A finite game is played for the purpose of winning,
an infinite game for the purpose of continuing the play.

Finite players play within boundaries;
infinte players plays with boundaries.

Surprise causes finite play to end;
it is the reason for infinite play to continue.

To be prepared against surprise is to be trained.
To be prepared for surprise is to be educated.

The finite play for life is serious;
the infinte play of life is joyous.

The joyfulness of infinite play, its laughter, lies in
learning to start something we cannot finish.

No one can play a game alone.
One cannot be human by oneself.

Our social existence has...an inescapably fluid character.

...we are not the stones over which the stream of the
world flows;we are the stream itself.

Change itself is the very basis of our continuity as persons.

Only that which can change can continue: this is the
principal by which infinte players live.

James P. Carse
Finite and Infinite Games


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