If I lose at play, I blaspheme, and if my fellow loses, he blasphemes. So that God is always sure to be the loser.

The gods play games with men as balls.

Courage and grace is a formidable mixture. The only place to see it is in the bullring.

The whole secret of fencing consists but in two things, to give and not to receive.

I never yet could make out why men are so fond of hunting; they often hurt themselves, often spoil good horses, and tear up the fields—and all for a hare or a fox or a stag that they could get more easily some other way.

Hunting is all that’s worth living for—all time is lost what is not spent in hunting—it is like the air we breathe—if we have it not we die—it’s the sport of kings, the image of war without its guilt.

If I played in New York, they’d name a candy bar after me.

No human being is innocent, but there is a class of innocent human actions called games.

Recreations should be as sauces to your meat, to sharpen your appetite unto the duties of your calling, and not to glut yourselves with them.

Gambling is the child of avarice, the brother of iniquity, and the father of mischief.

The sadness of the end of a career of an older athlete, with the betrayal of his body, is mirrored in the rest of us. Consciously or not, we know: there, soon, go I.

I do love cricket—it’s so very English.I do love cricket—it’s so very English.

Academe, n. An ancient school where morality and philosophy were taught.

Academy, n. (from academe) A modern school where football is taught.