Painterly wooden megaphone spilling tangled gold and teal ribbons on a pale surface.

Original artwork, not a still

Sept Discours en Vers sur l'Homme · 1738

Voltaire

The secret of being a bore is to tell everything.

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

Voltaire suggests that tedium comes from refusing to choose. A bore leaves nothing out, pouring every detail onto the listener, whereas an interesting speaker selects and lets some things go unsaid. Completeness, in this view, is the enemy of good company.

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