Richard Lingard was an

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

and

academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

in the seventeenth century. Lingard was educated at

Trinity College, Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Univ ...

. He was

Dean of Lismore The Dean of Lismore is based at the Cathedral Church of St Carthage in Lismore in the united Diocese of Cashel and Ossory within the Church of Ireland. The current incumbent is Paul Draper. List of deans of Lismore *?–1549 James Butler * ...

from 1662 to 1670 and

Regius Professor of Divinity The Regius Professorships of Divinity are amongst the oldest professorships at the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge. A third chair existed for a period at Trinity College Dublin. The Oxford and Cambridge chairs were founded by ...

at TCD from 1670 to 1678. In his 1696 pamphlet titled "A Letter of Advice to a Young Gentleman Leaving the University Concerning His Behaviour and Conversation in the World," Lingard wrote, "If you would read a mans icDisposition, see him Game, you will then learn more of him in one hour, than in seven Years Conversation." This appears to be the source of the similar statement "You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation", which has been mis-attributed to

Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...

since at least as early as the 1950s.FACT CHECK: Did Plato Say, ‘You Can Discover More About A Person In An Hour Of Play Than In A Year Of Conversation’?
Sylvester, Brad 2019-11-06, accessed 2021-10-28

References

Alumni of Trinity College Dublin 17th-century Irish Anglican priests Deans of Lismore Regius Professors of Divinity (University of Dublin) Archdeacons of Clonmacnoise {{Ireland-Anglican-dean-stub