Quotes About Engagement

I am not strong because I can force others to do what I wish as a result of my play with them, but because I can allow them to do what they wish in the course of my play with them. 30

Infinite speakers do not give voice to another, but receive it from another. Infinite speakers do not therefore appeal to a world as audience, do not speak before a world, but present themselves as an audience by way of talking with others. Finite speech informs another about the world—for the sake of being heard. Infinite speech forms a world about the other—for the sake of listening.

Whoever wins this struggle is privileged with the claim of true knowledge. Knowledge has been arrived at, it is the outcome of this engagement. Its winners have the uncontested power to make certain statements of fact. They are to be listened to. In those areas appropriate to the contests now concluded, winners possess a knowledge that no longer can be challenged.

When I forsake my genius and speak to you as though I were another, I also speak to you as someone you are not and somewhere you are not. I address you as audience, and do not expect you to respond as the genius you are.

They are valid only if and when players freely play by them.

There is no finite game unless the players freely choose to play it. No one can play who is forced to play. It is an invariable principle of all play, finite and infinite, that whoever plays, plays freely. Whoever must play, cannot play. 3

In one respect, but only one, an infinite game is identical to a finite game: Of infinite players we can also say that if they play they play freely; if they must play, they cannot play. Otherwise, infinite and finite play stand in the sharpest possible contrast.

Indeed, the only purpose of the game is to prevent it from coming to an end, to keep everyone in play.

Who must play, cannot play.

This means that a peculiar burden falls on property owners. Since the laws protecting their property will be effective only when they are able to persuade others to obey those laws, they must introduce a theatricality into their ownership sufficiently engaging that their opponents will live by its script.

An infinite player does not begin working for the purpose of filling up a period of time with work, but for the purpose of filling work with time. Work is not an infinite player's way of passing time, but of engendering possibility. Work is not a way of arriving at a desired present and securing it against an unpredictable future, but of moving toward a future which itself has a future.

Infinite lovers conform to the sexual expectations of others in a way that does not expose something hidden, but unveils something in plain sight: that sexual engagement is a poiesis of free persons. In this exposure they emerge as the persons they are. They meet others with their limitations, and not within their limitations. In doing so they expect to be transformed-and are transformed.

It is convenient to think that sexual misfits violate rules. The matter is subtler by far. They are not concerned to oppose the rules themselves but to engage in competitive struggle by way of those rules. Sexual attractiveness, or sexiness, is effective only to the degree that someone is offended by it.

Just as infinite players can play any number of finite games, so too can they join the audience of any game. They do so, however, for the play that is in observing, quite aware that they are audience. They look, but they see that they are looking.

If the goal of finite play is to win titles for their timelessness, and thus eternal life for oneself, the essence of infinite play is the paradoxical engagement with temporality that Meister Eckhart called "eternal birth.

the only purpose of the game is to prevent it from coming to an end, to keep everyone in play.

The Air Force was repeatedly refused permission to bomb those targets that the Joint Chiefs of Staff deemed most strategic. U.S. troops were given a general order not to fire at the Vietcong until fired upon.

It is better to explore an idea than to keep a polite silence.

sudden, spontaneous eye contact is a sign that two people should talk.

It's as though some people think of interviews as a game of catchphrase bingo, rather than a sincere conversation between two strangers.

It is the empty seats that listen most raptly.

Exercise alone provides psychological and physical benefits. However, if you also adopt a strategy that engages your mind while you exercise, you can get a whole host of psychological benefits fairly quickly.

Wringing your hands only stops you from rolling up your sleeves.

Laat nog eens wat zien.' 'Pinder, hij is geen getrainde duikelaap die een dansje maakt voor een handvol nootjes.' Toch zag Jake hoe Marika probeerde haar eigen nieuwsgierig te verbergen. Hij zag ook dat haar groene ogen het licht weerkaatsten als smaragden. 'Ik kan jullie wel een paar dingen laten zien,' zei Jake. 'Dat hoeft niet,' zei Marika, maar ze fleurde helemaal op.