Huizinga Quotes

All play means something.

The eternal gulf between being and idea can only be bridged by the rainbow of imagination.

If a serious statement is defined as one that may be made in terms of waking life, poetry will never rise to the level of seriousness. It lies beyond seriousness, on that more primitive and original level where the child, the animal, the savage, and the seer belong, in the region of dream, enchantment, ecstasy, laughter. To understand poetry we must be capable of donning the child's soul like a magic cloak and of forsaking man's wisdom for the child's.

To fill in all the gaps in my knowledge beforehand was out of the question for me. I had to write now, or not at all. And I wanted to write.

Our point of departure must be the conception of an almost childlike play-sense expressing itself in various play-forms, some serious, some playful, but all rooted in ritual and productive of culture by allowing the innate human need of rhythm, harmony, change, alternation, contrast and climax, etc., to unfold in full richness.

You can deny, if you like, nearly all abstractions: justice, beauty, truth, goodness, mind, God. You can deny seriousness, but not play.

The outlaw, the revolutionary, the cabbalist or member of a secret society, indeed heretics of all kinds are of a highly associative if not sociable disposition, and a certain element of play is prominent in all their doings.

Life must be lived as play, playing certain games, making sacrifices, singing and dancing, and then a man will be able to propitiate the gods, and defend himself against his enemies, and win in the contest”. Thus

The word "school" has a curious history behind it. Meaning originally "leisure" it has now acquired precisely the opposite sense of systematic work and training, as civilization restricted the free disposal of the young man's time more and more and herded larger and larger classes of the young to a daily life of severe application from childhood onwards.

For many years the conviction has grown upon me that civilization arises and unfolds in and as play.

Megértettem, hogy a tanulásnak soha sincs vége, s olyan folyamatról van szó, amelyet szinte minden nap újra kell kezdenünk.

Play is battle and battle is play.

I had to write now, or not at all. And I wanted to write.

For us the chief point of interest is the place where the game is played. Generatly it is a simple circle, dyutamandalam, drawn on the ground. The circle as such, however, has a magic significance. It is drawn with great care, all sorts of precautions being taken against cheating. The players are not allowed to leave the ring until they have discharged their obligations. But, sometimes a special hall is provisionally erected for the game, and this hall is holy ground. The Mahabharata devotes a whole chapter to the erection of the dicing hall - sabha - where the Pandavas are to meet their prtners. Games, of chance, therefore, have their serious side. They are included in ritual.

Ha tévedni emberi dolog, miért neveznénk az embert szerencsétlennek, amiért téved, ha egyszer így született, ilyennek teremtették, s ez általában a sorsa.

A bölcsesség kezdete az önismeret.

We, at the present day, can hardly understand the keenness with which a fur coat, a good fire on the hearth, a soft bed, a glass of wine, were formerly enjoyed.

An abundance of pictorial fancy, after all, furnished the simple mind quite as much matter for deviating from pure doctrine as any personal interpretation of Holy Scripture.

Minden hőstett forrása a háború, a legbalgább dolog a világon.

Aki tökéletesen okos és komoly, az képtelen élni. Minél jobban eltávolodik tőlem, Balgaságtól valaki, annál kevésbé él. Ugyan miért, mi okból csókolgatjuk, ölelgetjük a kisgyermekeket, ha nem azért, mert olyan csodálatosan balgák még. S mi más teszi az ifjúságot oly vonzóvá?

There is no more striking symptom of the decline of the play-factor than the disappearance of everything imaginative, fanciful, fantastic from men’s dress after the French Revolution. Long

real civilization cannot exist in the absence of a certain play-element, for civilization presupposes limitation and mastery of the self, the ability not to confuse its own tendencies with the ultimate and highest goal, but to understand that it is enclosed within certain bounds freely accepted.

Above all, a game is an opportunity, an easy- to-understand instrument by which context is defamiliarized just enough to allow what Huizinga famously refers to as his “a magic circle” of play to occur.

Aki az élet tragédiáit bölcs belátással akarná végigcsinálni, azonnal megfosztaná magát az élettől. Csakis a balgaság nyújt vigaszt: eltévelyedni, tévedni, tudatlannak lenni nem más, mint embernek lenni.

A népnyelv e kifinomult szellem számára mindent túl közvetlenné, túl személyessé, túl reálissá tett volna. Szüksége volt arra a homályos, távolságtartó, könnyű fátyolra, amelyet a latin nyelv vont a dolgok köré.

In play there is something “at play” which transcends the immediate needs of life and imparts meaning to the action. All play means something. If we call the active principle that makes up the essence of play, “instinct”, we explain nothing; if we call it “mind” or “will” we say too much. However we may regard it, the very fact that play has a meaning implies a non-materialistic quality in the nature of the thing itself.

Akinek egy jelszava van, vagy akár csak egyetlen politikai kifejezése, mint például: fajelmélet, bolsevizmus vagy bármi legyen is az, botot tart kezében, mellyel a kutyára üthet. A mai politikai publicisztika nagyjából ilyen botokkal hadonászik, hogy a kutyákra üthessen és olvasóit lázálmos betegekké neveli, kik mindenhol kutyákat látnak.

A tudat, hogy szavunk az egész világhoz azonnal eljuthat, olyan ösztönzés, mely öntudatlanul is hatással van a megnyilatkozás módjára, s olyan gazdagság is egyben, melyet csak a legnagyobb szellemóriások viselhetnek el büntetlenül.

The whole functioning of the mediaeval University was profoundly agonistic and ludic. The everlasting disputations which took the place of our learned discussions in periodicals, etc., the solemn ceremonial which is still such a marked feature of University life, the grouping of scholars into nationes, the divisions and subdivisions, the schisms, the unbridgeable gulfs—all these are phenomena belonging to the sphere of competition and play-rules. Erasmus

Azt, amikor a szellem széttöri a bilincseit, menekülést keres, és szabadságra vágyik. Ez tehát a boldogság, egyben azonban elszakadás a földi dolgoktól, s a legnagyobb bölcsesség is. Az igazi boldogság az éntől való megszabadulás, a szeretők boldogsága, akiket Platón mindenki közül a legboldogabbnak nevez.

A szentimentális barátságok a tizenötödik század világi köreiben éppolyan nemes dolognak számítottak, mint a tizennyolcadik század végén. Egyformán öltözködő, szobát, ágyat és szívet egymással megosztó baráti párokat minden udvarnál lehetett találni. A bensőséges barátság létrehívása és ápolása nem korlátozódott az arisztokráciára.

A bölcsesség úgy áramlik a balgasághoz, mint az ész az érzelmekhez. S a világban sokkal több az érzelem, mint az ész. Ami az életet mozgásban tartja, az élet forrása a balgaság. Mert mi egyéb a szerelem? Miért házasodik az ember, ha nem balgaságból, mely soha nem ismer akadályt? Minden élvezet, minden szórakozás csak a balgaság fűszere.

The Japanese samurai held the view that what was serious for the common man was but a game for the valiant. Noble

Szabadság nélkül nem élet az élet, nyugalom nélkül pedig nincsen szabadság.

Nyugalom az egyén számára, könyvektől körülvéve, ez a legvágyottabb állapot.

This levelling down and democratization of men’s fashions is far from unimportant. The whole transformation of mind and society since the French Revolution is expressed in it.

El club corresponde al juego como el sombrero a la cabeza

De a sors tovább űz minket.

Nec si quot placidis ignea noctibus Scintillant tacito sydera culmine, Nec si quot tepidum flante Favonio Ver suffundit humo rosas, Tot sint ora mihi...

All the best elements of patriotism—the spirit of sacrifice, the desire for justice and protection for the oppressed—sprouted in the soil of chivalry. It is in the classic country of chivalry,

Huizinga noticed that contemporary man behaves childishly, in the negative sense of the word--that is, in a way which is equal to the mental level of puberty: banal amusements; the absence of authentic humor; the need for strong sensations; the inclination to mass parades and slogans; and the expression of an exaggerated hate or love, blame or praise, which have a mass and brutal aspect.

Az Enchiridion alaphangja már olyan, amilyen a továbbiakban Erasmus életművének az alaphangja mindig marad: az az ember szól így, aki nem bírja elviselni, hogy a világban a látszat annyira más, mint a lényeg, hogy a világ azokat becsüli, akiket nem kellene, hogy az elvakultság, a mindennapi gondok és a meggondolatlanság megakadályozza az embereket, hogy a dolgok valódi összefüggéseit meglássák.

Los juegos de azar hay que considerarlos como estériles para la cultura. Ninguna riqueza aportan ni al espíritu ni a la vida. Pero otra cosa ocurre cuando la porfía exige destreza, habilidad, conocimientos, valor y fuerza.

For us the chief point of interest is the place where the game is played. Generally it is a simple circle, dyutamandalam, drawn on the ground. The circle as such, however, has a magic significance. It is drawn with great care, all sorts of precautions being taken against cheating. The players are not allowed to leave the ring until they have discharged their obligations. But, sometimes a special hall is provisionally erected for the game, and this hall is holy ground. The Mahabharata devotes a whole chapter to the erection of the dicing hall - sabha - where the Pandavas are to meet their prtners. Games, of chance, therefore, have their serious side. They are included in ritual.

A reneszánsz szellemének egyik legfőbb jellegzetessége a valóság figyelemre méltó tényei utáni határtalan tudásvágy s e tények befogadásának korlátlan mértéke. Az emberek nem tudtak betelni a tanulságos történetekkel, a különlegességekkel, ritkaságokkal, anomáliákkal. Egyenlőre nyoma sem volt a későbbi korok szellemi émelygésének, amikor már nem tudtak megbirkózni a valósággal, mely semmiképp sem volt többé a szájuk ízének való; most még bőségesen áradt az élvezet.

Quarrels and acts of violence go hand in hand with the ceremonious abdication of all pride, of which they are the reverse. Noble families disputed fiercely for that same precedence in church by which they courteously pretended to set little store.

Az ebben a korszakban kibontakozó levélműfaj s mai idők újságjának szerepét töltötte be, vagy még inkább az irodalmi folyóiratét, amely szinte közvetlenül a tudós-levelezésből alakult ki. A levélírás, akárcsak az ókorban, amelyet e tekintetben talán még jobban és hasznosabban utánoztak, mint bármilyen más területen, művészet volt. […] A levelek általában azzal a megfontolással íródtak, hogy később, szélesebb körben publikálásra kerülnek, vagy mindenesetre annak a tudatában, hogy a címzett másoknak is megmutatja őket.

Nélkülem – mondja Balgaság – a világ egy pillanatig sem lehet meg. „Mert van-e emberi tett, ami ne lenne tele balgasággal? Hiszen balgák »teszik« balga környezetben.” " Az életben semmi közösségi kötelék nem lenne kellemes vagy maradandó nélkülem. Nem tűrné el hosszabb ideig nép a fejedelmét, úr szolgáját, szolgáló az úrnőjét, tanító a tanítványát, barát a barátját, asszony a férjét, ha kölcsönösen nem ámítanák magukat, nem hízelegnének egymásnak, szemet nem hunynának bölcsen, és a Balgaság mézével nem csillapítanák magukat.

Az egész reneszánsz ezt a vágyképet dédelgette, fák alatt meghúzódó, hűvös házban jó és bölcs barátok csendes, derűs, mégis komoly társalgásának a képét. Nyugalom és harmónia. Az egész évszázad az egyszerűség, őszinteség, igazság és természetesség megvalósítására törekedett.

Rosszabbak vagyunk, mint az állatok, amelyek közül nem mindegyik harcol, csak a vadak. Ők azonban legalább természetes fegyvereikkel harcolnak, nem úgy, mint mi, ördögi furfanggal kiagyalt gépekkel. Ők a kicsinyeikért vagy ennivalóért harcolnak; a mi háborúink legtöbbször becsvágyból vagy dühből vagy irigységből vagy a lélek más, hasonló betegségeiből fakadnak. A legszerencsésebb kimenetelű háború is több rosszal, mint jóval jár. A háborúzással senki nem tud anélkül bajt hozni ellenségére, hogy előbb az övéire ne zúdítson számtalan szerencsétlenséget.

The supersession of the round dance, choral and figure dances by dancing à deux, whether this take the form of gyrating as in the waltz or polka or the slitherings and slidings and even acrobatics of contemporary dancing, is probably to be regarded as a symptom of declining culture. There

Play, by definition, is carefree and unself-conscious. The great theoretician of play, Johan Huizinga, maintained that a fundamental feature of play is that it serves no other purpose. The purposelessness associated with play is hard to reconcile with our culture of high efficiency and constant accountability. More and more, we measure play by its benefits. We play squash for cardiovascular conditioning; we take our kids to dinner to expand their palates; we go on vacation to recharge. Yet if we’re plagued by self-awareness, obsessed with outcomes, or fearful of judgment, our enjoyment is inevitably compromised

Here the bewildering antithesis of play and seriousness presents itself once more. We have gradually become convinced that civilization is rooted in noble play and that, if it is to unfold in full dignity and style, it cannot afford to neglect the play-element. The observance of play-rules is nowhere more imperative than in the relations between countries and States. Once they are broken, society falls into barbarism and chaos. On the other hand we cannot deny that modern warfare has lapsed into the old agonistic attitude of playing at war for the sake of prestige and glory. Now this is our difficulty: modern warfare has, on the face of it, lost all contact with play.

Is it surprising that the people could see their fate and that of the world only as an endless succession of evils? Bad governance, exactions, the cupidity and violence of the great, wars and brigandage, scarcity, misery and pestilence—to this is contemporary history nearly reduced in the eyes of the people. The feeling of general insecurity which was caused by the chronic form wars were apt to take, by the constant menace of the dangerous classes, by the mistrust of justice, was further aggravated by the obsession of the coming end of the world, and by the fear of hell, of sorcerers and of devils. The background of all life in the world seems black. Satan covers a gloomy earth with his somber wings.

The view we take in the following pages is that culture arises in the form of play, that it is played from the very beginning. Even those activities which aim at the immediate satisfaction of vital needs--hunting, for instance--tend, in archaic society, to take on the play form. Social life is endued with supra-biological forms, in the shape of play, which enhance its value. It is through this playing that society expresses its interpretation of life and the world.

Let me hasten to assure the reader that I am not developing an apologia for traditional religion but only describing the impoverishment of the modern neurotic and some of the reasons for it. I want to give some background for understanding how centrally Rank himself stands in the tradition of Pascal, Kierkegaard, and Chesterton on the problem of faith and illusion or creative play. As we have learned from Huizinga and more recent writers like Josef Pieper and Harvey Cox, the only secure truth men have is that which they themselves create and dramatize; to live is to play at the meaning of life. The upshot of this whole tradition of thought is that it teaches us once and for all that childlike foolishness is the calling of mature men. Just this way Rank prescribed the cure for neurosis: as the “need for legitimate foolishness.”47 The problem of the union of religion, psychiatry, and social science is contained in this one formula.

Si se considera que lo serio es aquello que se expresa de manera consecuente en las palabras de la vida alerta, entonces la poesía nunca será algo serio. Se halla más allá de lo serio, en aquel recinto, más antiguo, donde habitan el niño, el animal, el salvaje y el vidente, en el campo del sueño, del encanto, de la embriaguez y de la risa. Para comprender la poesía hay que ser capaz de aniñarse el alma, de investirse el alma del niño como una camisa mágica y de preferir su sabiduría a la del adulto.

But in acknowledging play you acknowledge mind, for whatever else play is, it is not matter. Even in the animal world it bursts the bounds of the physically existent. From the point of view of a world wholly determined by the operation of blind forces, play would be altogether superfluous. Play only becomes possible, thinkable and understandable when an influx of mind breaks down the absolute determinism of the cosmos. The very existence of play continually confirms the supra-logical nature of the human situation. Animals play, so they must be more than merely mechanical things. We play and know that we play, so we must be more than merely rational beings, for play is irrational.

In few human activities is competition more ingrained than in music, and has been so ever since the battle between Marsyas and Apollo. Wagner has immortalized these vocal battles in his Meistersinger. As instances from periods following that of the Meistersinger themselves we may cite the contest between Handel and Scarlatti got up by Cardinal Ottoboni in the year 1709, the chosen weapons being harpsichord and organ. In 1717 Augustus the Strong, King of Saxony and Poland, wanted to organize a contest between J. S. Bach and a certain Marchand, but the latter failed to appear. In 1726 all London society was in an uproar because of the competition between the two Italian singers Faustina and Cuzzoni: there were fisticuffs and catcalls. Factions and cliques develop with astonishing ease in musical life. The 18th century is full of these musical coteries—Bononcini versus Handel, Gluck versus Piccini, the Parisian “Bouffons” versus the Opera. The musical squabble sometimes took on the character of a lasting and embittered feud, such as that between the Wagnerians and the Brahmsians.

In the words of the Dutch historian Johan Huizinga, “If we are to preserve culture, we must continue to create it.

As Huizinga wrote, “in making a vow, people imposed some privation upon themselves as a spur to accomplishment of the actions they were pledged to perform.”14 So much importance was placed upon honoring vows that people frequently risked death or suffered serious privations in order to avoid breaking their vows. Often, the oaths themselves bound individuals to perform as matters of honor acts that would probably seem ludicrous to you and most readers of this book.

If the supranationalist vision of the European project prevails, democracy and self-government will steadily be eroded in the vain pursuit of an unachievable world peace.

Naturally, fissures and imbalances are developing constantly in the complex U.S.-Europe relationship. What has often gone unnoticed is that many of the more serious tensions have resulted from the fundamental contradiction between the United States’ concern to safeguard its national sovereignty and the EU’s advocacy of global governance. This has been the key point of friction in the U.S.-EU dispute over the International Criminal Court. Even the near break between the United States and many EU member states over Iraq during the George W. Bush years had much more to do with this fundamental difference in worldview than most observers realize.

A final, crucial point about the European Union: the EU’s global governance ideology grew partly as an answer to the devastation of European wars, but also in response to a spiritual void. In essence, it is post-Christian. The loss of a religious sense of purpose has left a hole in the European soul, which is being filled for many by a belief in the vision of supranational governance.

Play gives meaning to life, wrote the Dutch historian Johan Huizinga back in 1938. He christened us Homo ludens–‘playing man’. Everything we call ‘culture,’ said Huizinga, originates in play.

Jan Huizinga, a Dutch sociologist, studied the game element in human behavior, and noted that we live by game rules which often have never risen to the level of conscious speech. In other words, we not only interpret data as we receive it, we also, quickly and unconsciously, "fit" the data to pre-existing axioms, or game-rules, of our culture (or our sub-culture).

Phenomenological sociology owes a great deal to Husserl and Huizinga, and to Existentialism. Denying abstract or Platonic "reality" (singular) the social scientists of this school recognize only social realities (plural) defined by human interactions and game-rules, and limited by the computational abilities of the human nervous system.

Dutch historian J. Huizinga argues in 'Homo Ludens' that a competition, in order to be interesting to the public, has to be perceived as fair. There is a widespread perception, however, that the judging of FS is biased and that the results of competitions are often fixed. [...] But the perception of bias and favoritism in the judging of skating persists; and it persists because, well, there is bias and favoritism in judging

De populaire spreekwijze drukt dit duidelijk uit in de woorden: het gaat niet om de knikkers, maar om het spel, in andere woorden: het finale element der handeling is in eerste instantie gelegen in den afloop als zoodanig, zonder directe betrekking op wat daarna volgt.

Niet een vorschende wetenschap maar de scheppende taal heeft woord en begrip samen gebaard.

Wie betrapt er zich niet herhaaldelijk op, dat hij een levenloos voorwerp, bij voorbeeld een weerbarsig boordknoopje, luide en doodelijk enstig toespreekt in zuiver menselijke qualificaties, waarmee hij het een weerspannigen wit toekennen, het verwijten doet, het wegens zijn laakbaar verzet beleedigt?

In 1937, Leonhard Huizinga expressed the nature of this quality more poetically. “This music does not create a song for our ears”, he wrote. “It is a ‘state’, such as moonlight poured over the fields.

This passing comment illuminates a particular quality of Javanese gamelan and helps to explain, perhaps, why the music of such a small Southeast Asian archipelago has so strongly influenced music in the twentieth century. In 1937, Leonhard Huizinga expressed the nature of this quality more poetically. “This music does not create a song for our ears”, he wrote. “It is a ‘state’, such as moonlight poured over the fields.

To fill in all the gaps in my knowledge beforehand was out of the question for me. I had to write now, or not at all. And I wanted to write. Leyden, June 1938.

In history, as in nature, birth and death are equally balanced.”1 —JOHAN HUIZINGA

The club survived though and became a symbol of hope and pride for over half a million refugees scattered across Azerbaijan, many of whom still live in temporary settlements within a few kilometers of the frontline.

Football’s power to unite can be stronger than its ability to divide though. For the people of Ağdam: as long as there’s football, there’s hope.

In een opzicht verschilde Simon Carmiggelt niet veel van andere mannen: bij zijn dood liet hij twee weduwen achter. Met de ene was hij getrouwd. De andere ben ik. Sinds zijn dood, een week geleden, ben ik in gedachten constant bij hem, net als in de eerste vier of vijf jaar van onze, hoe zeg je het, verhouding, verbintenis, affaire, laat ik het woord maar noemen: liefde. Mijn laatste grote liefde en de zijne ook. Liever was ik dood geweest. Maar nu ik toch nog leef - een boek van hem heet 'Gewoon maar doorgaan', in het exemplaar dat hij mij gaf, schreef hij 'Allicht!' achter die titel - ga ik dus nog door, maar ik wil om mij te troosten en hem te eren doen waar een weduwe voor is: een monumentje bouwen. Of ik het publiceer en wanneer, dat weet ik niet. Maar het moet er zijn voordat ik zelf niets meer zeggen kan. Want ik moet mij haasten: sterven doe ik misschien nog niet meteen, maar met mijn ziekte kan ik makkelijk blind worden of niet alleen in mijn benen maar ook in mijn handen verlamd. En wie zal het lied dan zingen? Ik moet het doen en ik wil het doen, ik ben trots op zijn liefde en hij was, god zij dank, trots op de mijne. Mijn woning is vol van wat hij achterliet: meer dan duizend ansichtkaarten, tientallen brieven, ongetelde zijden sjaaltjes en dito stropdassen, een zilveren monogram op een antiek leren mapje, een gouden broche, drie mooie horlogetjes, twee gouden Cross-pennen en trouwens nog wat andere maar nooit gebruikte damespennetjes, drie leren tassen en een kalfsleren portefeuille (hij was gek op pennen en op leer), ceintuurs, mapjes van allerlei materiaal, presse-papiers van Venetiaans glas, doosjes, bakjes, poppetjes, speelgoedbeestjes van porselein, of hout, of metaal en ander materiaal, een door hem zelf vervaardigde Huizinga-medaille en een reeks veel te mooie schrijfboeken die blanco bleven wegens te mooi om in te schrijven. Een koffie-apparaat, een cassetterecorder, een radio, kunstboeken (Vuillard, Bonnard, Picasso, Brassai onder anderen), veel gewone boeken en veel boeken van hem waaronder bibliofiele uitgaven, veel grammofoonplaten (Peggy Lee, Cleo Laine, Ives Montand, Satie, Glenn Gould). Al die stomme getuigen - ik zal ze laten praten!