QuoteProject
Punctuality is the virtue of the bored.
Evelyn Waugh
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote suggests that being punctual is often associated with a lack of excitement in life.

Evelyn Waugh's quote reflects a philosophical viewpoint on the nature of time and engagement. It implies that individuals who are overly concerned with punctuality may be missing out on the vibrancy and spontaneity of life, indicating a deeper commentary on how societal expectations can stifle creativity and exploration in favor of routine and predictability.

Themes

PunctualityBoredomTimePhilosophyLifeRoutine

In practice

Example use cases

A speaker discussing the essence of life at a seminar might quote this to highlight the importance of living spontaneously.

More from Evelyn Waugh

After all, damn it, what does being in love mean if you can't trust a person.
Evelyn WaughRead
It is a curious thing... that every creed promises a paradise which will be absolutely uninhabitable for anyone of civilized taste.
Evelyn WaughRead
There are no poetic ideas; only poetic utterances.
Evelyn WaughRead
...she had regained what I thought she had lost forever, the magical sadness which had drawn me to her, the thwarted look that had seemed to say, "Surely I was made for some other purpose than this?
Evelyn WaughRead
That was the change in her from ten years ago; that, indeed, was her reward, this haunting, magical sadness which spoke straight to the heart and struck silence; it was the completion of her beauty.
Evelyn WaughRead
That's the public-school system all over. They may kick you out, but they never let you down.
Evelyn WaughRead

Similar quotes

We fought a war on poverty, and poverty won
Ronald ReaganRead
But you answer, that the Constitution recognizes property in slaves. It would be sufficient, then, to reply, that this constitutional recognition must be void, because it is repugnant to the law of nature and of nations.
William H. SewardRead
Religion, as distinguished from modern paganism, implies a life in conformity with nature. It may be observed that the natural life and the supernatural life have a conformity to each other which neither has with the mechanistic life...A wrong attitude towards nature implies, somewhere, a wrong attitude towards God...[We should] struggle to recover the sense of relation to nature and to God.
T. S. EliotRead
To offer no resistance to life is to be in a state of grace, ease, and lightness. This state is then no longer dependent upon things being in a certain way, good or bad. It seems almost paradoxical, yet when your inner dependency on form is gone, the general conditions of your life, the outer forms, tend to improve greatly.
Eckhart TolleRead
As long as there have been men and they have lived, they have all felt this tragic ambiguity of their condition, but as long as there have been philosophers and they have thought, most of them have tried to mask it.
Simone De BeauvoirRead
CEMETERY, n. An isolated suburban spot where mourners match lies, poets write at a target and stone-cutters spell for a wager.
Ambrose BierceRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.