VerifiedAnswers to Nine Questions (September 1896), answers to nine questions submitted by Clarence Rook, who had interviewed him in 1895 · evidencePlays
“A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind.”
“Life isn't all beer and skittles, but beer and skittles, or something better of the same sort, must form a good part of every Englishman's education.”
“It is the child in man that is the source of his uniqueness and creativeness, and the playground is the optimal milieu for the unfolding of his capacities and talents.”
“If there is a species which is more maltreated than children, then it must be their toys, which they handle in an incredibly off-hand manner. Toys are thus the end point in that long chain in which all the conditions of despotic high-handedness are in play which enchain beings one to another, from one species to another --cruel divinities to their sacrificial victims, from masters to slaves, from adults to children, and from children to their objects.”