First-class players lose to second-class players because second-class players sometimes play a first-class game

... a lively imagination can exercise itself most fully and creatively in conjuring up magnificent combinations.

The future belongs to he who has the bishops.

I have always a slight feeling of pity for the man who has no knowledge of chess, just as I would pity the man who has remained ignorant of love.

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

I have a quite feeling of pity for all those who don't know chess; almost like I am sorry for those who never learned to love. Chess, like love and music, has the ability of making people happy.

Intellectual activity is perhaps the greatest pleasure of life; chess is one of the forms of intellectual activity.