Eric Hoffer Quotes

Play is a uniquely adaptive act, not subordinate to some other adaptive act, but with a special function of its own in human experience.

Every boy learns more in his hours of play than in his hours of labor. In school, he lays in the materials of thinking, but in his sports, he actually thinks: he whets his faculties, and he opens his eyes.

If you watch young children play, you will notice that they create games, characters, situations, whole worlds in which they immerse themselves with intense concentration.

Children have such vibrant minds. They need to play. They need to be creative. They need to imagine. It's so important for their sense of self discovery. And it helps them learn problem-solving.

It should be noted that children at play are not playing about; their games should be seen as their most serious-minded activity.

Play is the work of children. It's very serious stuff.

Divisional exercise is a great game of make-believe.

Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.

In play, a child is always above his average age, above his daily behavior; in play, it is as though he were a head taller than himself.

People have to see play as more important than what it currently is. We don't want to get boxed into thinking play only happens on a playground. The best type of play is all kinds of play.

For truly it is to be noted, that children's plays are not sports, and should be deemed as their most serious actions.

Playing is my way of thinking, talking, communicating.

I believe a child's most important job is to explore the world around them through play.

By playing, you learn.

Forget about teaching the children about numbers and colors and the like, and just play with them.

Scientists who study play, in animals and humans alike, are developing a consensus view that play is something more than a way for restless kids to work off steam; more than a way for chubby kids to burn off calories; more than a frivolous luxury.

You see a child play, and it is so close to seeing an artist paint, for in play a child says things without uttering a word. You can see how he solves his problems. You can also see what's wrong. Young children, especially, have enormous creativity, and whatever's in them rises to the surface in free play.

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.

Play reaches the habits most needed for intellectual growth.

Kids get bored easily. They have got to get out and get their hands dirty: make things, dismantle things, fix things.

When kids play, they are working on imagining the kind of world we live in.

It 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.

Why we play as children is not because it is our work or because it is how we learn, though both statements are true; we play because we are wired for joy, it is imperative as human beings.

We know when children have a place to play they live healthier, happier lives.

Look at kids playing with blocks. I think it's in everyone's DNA to want to be a builder.