Allwork and no play,
Makes Jack a dull boy. [ Proverb ]

Mute characters in a play.

Let Zephyr only breathe
And with her tresses play. [ Drummond ]

Your play needs no excuse. [ William Shakespeare ]

With foxes we must play the fox. [ Proverb ]

Let echo, too, perform her part,
Prolonging every note with art;
And in a low expiring strain,
Play all the comfort over again. [ Addison ]

Mice care not to play with kittens. [ Proverb ]

Let him that can play take the hue. [ Proverb ]

Leave boy's play and go to push-pin. [ Proverb ]

Few may play with the devil and win. [ Proverb ]

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play.
And wild and sweet, The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men! [ Longfellow ]

I will not play my ace of trumps yet. [ Proverb ]

In books, or work, or healthful play. [ Isaac Watts ]

The gods play games with men as balls. [ Plautus ]

Oh! call my brother back to me!
I cannot play alone;
The summer comes with flower and bee -
Where is my brother gone? [ Mrs. Hemans ]

Pigs play on the organ at Hogs-Norton. [ Proverb ]

When the cat is away, the mice may play. [ Proverb ]

Play, women, and wine undo men laughing. [ Proverb ]

Lofty thought lies oft in childish play. [ Johann C. F. Von Schiller ]

We should play to live, not live to play. [ Proverb ]

In sleep, when fancy is let loose to play.
Our dreams repeat the wishes of the day. [ Claudius ]

Alas for him who never sees
The stars shine through his cypress-trees!
Who, hopeless, lays his dead away,
Nor looks to see the breaking day
Across the mournful marbles play! [ Whittier ]

Play at small games rather than stand out. [ Proverb ]

Fie, fie! horse-play is not for gentlemen. [ Proverb ]

Why, let the stricken deer go weep,
The heart ungalled play;
For some must watch, while some must sleep;
Thus runs the world away. [ William Shakespeare ]

To play at chess when the house is on fire. [ English Proverb, collected by George Herbert ]

It is a cunning part to play the fool well. [ Proverb ]

Nature never made us for play and pleasure. [ Proverb ]

Time-honored golf! I heard it whispered once
That he who could not play was held a dunce
On old Olympus, when it teemed with gods. [ G. F. Carnegie ]

When driving ceases, may we still be able
To play the shorts, putt and be comfortable. [ G. F. Carnegie ]

I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano:
A stage where every man must play a part. [ William Shakespeare ]

If your cast be bad, mend it with good play. [ Proverb ]

It is poor play that is not worth the candle. [ Proverb ]

As good play for nothing as work for nothing. [ Proverb ]

My learning is play, and my play is learning. [ Van Alphen ]

Tired he sleeps, and Life's poor play is over. [ Pope ]

It signifies nothing to play well if you lose. [ Proverb ]

Let me play the fool
With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come;
And let my liver rather heat with wine,
Than my heart cool with mortifying groans. [ William Shakespeare ]

It is lost labour to play a jig to an old cat. [ Proverb ]

Leave off play as soon as the pleasure is past. [ Proverb ]

A man gets no thanks for what he loses at play. [ Proverb ]

And softened sounds along the waters die:
Smooth flow the waves, the zephyrs gently play. [ Pope ]

You play the spaniel,
And think with wagging of your tongue to win me. [ William Shakespeare ]

If you play with boys, you must take boy's play. [ Proverb ]

Be it a weakness, it deserves some praise,
We love the play-place of our early days.
The scene is touching, and the heart is stone.
That feels not at that sight, and feels at none. [ Cowper ]

Unchangeable save in thy wild waves' play,
Time writes no wrinkle on thine azure brow;
Such as creation's dawn beheld, thou rollest now. [ Byron ]

Though this may be play to you, 'Tis death to us. [ Roger L'Estrange ]

Did you ever before hear an ass play upon a lute? [ Proverb ]

Many can pack the cards better than they can play. [ Proverb ]

I have play'd the fool, the gross fool, to believe
The bosom of a friend will hold a secret
Mine own could not retain. [ Massinger ]

She is like a cat, she will play with her own tail. [ Proverb ]

He that will cheat at play, will cheat you any way. [ Proverb ]

Play may be good, but folly can never be of any use. [ Proverb ]

It is pleasant to play the fool (i.e. relax) sometimes. [ Horace ]

Some would play a tune before you can tune your fiddle. [ Proverb ]

Give the piper a penny to play, and twopence to leave off. [ Proverb ]

He is no wise man that cannot play the fool upon occasion. [ Proverb ]

If music be the food of love, play on; Give me excess of it. [ William Shakespeare ]

The lute is in the hand of him that knows how to play on it. [ Proverb ]

Wit sometimes helps us to play the fool with more confidence. [ Proverb ]

One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards. [ Oscar Wilde, An Ideal Husband ]

If you have done no ill the six days, you may play the seventh. [ Proverb ]

Play with a fool at home, and he will'play with you in the market. [ English Proverb, collected by George Herbert ]

Is it worth the name of freedom to be at liberty to play the fool? [ Locke ]

Men never play the fool more, than by endeavouring to be otherwise. [ Proverb ]

To blow is not to play the flute; you must move the fingers as well. [ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ]

When you have made me shuffle the cards then truly you will not play. [ Proverb ]

And all labor without any play, boys. Makes Jack a dull boy in the end. [ H. A. Page ]

War is a game which, were their subjects wise, kings should not play at. [ William Cowper ]

Every natural movement is graceful. Did you ever watch a kitten at play? [ Anna Cora Mowatt ]

The life of a miser is a play of which we applaud only the closing scene. [ Sanial-Dubay ]

Provocation is a play of coquetry of which virtue often pays the penalty. [ Lingrie ]

If you let a fool play with you at home, he will do with you in the market. [ Proverb ]

At Christmas play, and make good cheer. For Christmas comes but once a year. [ Tusser ]

I am not sorry that my son loses at play, but that he will seek his revenge. [ Proverb ]

Genius - the free and harmonious play of all the faculties of a human being. [ Alcott ]

To blow on the flute is not to play on it; you must move the fingers as well. [ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ]

It is remarkable how virtuous and generously disposed every one is at a play. [ Hazlitt ]

The brains of a fox will be of little service if you play with the paw of a lion. [ Proverb ]

He that gives himself leave to play with his neighbour's fame, may soon play it away. [ Proverb ]

Commerce is a game of skill, which every one cannot play, which few men can play well. [ Ralph Waldo Emerson ]

He comes to you with a tale which holds children from play and old men from the chimney-corner. [ Sir P. Sidney ]

Great men do not play stage tricks with the doctrines of life and death; only little men do that. [ John Ruskin ]

To talk in a tête-à-tête of the mysteries of love, is to play with fire on a barrel of gunpowder. [ Levis ]

If a man can play the true logician, and have judgment as well as invention, he may do great matters. [ Lord Bacon ]

Well, thus we play the fools with the time, and the spirits of the wise sit in the clouds and mock us. [ William Shakespeare ]

The art of putting well into play mediocre qualities often begets more reputation than true merit achieves. [ Rochefoucauld ]

Be glad of life, because it gives you the chance to love and to work and to play and to look up at the stars. [ Henry van Dyke ]

It is with books as with men: a very small number play a great part; the rest are confounded with the multitude. [ Voltaire ]

Life was never a May-game for men; not play at all, but hard work, that makes the sinews sore and the heart sore. [ Carlyle ]

If music be the food of love, play on, give me excess of it; that, surfeiting, the appetite may sicken, and so die. [ William Shakespeare ]

They who love dancing too much seem to have more brains in their feet than their head, and think to play the fool with reason. [ Terence ]

Life is like a game of whist. I don't enjoy the game much; but I like to play my cards well, and see what will be the end of it. [ George Eliot ]

Dramatical or representative play is, as it were, a visible history; for it sets out the image of things as if they were present. [ Bacon ]

The propriety of thoughts and words, which are the hidden beauties of a play, are but confusedly judged in the vehemence of action. [ Dryden ]

The perfection of conversation is not to play a regular sonata, but, like the Aeolian harp, to await the inspiration of the passing breeze. [ Burke ]

Some men are counted wise from the cunning manner in which they hide their ignorance. In what little they do know such men play the pedant. [ A. Ricard ]

If you ever discover that what you're seeing is a play within a play, just slow down, take a deep breath, and hold on for the ride of your life. [ Jack Handey, Deep Thoughts ]

The one advantage of playing with fire is that one never even gets singed. It is the people who don't know how to play with it that get burned up. [ Oscar Wilde, A Woman of No Importance ]

Happy is he to whom his business itself becomes a puppet, who at length can play with it, and amuse himself with what his situation makes his duty. [ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ]

Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, play the man! We shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out. [ Latimer ]

And the prettiest foot; Oh, if a man could but fasten his eyes to her feet as they steal in and out, and play at bo-peep under her petticoats, Ah! Mr. Trapland? [ Congreve ]

We see but the outside of a rich man's happiness; few consider him to be like the silkworm, that, when she seems to play, is at the very same time consuming herself. [ Izaak Walton ]

Music, if only listened to, and not scientifically cultivated, gives too much play to the feelings and fancy; the difficulties of the art draw forth the whole energies of the soul. [ Richter ]

No man can force the harp of his own individuality into the people's heart; but every man may play upon the chords of the people's heart, who draws his inspiration from the people's instinct. [ Kossuth ]

When I was a kid my favorite relative was Uncle Caveman. After school we'd all go play in his cave, and every once in a while he would eat one of us. It wasn't until later that I found out that Uncle Caveman was a bear. [ Jack Handey, Deep Thoughts ]

I have no wife or children, good or bad, to provide for; a mere spectator of other men's fortunes and adventures, and how they play their parts; which, methinks, are diversely presetted unto me, as from a common theatre or scene. [ Burton ]

The tragedy of Hamlet is critically considered to be the masterpiece of dramatic poetry; and the tragedy of Hamlet is also, according to the testimony of every sort of manager, the play of all others which can invariably be depended on to fill a theater. [ G. A. Sala ]

The eye speaks with an eloquence and truthfulness surpassing speech. It is the window out of which the winged thoughts often fly unwittingly. It is the tiny magic mirror on whose crystal surface the moods of feeling fitfully play, like the sunlight and shadow on a still stream. [ Tuckerman ]

That which I have found the best recreation both to my mind and body, whensoever either of them stands in need of it, is music, which exercises at once both body and soul; especially when I play myself; for then, methinks, the same motion that my hands make upon the instrument, the instrument makes upon my heart. [ J. Beveridge ]

If you love music, hear it; go to operas, concerts, and pay fiddlers to play to you. But I insist upon your neither piping nor fiddling yourself; it puts a gentleman in a very frivolous, contemptible light; brings him into a great deal of bad company, and takes up a great deal of time which might be much better employed. [ Chesterfield ]

Wise, cultivated, genial conversation is the best flower of civilisation, and the best result which life has to offer us--a cup for gods, which has no repentance. Conversation is our account of ourselves. All we have, all we can, all we know is brought into play, and as the reproduction, in finer form, of all our havings. [ Ralph Waldo Emerson ]

Vulgar habit people have nowadays of asking one, after one has given them an idea, whether one is serious or not. Nothing is serious except passion. The intellect is an instrument on which one plays, that is all. The only serious form of intellect is the British intellect. And on the British form of intellect the illiterates play the drum. [ Oscar Wilde, A Woman of No Importance ]