50 Playful Quotes for the Child in Your Heart

““Play is the highest form of research.” ~ Albert Einstein”

““For a small child there is no division between playing and learning; between the things he or she does ‘just for fun’ and things that are ‘educational.’ The child learns while living and any part of living that is enjoyable is also play.” ~ Penelope Leach”

““Children don’t need more things. The best toys a child can have is a parent who gets down on the floor and plays with them.” ~ Anonymous”

““Play gives children a chance to practice what they are learning.” ~ Mr. Rogers”

““Nothing lights up a child’s brain like play.” ~ Dr. Stuart Brown”

““When we deny children play, we are denying them the right to understand the world.” ~ Erika & Nicholas Christakis”

““Children have always learned and created places for themselves through play.” ~ Donna R. Barnes”

““The soul is healed by being with children.” ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky”

““Play is not a break from learning. It is endless, delightful, deep, engaging, practical learning. It’s the doorway into the child’s heart!” ~ Vince Gowmon”

““Play builds the kind of free-and-easy, try-it-out, do-it-yourself character that our future needs.” ~ James L. Hymes, Jr.”

““In 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.” ~ Lev Vygotsky”

““Play is our brain’s favorite way of learning.” ~ Diane Ackerman”

““Deep meaning lies often in childish play.” ~ Johann Friedrich von Schiller”

““When we make Play the foundation of learning, we teach the Whole child.” ~ Vince Gowmon”

““If we want our kids to have happy, productive, moral lives, we must allow more time for play, not less.” ~ Peter Gray”

““The activities that are the easiest, cheapest, and most fun to do – such as singing, playing games, reading, storytelling, and just talking and listening – are also the best for child development.” ~ Jerome Singer”

““In every real man a child is hidden that wants to play.” ~ Friedrich Nietzsche”

““We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” ~ George Bernard Shaw”

““It’s never too late to have a happy childhood.” ~ Wayne Dyer”

““A 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.” ~ Pablo Neruda”

““The most successful adults maintain the ability to play.” ~ Dr. Jack Shonkoff”

““A person’s maturity consists in having found again the seriousness one had as a child, at play.” ~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche”

““Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play.” ~ Heraclitus”

““I am often accused of being childish. I prefer to interpret that as child-like. I still get wildly enthusiastic about little things. I tend to exaggerate and fantasize and embellish. I still listen to instinctual urges. I play with leaves. I skip down the street and run against the wind.” ~ Leo Buscaglia”

““Childhood is that state which ends the moment a puddle is first viewed as an obstacle instead of an opportunity.” ~ Kathy Williams”

““Almost all creativity involves purposeful play.” ~ Abraham Maslow”

““When we engage in what we are naturally suited to do, our work takes on the quality of play and it is play that stimulates creativity.” ~ Linda Naiman”

““Necessity may be the mother of invention, but play is certainly the father.” ~ Roger von Oech”

““The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect, but by the play instinct.” ~ Carl Jung”

““Play is the answer to the question, ‘How does anything new come about?'” ~ Jean Piaget”

““The truly great advances of this generation will be made by those who can make outrageous connections, and only a mind which knows how to play can do that.” ~ Nagle Jackson”

““If you want creative workers, give them enough time to play.” ~ John Cleese”

““Play fuels your creativity, tickles your inner child and nurtures your soul.” ~ Claudia Black”

““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 W. Watts”

““Life is playfulness…We need to play so that we can rediscover the magic all around us.” ~ Flora Colao”

““All animals, except man, know that the principal business of life is to enjoy it.” ~ Samuel Butler”

““Life must be lived as play.” ~ Plato”

““The true object of all human life is play.” ~ G. K. Chesterton”

““Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun.” ~ Alan Wilson Watts”

““If it’s not fun, you’re not doing it right.” ~ Bob Basso”

““Life isn’t as serious as my mind makes it to be.” ~ Eckhart Tolle”

““Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly.” ~ G. K. Chesterton”

““It’s okay to be absurd, ridiculous and downright irrational at times; silliness is the sweet syrup that helps us swallow the bitter pills of life.” ~ Richelle E. Goodrich”

““Your body cannot heal without play. Your mind cannot heal without laughter. Your soul cannot heal without joy.” ~ Catherine Rippenger Fenwick”

““Play energizes us and enlivens us. It eases our burdens. It renews our natural sense of optimism and opens us up to new possibilities.” ~ Stuart Brown, MD”

““Play is the absence of stress.” ~ Poole”

““Those who play rarely become brittle in the face of stress or lose the healing capacity for humor.” ~ Stuart Brown”

““We are never more fully alive, more completely ourselves, or more deeply engrossed in anything, than when we are at play.” ~ Charles E. Schaefer”

““It is in playing, and only in playing, that the individual child or adult is able to be creative and to use the whole personality, and it is only in being creative that the individual discovers the self.” ~ D.W. Winnicott”

““Play liberates our soul, grounds us into our body, and frees our creativity. Play gifts our spirit to the world!” ~ Vince Gowmon”

““To play with a child is to love a child.” ~ Vince Gowmon”

““I tried to teach my child with books, he gave me only puzzled looks. I tried to teach my child with words, they passed by him often unheard. Despairingly, I turned aside, ‘How shall I teach this child,’ I cried? Into my hand he put the key, ‘Come,’ he said, ‘play with me.'” ~ Anonymous”