The man who lets himself be bored is even more contemptible than the bore.

—Samuel Butler

About Samuel Butler

Portrait of Samuel Butler

Samuel Butler (4 December 1835 – 18 June 1902) was an English novelist and critic, best known for the satirical utopian novel Erewhon (1872) and the semi-autobiographical novel The Way of All Flesh (published posthumously in 1903 with substantial revisions and published in its original form in 1964 as Ernest...

More quotations from Samuel Butler

The truest characters of ignorance are vanity and pride and arrogance.

—Samuel Butler

ignorance character vanity price arrogance

People care more about being thought to have taste than about being thought either good, clever or amiable.

—Samuel Butler

kindness people perception taste cleverness

The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too.

—Samuel Butler

Any fool can tell the truth, but it requires a man of some sense to know how to lie well.

—Samuel Butler

truth lies foolishness

He has spent his life best who has enjoyed it most. God will take care that we do not enjoy it any more than is good for us.

—Samuel Butler

life God enjoyment

More quotations tagged with “boredom”

The secret of being a bore is to tell everything.

privacy boredom speech conversation disclosure interest

Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal in life is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he's been robbed. The fact is that most putts don't drop, most beef is tough, most children grow up to be just people, most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration, and most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. Life is like an old-time rail journey—delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally with beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank God for letting you have the ride.

—Jenkin Lloyd Jones

Punctuality is the virtue of the bored.

—Evelyn Waugh

time boredom being on time

Somebody's boring me. I think it's me.

—Dylan Thomas

As I grew to adolescence, I imagined, from closely observing the boredom and vexations of matrimony, that the act my parents committed and the one I so longed to commit must be two different things.

—Shirley Abbott

parents boredom marriage

History

27 Feb 2014 Added