Chess quotes .....

"My style is somewhere between that of Tal and Petrosian"
[made in all seriousness by RESHEVSKY in Great Chess Upsets]

"Why must I lose to this idiot?"
['Alekhine', says Peter, but I heard it was NIMZOVITCH - DR]

"Winning isn't everything... but losing is nothing"
[MEDNIS, on the importance of fighting for a draw]

In chess, at least, the brave inherit the earth.
[Edmar MEDNIS, commenting on Tal]

Normally we'd draw the curtain here, but I just wanted to see what he'd play next.
[FISCHER, on delaying resignation]

If your opponent offers you a draw, try to work out why he thinks he's worse off.
[Nigel SHORT]

"Later, ... I began to succeed in decisive games. Perhaps because I realised a very simple truth: not only was I worried, but also my opponent."

-- Mikhail TAL

Here are some of the questions and answers to an examination paper in chess that was given some time ago by Dr. TARRASCH. (...)

"Q: What is the object of playing a gambit opening?
A: To acquire a reputation of being a dashing player at the cost of losing a game.

Q: Account briefly for the popularity of the Queen Pawn Opening in matches of a serious nature.
A: Laziness.

Q: What is the duty of an umpire where a player wilfully upsets the board?
A: Remove the bottle.

Q: What exceptional circumstances will justify the stopping of clocks during a tournament game?
A: Strangling a photographer. "

-- Chess Review, 1935.

"No fool can play chess, and only fools do."

-- GERMAN

"You may knock your opponent down with the chessboard, but that does not prove that you are the better player."

-- ENGLISH

"After black's reply to 1.e4 with 1..e5 leaves him always trying to get into the game"

-- Howard STAUNTON

All openings are sound below master level.
[LOMBARDY?]

Choose an opening... which is sound, regardless of fluctuations in current theory.
[HOROWITZ and REINFIELD, in recommending the Sicilian Dragon(!)]

when I'm white I win because I am white, when I'm black I win because I am Bogulyubov"

"I have never in my life played the French Defence, which is the dullest of all openings"

-- STEINITZ

"Like us as Black", beg the chess pieces," and you will anyway like us as White"

-- Isaac BOLESLAVSKY

"I find that chess is very useful when travelling alone in Turkey. ...Take yourself to the nearest teahouse. Order a glass of tea, and another or Raki, and set up a chess problem. Within seconds Turks will appear. they won't play chess with you, but it starts a conversation.

"I did this once and someone asked, "Can I practise my English with you?" His first question was: "How many princesses have you slept with?" So now you see the point of chess."

-- Bryan SEWELL

"If chess is a science, it's a most inexact one. If chess is an art, it's too exacting to be seen as one. If chess is a sport, it's too aesoteric. If chess is a game, it's too demanding to be *just* a game. If chess is a mistress, she's a demanding one. If chess is a passion, it's a rewarding one. If chess is life, it's a sad one. "

-- pinched from http://freedom.NMSU.Edu/~jdenman/

"The chess-board is the world,
the pieces are the phenomena of the Universe,
the rules of the game are what we call the laws of Nature,
The player on the other side is hidden from us."

-- Thomas HUXLEY (1825-1895).

"A discussion between the top management of the firm Audi and grandmasters Darga, Schmid and Pfleger dealt with the similarities and differences between chess-oriented thinking and the thinking processes required in business, and in particular whether one can benefit from the other. The question arose as to how a chess master actually discovers his moves. Dr. Pfleger was of the opinion that in the last analysis nobody fully knows the reasoning by which he arrives at a certain move. Schmid disagreed emphatically, stating that he knew very well why he played his moves!"

-- PFLEGER and TREPPNER, Chess: the mechanics of the mind

"There are two classes of men; those who are content to yield to circumstances and who play whist; those who aim to control circumstances, and who play chess."

-- Mortimer COLLINS.

"She hung up and I set out the chess board. I filled a pipe, paraded the chessmen and inspected them for French shaves and loose buttons, and played a championship tournament game between Gortchakoff and Meninkin, seventy-two moves to a draw, a prize specimen of the irresistible force meeting the immovable object, a battle without armour, a war without blood, and as elaborate a waste of human intelligence as you could find anywhere outside an advertising agency."

-- Raymond CHANDLER, The Long Goodbye, Chapter 24, final sentences.

http://www.xs4all.nl/~timkr/chess/quotes.htm

http://www.exeterchessclub.org.uk/quotes.html

http://www.chess-poster.com/english/notes_and_facts/chess_quotes.htm

these links should be able to keep you busy for a while 😉