C.N. Douglas, comp. Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical. 1917.
Bores
The smaller the calibre of mind, the greater the bore of a perpetually open mouth.
The secret of making one’s self tiresome is not to know when to stop.
Got the ill name of augurs because they were bores.
A tedious person is one a man would leap a steeple from.
The biggest bore of all is he who is overflowing with congratulations.
Those wanting wit, affect gravity and go by the name of solid men.
Bores are not to be got rid of except by rough means. They are to be scraped off like scales from a fish.
The bore is the same eating dates under the cedars of Lebanon as over a plate of baked beans in Beacon Street.
We are almost always wearied in the company of persons with whom we are not permitted to be weary.
The bore is usually considered a harmless creature, or of that class of irrational bipeds who hurt only themselves.
There are some kinds of men who cannot pass their time alone; they are the flails of occupied people.
There are few wild beasts more to be dreaded than a communicative man having nothing to communicate.
It is one of the vexatious mortifications of a studious man to have his thoughts disordered by a tedious visit.
The symptoms of compassion and benevolence in some people are like those minute-guns which warn you that you are in deadly peril.
He will steal himself into a man’s favor and for a week escape a great deal of discoveries; but when you find him out, you have him ever after.
Never hold any one by the button or the hand in order to be heard out; for if people are unwilling to hear you, you had better hold your tongue.
It is to be hoped that, with all the modern improvements, a mode will be discovered of getting rid of bores; for it is too bad that a poor wretch can be punished for stealing your pocket-handkerchief or gloves, and that no punishment can be inflicted on those who steal your time, and with it your temper and patience, as well as the bright thoughts that might have entered into your mind (like the Irishman who lost the fortune before he had got it), but were frightened away by the bore.