英国著名生物学家与教育家赫胥黎曾在一篇名为“A game of chess”的文字指出：

The chess-board is the world:

the pieces are the phenomena of the universe;

the rules of the game are what we call the laws of nature.

The player on the other side is hidden from us.

We know that his play is always fair, just and patient.

But also we know, to our cost, that he never overlooks a mistake, or makes the smallest allowance for ignorance.

棋盘宛如世界：

一个个棋子仿佛世间的种种现象：游戏规则就是我们所称的自然法则。

竞争对手藏于暗处，不为我们所见。

我们知晓，这位对手向来处事公平，正义凛然，极富耐心。

然而，我们也明白，这位对手从不忽视任何错误，或者因为我们的无知而做出一丝让步，所以我们也必须为此付出代价。

(备注：也有学者将赫胥黎的话浓缩成如下：“世界如棋盘，万象乃棋子。游戏有法则，遵守事功倍。”）