quotations about boredom
Society is now one polished horde,
Formed of two mighty tribes, the Bores and Bored.
LORD BYRON
Don Juan
Boredom is the self being stuffed with itself.
WALKER PERCY
Lost in the Cosmos
Boredom is like a pitiless zooming in on the epidermis of time. Every instant is dilated and magnified like the pores of the face.
JEAN BAUDRILLARD
Cool Memories
Boredom rests upon the nothingness that winds its way through existence; its giddiness, like that which comes from gazing down into an infinite abyss, is infinite.
SOREN KIERKEGAARD
Either/Or
Boredom helps one to make decisions.
COLETTE
Gigi
Do you realise that people die of boredom in London suburbs? It's the second biggest cause of death amongs the English in general. Sheer boredom.
ALEXANDER MCCALL SMITH
Friends, Lovers, Chocolate
The world is eaten up by boredom.... You can’t see it all at once. It is like dust. You go about and never notice, you breathe it in, you eat and drink it. It is sifted so fine, it doesn’t even grit on your teeth. But stand still for an instant and there it is, coating your face and hands. To shake off this drizzle of ashes you must be for ever on the go. And so people are always “on the go.”
GEORGES BERNANOS
The Diary of a Country Priest
My despair is less despair than boredom and loneliness.
ANTHONY SWOFFORD
Jarhead
Boredom, that silent spider, was spinning its web in the darkness in every corner of her heart.
GUSTAVE FLAUBERT
Madame Bovary
Boredom is the feeling that everything is a waste of time; serenity, that nothing is.
THOMAS SZASZ
The Second Sin
Though we all know what boredom is, most normal adults do not experience sheer boredom very often. We are stressed, rushed, and worried, but we are seldom purely bored--in part because we are so stressed, rushed, and worried. Time without anything we must attend to usually feels like a breather, not like a monotony. To get a feel for what sheer boredom is like, we must hearken back to childhood. Children and adolescents are frequently bored, so bored they can hardly even stand it. Their perfectly normal developmental need for constant stimulation, for exploring and ongoing learning, is often thwarted in a world of long trips, rainy afternoons, and study halls. In childhood, boredom can be excruciating, like a chronic spiritual headache, or a powerful thirst with no beverage to be had. It can hurt so bad that the poor kid feels like yelling out loud, or throwing something noisy at a wall. Extreme boredom is arguably a form of pain.
MARTHA STOUT
The Sociopath Next Door
For ennui is a growth of English root,
Though nameless in our language: we retort
The fact for words, and let the French translate
That awful yawn which sleep cannot abate.
LORD BYRON
Don Juan
Bore: a person who talks when you wish him to listen.
AMBROSE BIERCE
The Devil's Dictionary
Boredom can be a lethal thing on a small island.
CHRISTOPHER MOORE
Island of the Sequined Love Nun
I am convinced that boredom is one of the greatest tortures. If I were to imagine Hell, it would be the place where you were continually bored.
ERICH FROMM
The Dogma of Christ
Boredom is the dream bird that hatches the egg of experience. A rustling in the leaves drives him away.
WALTER BENJAMIN
The Storyteller
Since boredom advances and boredom is the root of all evil, no wonder, then, that the world goes backwards, that evil spreads. This can be traced back to the very beginning of the world. The gods were bored; therefore they created human beings.
SOREN KIERKEGAARD
"Rotation of Crops,", Either/Or
The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.
ELLEN PARR
attributed, The Complete Book of Practical Proverbs & Wacky Wit
Boredom is the deadliest poison.
WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY
JR., Milestones
As soon as bore A ends, bore B begins.
WALTER BAGEHOT
Literary Studies