Johan Huizinga

“If we are to preserve culture, we must continue to create it.”

“Play is older than culture, for culture, however inadequately defined, always presupposes human society, and animals have not waited for man to teach them their playing.”

“The spirit of a people, its cultural level, can be measured by what it finds laughable.”

“In play there is something 'at play' which transcends the immediate needs of life and imparts meaning to the action.”

“The play-concept is of a higher order than is seriousness. For seriousness seeks to exclude play, whereas play can very well include seriousness.”

“Play is a voluntary activity or occupation executed within certain fixed limits of time and place, according to rules freely accepted but absolutely binding.”

“To be a prophet is not a profession but a destiny.”

“History is the intellectual form in which a civilization renders account to itself of its past.”

“All play means something.”

“The true civilization is where every man gives to every other every right that he claims for himself.”

“So long as there is life, there is hope.”

“A culture is not only a set of values, it is a selection of values, a hierarchy of values.”

“The fun of playing, resists all analysis, all logical interpretation.”

“The existence of play continually confirms the supra-logical nature of the human situation.”