ ~ N. V. Scarfe

โ€œThe debt we owe to the play of the imagination is incalculable.โ€ ~ Carl Jung

โ€œWhen children pretend, theyโ€™re using their imaginations to move beyond the bounds of reality. A stick can be a magic wand. A sock can be a puppet. A small child can be a superhero.โ€ ~ Fred Rogers

โ€œThe very existence of youth is due in part to the necessity for play; the animal does not play because he is young, he has a period of youth because he must play.โ€ ~ Karl Groos

โ€œWhoever wants to understand much must play much.โ€ ~ Gottfried Benn

โ€œThose who play rarely become brittle in the face of stress or lose the healing capacity for humor.โ€ ~ Dr Stuart Brown, MD

โ€œChildren have always learned and created places for themselves through play.โ€ ~ Donna R. Barnes

โ€œPlay is the exultation of the possible.โ€ ~ Martin Buber

โ€œA child who does not play is not a child, but the man who does not play has lost forever the child who lived in him.โ€ ~ Pablo Neruda

โ€œPlay is the beginning of knowledge.โ€ ~ George Dorsey

โ€œTrying to define play is like trying to define love. You canโ€™t do it. Itโ€™s far too big for that.โ€ ~ Gordon Sturrock

โ€œPlay is the highest expression of human development in childhood, for it alone is the free expression of what is in a childโ€™s soul.โ€ ~ Friedrich Froebel

โ€œWe are never more fully alive, more completely ourselves, or more deeply engrossed in anything than when we are playing.โ€ ~ Charles Schaefer

โ€œPlay builds the kind of free-and-easy, try-it-out, do-it-yourself character that our future needs.โ€ ~ James L. Hymes Jr.

โ€œNothing lights up a childโ€™s brain like play.โ€ ~ Dr Stuart Brown, M.D.

โ€œUndirected play allows children to learn how to work in groups, share, negotiate, resolve conflicts, and learn self-advocacy skills.โ€ ~  Winnie Wathu

โ€œCulture arises and unfolds in and as play.โ€ ~ Johan Huizinga

โ€œPlay is not a break from learning. It is endless, delightful, deep, engaging, practical learning. Itโ€™s the doorway into the childโ€™s heart!โ€ ~ Vince Gowmon

I hope these amazing quotes about play have highlighted the importance of play and inspired you to play more and to encourage your children to do the same.

If you enjoyed please share and/or subscribe and follow โ€“ It would be very much appreciated!

Have you got any favourite quotes about play?

If you know of any quotes about the importance of play that could be added to list please leave a comment below and I can add them ( I guess Iโ€™ll have to change the title then thoughโ€ฆoh well!).

Letโ€™s nurture those neurons!

50 of the best inspirational quotes about play
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Christina
2 years ago

Love this, thanks for sharing! I have a journal where I like add quotes about each topic and Iโ€™m always struggling to find good ones. Will definitely be referring back to this list:)

Mellissa
2 years ago

So inspirational! I’d love to print some of these to hang around the house as reminders for all of us about the importance of play!

Farrah
2 years ago

Great quotes! I love this one–โ€œPeople rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.โ€

So true! :]

ladylyrik303
2 years ago

I love seeing people inspiring others! I wish more people would step up and challenge themselves to be a light in this dark world. Because it’s those people who bring life into others and it spreads from there! Thanks for sharing so many valuable ways to inspire others!

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