What a man is by himself, what accompanies him into solitude, and what — Amusement

"So good things may be abused, and that which was first invented to refresh mens weary spirits."

"Whatever we do to please ourselves, and only for the sake of the pleasure, not for an ultimate object, is "play," the "pleasing thing," not the useful thing. The first of all English games is making money. That is an all-absorbing game; and we knock each other down oftener in playing at that than at football, or any other rougher sport; and it is absolutely without purpose; no one who engages heartily in that game ever knows why. Ask a great money-maker what he wants to do with his money — he never knows. He doesnt make it to do any thing with it. He gets it only that he may get it. " What will you make of what you have got " you ask, "Well, Ill get more," he says. Just as at cricket you get more runs. There is no use in the runs; but to get more of them than other people is the game. And there is no use in the money; but to have more of it than other people is the game."

"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."

"The inhabitants have a right to take their amusements in a lawful way."

"The very beginning of the soul’s purgation is tranquility, in which the tongue is not given to discussing the affairs of men, nor the eyes to contemplating rosy cheeks or comely bodies, nor the ears to lowering the tone of the soul by listening to songs whose sole object is to amuse, or to words spoken by wits and buffoons—a practice which above all things tends to relax the tone of the soul."

"Hail, blest Confusion! here are met All tongues, and times, and faces; The Lancers flirt with Juliet, The Brahmin talks of races."