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Finite and Infinite Games: A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility
James P. Carse
Top 10 Best Quotes
“To be prepared against surprise is to be trained. To be prepared for surprise is to be educated.”
“A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game for the purpose of continuing the play.”
“Strength is paradoxical. 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.”
“Only that which can change can continue.”
“We are playful when we engage others at the level of choice, when there is no telling in advance where our relationship with them will come out-- when, in fact, no one has an outcome to be imposed on the relationship, apart from the decision to continue it.”
“Because infinite players prepare themselves to be surprised by the future, they play in complete openness. It is not an openness as in candor, but an openness as in vulnerability. It is not a matter of exposing one's unchanging identity, the true self that has always been, but a way of exposing one's ceaseless growth, the dynamic self that has yet to be.”
“No one can play a game alone. One cannot be human by oneself. There is no selfhood where there is no community. We do not relate to others as the persons we are; we are who we are in relating to others. Simultaneously the others with whom we are in relation are themselves in relation. We cannot relate to anyone who is not also relating to us. Our social existence has, therefore, an inescapably fluid character... this ceaseless change does not mean discontinuity; rather change is itself the very basis of our continuity as persons.”
“What will undo any boundary is the awareness that it is our vision, and not what we are viewing, that is limited.”
“War presents itself as necessary for self-protection, when in fact it is necessary for self-identification.”
“Titles are public. They are for others to notice. I expect others to address me according to my titles, but I do not address myself with them-- unless, of course, I address myself as an other.”
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Book Keywords:
revelatory, life-lesson, consciousness, non-fiction, play, philosophy, inspirational, games, psychology
