quotations about amusement
Thus the amusements which constitute men's happiness here, are not only mean, they are false and deceitful; that is to say, they have for their object a set of phantoms and illusions, which could not occupy the human mind, if it had not lost its taste and feeling for that which is really good, if it were not filled with low propensities, with vanity, and levity, and pride, and a host of other vices. And these diversions alleviate our present sorrows, only by originating a misery more real and more effectual. For it is they which mainly hinder us from thinking of ourselves, and make us lose our time without perceiving it.
BLAISE PASCAL
Thoughts of Blaise Pascal
One must be serious about something, if one wants to have any amusement in life.
OSCAR WILDE
The Importance of Being Earnest
Put away forbidden playthings
Amusements and distractions
And dismantle the contraption and carry it away
In time as beauty dissolves into glamour
It slips from your heart and falls under the hammer
Put away forbidden playthings
ELVIS COSTELLO
"Put Away Forbidden Playthings"
If you would rule the world quietly, you must keep it amused.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
Essays
Innocent amusements are such as excite moderately, and such as produce a cheerful frame of mind, not boisterous mirth; such as refresh, instead of exhausting the system; such as recur frequently, rather than continue long; such as send us back to our daily duties invigorated in body and spirit; such as we can partake of in the presence and society of respectable friends; such as consist with and are favorable to a grateful piety; such as are chastened by self-respect, and are accompanied with the consciousness that life has a higher end than to be amused.
WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING
The American Monthly Magazine, 1837
I am a great friend to public amusements, for they keep people from vice.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
The Life of Samuel Johnson
Certain forms of recreation are needful and useful; but it is a wretched thing when amusement becomes a vocation.
CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON
The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, 1888
Like a moth by a flame I was so easily swayed
I fell so eagerly into the game that you played
I was just an excuse for your idle amusement
And I took the abuse to my utter confusement
WALTER EGAN
"Hard Love", The Lost Album
Amusement has always been the great moving force behind culture.
ITALO CALVINO
Collection of Sand
If man were to devote himself unceasingly to a dull round of study or business, without breaking the monotony by cheerful amusements, he would fall imperceptibly into idiocy, or be struck by paralysis.
HERODOTUS
attributed, Day's Collacon
Certain bounds must be observed in our amusements, and we must be careful not to carry things too far and, swept away by our passions, lapse into shameful excess.
CICERO
De Officiis
It would therefore be for the benefit of every society, that is disturbed by contending factions, to encourage such innocent amusements as may thus disembitter the minds of men, and make them mutually rejoice in the same agreeable satisfactions.
JOSEPH ADDISON
The Freeholder, April 16, 1716
Life would be tolerable but for its amusements.
GEORGE CORNEWALL LEWIS
attributed, The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism
Even the very amusements of a man of fortune should be founded in utility.
WILLIAM GILPIN
Lectures on the Catechism of the Church of England
A man of intellect, when entirely alone, has excellent entertainment in his own thoughts and fancies, whereas the continuous diversity of parties, plays, excursions, and amusements cannot ward off from the dullard the tortures of boredom.
ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER
"Aphorisms on the Wisdom of Life", Parerga und Paralipomena
Persons without minds are like bad weeds that delight in good earth; they want to be amused by others, all the more because they are dull within.
HONORÉ DE BALZAC
La Peau de chagrin
Joining in the amusement of others is, in our social state, the next thing to sympathy in their distresses.
WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR
attributed, Day's Collacon
When at home, try to amuse yourself; when visiting, try to amuse others.
EVAN ESAR
20,000 Quips & Quotes
O ye Lorenzos of our age! who deem
One moment unamus'd, a misery.
EDWARD YOUNG
Night Thoughts
America is the first culture in jeopardy of amusing itself to death.
JOHN PIPER
Don't Waste Your Life