Quotations about:
    bore


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To a talkative fellow, who poured out a torrent of words and then said, “Let’s hope I haven’t been boring you with my chatter!” he replied, “No, by Zeus, I haven’t been listening.”

[πρὸς τὸν εἰπόντα ἀδολέσχην, ἐπειδὴ αὐτοῦ πολλὰ κατήντλησε, “μήτι σου κατεφλυάρησα;” “μὰ Δί᾽,” εἶπεν: “οὐ γάρ σοι προσεῖχον.]

Aristotle (384-322 BC) Greek philosopher
Attributed in Diogenes Laërtius, Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers [Vitae Philosophorum], Book 5, sec. 11 [tr. Mensch (2018)]
    (Source)

(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:

A chattering fellow, who had been abusing him, said to him, “Have not I been jeering you properly?” “Not that I know of,” said he, “for I have not been listening to you.”
[tr. Yonge (1853)]

To the chatterbox who poured out a flood of talk upon him and then inquired, "Have I bored you to death with my chatter?" he replied, "No, indeed; for I was not attending to you."
[tr. Hicks (1925), sec. 20]

To the man talking endlessly when he assailed him with words and asked “Have I worn you out with nonsense”, he said “By Zeus, no! I wasn’t listening to you.”
[tr. @sentantiq (2016)]

 
Added on 14-Sep-21 | Last updated 14-Sep-21
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Pity the poor bore. He stands among us as a creature formidable and familiar yet in essence unknowable. We can read of the ten infallible signs whereby he may be recognized and of the seven tested methods whereby he may be rebuffed. Valuable monographs exist upon his dress and diet; the study of his mating habits and migrational routes is well past the speculative stage; and statistical studies abound. One out of three hundred and twelve Americans is a bore, for instance, and a healthy adult male bore consumes each year one and a half times his own weight in other people’s patience.

John Updike (1932-2009) American writer
“Confessions of a Wild Bore,” Assorted Prose (1965)
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Added on 2-Jun-21 | Last updated 2-Jun-21
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BORES: People who talk of themselves, when you are thinking only of yourself.

Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington (1789-1849) Irish novelist [Lady Blessington, b. Margaret Power]
Desultory Thoughts and Reflections (1839)
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Added on 26-May-21 | Last updated 26-May-21
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A bore: Someone who persists in holding to his own views after we have enlightened him with ours.

Malcolm Forbes (1919-1990) American billionaire
(Attributed)

Quoted in Ted Goodman, ed., The Forbes Book of Business Quotations (1997).
 
Added on 28-Apr-21 | Last updated 28-Apr-21
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Everyone is a bore to someone. That is unimportant. The thing to avoid is being a bore to oneself.

Gerald Brenan (1894-1987) British writer and Hispanist [Edward FitzGerald Brenan]
Thoughts in a Dry Season, “Life” (1978)
 
Added on 7-Apr-20 | Last updated 7-Apr-20
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It is the trifles of life that are its bores, after all. Most men can meet ruin calmly, for instance, or laugh when they lie in a ditch with their own knee-joint and their hunter’s spine broken over the double post and rails: it is the mud that has choked up your horn just when you wanted to rally the pack; it’s the whip who carries you off to a division just when you’ve sat down to your turbot; it’s the ten seconds by which you miss the train; it’s the dust that gets in your eyes as you go down to Epsom; it’s the pretty little rose note that went by accident to your house instead of your club, and raised a storm from madame; it’s the dog that always will run wild into the birds; it’s the cook who always will season the white soup wrong — it is these that are the bores of life, and that try the temper of your philosophy.

Ouida (1839-1908) English novelist [pseud. of Maria Louise Ramé]
Under Two Flags, ch. 1 (1867)
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Added on 3-Oct-17 | Last updated 3-Oct-17
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Under pressure, people admit to murder, setting fire to the village church, or robbing a bank, but never to being bores.

Maxwell - but never to being bores - wist_info quote

Elsa Maxwell (1883-1963) American gossip columnist, author, songwriter, professional hostess
How to Do It, or The Lively Art of Entertaining (1957)
 
Added on 30-Mar-16 | Last updated 30-Mar-16
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A healthy male adult bore consumes each year one and a half times his own weight in other people’s patience.

John Updike (1932-2009) American writer
“Confessions of a Wild Bore,” Assorted Prose (1965)
 
Added on 23-Mar-16 | Last updated 2-May-16
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A bore is a man who deprives you of solitude without providing you with company.

Giovanni Vincenzo Gravina (1664-1718) Italian man of letters and jurist
(Attributed)

Sometimes attributed to Oscar Wilde.
 
Added on 9-Mar-16 | Last updated 9-Mar-16
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Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and can’t, and the other half who have nothing to say and keep on saying it.

Robert Frost (1874-1963) American poet
(Attributed)
 
Added on 19-Feb-16 | Last updated 19-Feb-16
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The self-styled reformers, the greatest bores of all.

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American philosopher and writer
Walden, “Visitors” (1854)
 
Added on 28-Jan-16 | Last updated 28-Jan-16
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A gossip is one who talks to you about others; a bore is one who talks to you about himself; and a brilliant conversationalist is one who talks to you about yourself.

Lisa Kirk (1925-1990) American actress and singer
Quoted in the Cholly Knickerbocker society column, New York Journal American (9 Mar 1954)
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In that Heart paper at that time, Cholly Knickerbocker was the pen name for Igor Cassini.
 
Added on 11-Jul-12 | Last updated 2-Sep-21
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BORE, n. A person who talks when you wish him to listen.

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Bore,” The Cynic’s Word Book (1906)
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Included in The Devil's Dictionary (1911).
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 8-Aug-23
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