31 Quotes by Brian Sutton-Smith

It's a mistake to try to use play to deliberately foster developmental progress.

The kid who can play imaginatively doesn't tend to be violent. It's the same with adults.

A weakness of many of the self-oriented play theories is that they often sound too much like vain consumerism instead of being about the more passionate and willful character of human play, which involves a willingness, even if a fantasy, to believe in the play venture itself.

I keep trying to understand the phenomenon of why adults are so literal when children are so imaginative. Toys are a caricature of reality.

To play is to act out and be willful, exultant and committed, as if one is assured of one's prospects.

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

Puritanical attempts to cure society by taking toys away from children are hypocritical and futile.

The connections in the brain fade away unless used. We know that early stimulation of children leads to higher cognitive scores.

Adults spend $500 billion on games and leisure activity each year, and some adults lament that kids get $15 billion for toys.