Sourced

• Chess, like love, like music, has the power to make men happy.
  • The Game of Chess (1931), Preface

• Mistrust is the most necessary characteristic of the Chess player.
  • The Game of Chess (1931), Pt. 2 : The End Game, p. 79

• To acquire a reputation of being a dashing player at the cost of losing a game.
  • Response to a question as to What was the object of playing a gambit opening, as quoted in The Treasury of Chess Lore (1959) by Fred Reinfeld

• He who fears an isolated Queen's Pawn should give up Chess.
  • As quoted in The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played : 62 Masterpieces of Chess Strategy (1965) by Irving Chernev, Game 18 : The Isolated Pawn, p. 81

• Before the endgame, the Gods have placed the middle game.
  • As quoted in Cunning Exiles : Studies of Modern Prose Writers (1974), by Don Anderson and Stephen Thomas Knight, p. 41

• Many have become Chess Masters, no one has become the Master of Chess.
  • As quoted in Chess and Computers (1976) by David N. L. Levy, p. 40

• It is not enough to be a good player, you must also play well.
  • As quoted in Chess Openings : Traps and Zaps (1989) by Bruce Pandolfini, p. 139

Misattributed

• The beauty of a move lies not in its appearance but in the thought behind it.
  • Aron Nimzowitsch, as quoted in Nimzovich : The Hypermodern (1948) by Fred Reinfeld

Unsourced

• One doesn't have to play well, it's enough to play better than your opponent.
• Like Ruso could not compose without his cat beside him, I without my King's Bishop cannot play chess. Without its presence, to me the game feels lifeless and cold. The vitalizing factor is missing, and I can devise no way of attack.