Topic
Games in this collection reveal character in ways that more serious contexts conceal. Plato's you-can-discover-more-in-an-hour-of-play-than-a-year-of-conversation is the diagnostic claim: unguarded play exposes the self more reliably than deliberate self-presentation. Voltaire on playing the cards you are dealt extends the metaphor from recreation to existence: life itself is the game, and the question is always how to play what you have been given. Churchill on golf — using weapons singularly ill-adapted to the purpose — is the satirical entry that makes the same point from the other direction: games reveal the absurdity of much human striving. Nietzsche on the true man wanting danger and play is the philosophical ground: games are not trivial activities but expressions of the deepest human desires. Montaigne on children's games as their most serious-minded activity returns us to Plato: what we call play is often the most authentic form of engagement available.