"Chess is 1% inspiration and 99% tactics."

This quote by the great inventor Thomas Edison is probably my favorite chess quote of all time. It's incredibly simple, yet 100% true, just like how all aphorisms should be (but usually aren't).

Below are some other chess quotes that I like:

"Chess is like a box of chocolates: some pieces are dark, and other pieces are white."

- Forrest Gump

"All the world’s a board

And all the men and women merely pieces:

They have their own positions and their jobs,

And one man in his time may change his fortune

By obtaining promotion."

- William Shakespeare

"If chess is like watching paint dry then you need a fresh coat

Weezy F. Baby and the F is for fianchetto."

- Lil Wayne

"Oops... I did it again

I played like a fool, got lost in the game

Oh baby, baby."

- Britney Spears, after losing in the Womens' Championship finals to Christina Aguilera

"It’s like waiting at the stoplight in a brand-new sports car: as soon as the light turns green, you step on the gas and, like a bullet from the barrel of a gun, you’re shot forward, an orgastic thrill welling up inside you at the thought of the action that lies ahead. It is only after the inevitable crash that you look behind and see all that you missed. But that’s alright, you tell yourself - tomorrow I’ll sharpen my reflexes, pay a little more attention… And one of these days –

So you drive on, pedal to the metal, racing headlong into your next crash."

- F. Scott Fitzgerald on bullet chess

And finally...

"We're sitting here, and I'm supposed to be one of the best players in the world, and we're in here talking about tactics. I mean, listen, we're talking abut tactics. Not a game! Not a game! Not a game! We're talking abut tactics. Not a game; not the game that I go out there and die for and play every game like it's my last, not the game, we're talking about tactics, man. I mean, how silly is that?"

- Allen Iverson, 2 time World Chess Champion, in response to Thomas Edison telling him he should work on his tactics

Later additions:

The players were attacking, neither's skill was lacking,

In their heads they were mapping, mapping to control e4."

- Edgar Allan Poe describing a chess game that he watched

So... now that I've told you about my favorite chess quotes, what are some of yours? Post them in the comments below.

LOL !!

This one was great!!

"Oops... I did it again

I played like a fool, got lost in the game

Oh baby, baby."

- Britney Spears, after losing in the Womens' Championship finals to Christina Aguilera

LOL.

chess. don't talk to me about chess - marvin the paranoid android

Very inspirational !

yes, i also find not talking about chess very inspirational

Great job macer75!

Well... that's a chess quote that you don't hear very often!

"Chess is worse than cannibalism." St John Chrysostom 

I'm guessing he probably didn't get along with St. Teresa of Avila.

"The players were attacking, neither's skill was lacking,

In their heads they were mapping, mapping to control e4."

- Edgar Allan Poe describing a chess game that he watched

...lying in my hospital bed for six weeks, I played chess on the acustical tiles above me.  Chess was there for me, a reliable friend and companion.  Chess is like physical exercise for the mind.  -- Denn Buddhism

I'll beat you so bad you'll think it's a curse
Like how every board on TV has its colors reversed

I had a plan, but my opponent didn't follow it.

This is simply brilliant. 

Computers have shown that chess can be reduced to pure tactics, but our limited brains require general rules to guide us.

In general, the better the player, the more they rely on tactics and concrete analysis.

3 more quotes:

"When I have black, I lose because I am black; when I have white, I lose because I am Baadur Jobava."

- Baadur Jobava

"When I have white, I draw because I am Anish Giri; when I have black, I draw because I am Anish Giri."

- Anish Giri

"When I have white, I win because I am playing against Computer1-EASY; when I have black, I win because I am playing against Computer1-EASY."

- I'll let you guys figure out who said this one.

"So many things I would have done but pawns got in my way." - Joni Mitchell