“Was he deadpan because he didn’t care anymore? How much boredom can you meet in three hundred years?”

—  Larry Niven , book Grendel

Grendel (p. 251)
Short fiction, Neutron Star (1968)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Was he deadpan because he didn’t care anymore? How much boredom can you meet in three hundred years?" by Larry Niven?
Larry Niven photo
Larry Niven 138
American writer 1938

Related quotes

Guy Gavriel Kay photo

“He didn’t think he would understand the strangeness of life if he lived to be a hundred years old.”

Guy Gavriel Kay book Tigana

Part 4 “The Price of Blood”, Chapter 14 (p. 443)
Tigana (1990)

Terry Pratchett photo

“He said that there was death and taxes, and taxes was worse, because at least death didn’t happen to you every year.”

Terry Pratchett book Reaper Man

Source: Reaper Man

“Carter had been doubtful about using the black box, pointing out that this was not a Vigils meeting. How can we make Archie try for the marbles? Obie had the answer, the kind of answer Archie himself would have given. "Because there are four hundred kids out there yelling for blood. And they don't care whose blood it is anymore. Everybody in the school knows about the black box- how can Archie back down?"”

Robert Cormier book The Chocolate War

The Chocolate War (1974)

Charles Barron photo

“In the year 2000, when he said one farm, one farmer, he was vilified. For 20 years they loved Mugabe because they didn’t take the land from the whites.”

Charles Barron (1950) American politician

Commenting on Robert Mugabe, 6 June, 2008. http://observer.com/2008/06/barron-praises-robert-mugabe-for-doing-what-mandela-and-tutu-wouldnt/

Laurell K. Hamilton photo

“And the moment you care that much, a man has you. He owns a little piece of your soul, and he can beat you to death with it.”

Laurell K. Hamilton book Micah

Source: Micah

Thomas Browne photo

“And surely, he that hath taken the true Altitude of Things, and rightly calculated the degenerate state of this Age, is not like to envy those that shall live in the next, much less three or four hundred Years hence, when no Man can comfortably imagine what Face this World will carry.”

Thomas Browne (1605–1682) English polymath

Letter to a Friend (circa 1656)

Dashiell Hammett photo

“I distrust a man that says when. If he's got to be careful not to drink to much it's because he's not to be trusted when he does.”

Dashiell Hammett book The Maltese Falcon

Chap. 11, "The Fat Man"
Dialogue between the characters Kasper Gutman (the "fat man") and Sam Spade.
Source: The Maltese Falcon (1930)
Context: "We begin well, sir," the fat man purred … "I distrust a man that says when. If he's got to be careful not to drink too much it's because he's not to be trusted when he does. … Well, sir, here's to plain speaking and clear understanding. … You're a close-mouthed man?"
Spade shook his head. "I like to talk."
"Better and better!" the fat man exclaimed. "I distrust a close-mouthed man. He generally picks the wrong time to talk and says the wrong things. Talking's something you can't do judiciously unless you keep in practice."

“Warning the students against an over-concern for money, or position, or glory, he said: "Some day you will meet a man who cares for none of these things. Then you will know how poor you are.”

Halford E. Luccock (1885–1960) American Methodist minister

"Dire Poverty", in Unfinished Business : Short Diversions On Religious Themes (1956)
Context: Many years ago Rudyard Kipling gave an address at McGill University in Montreal. He said one striking thing which deserves to be remembered. Warning the students against an over-concern for money, or position, or glory, he said: "Some day you will meet a man who cares for none of these things. Then you will know how poor you are."
That has happened on a grand scale. Jesus cared for none of these things. And for nineteen centuries he has led many people to see how poor they are with only a collection of things to show for their journey through life, and no spiritual resources.

Kenzaburō Ōe photo

“He said he didn’t care if he went to heaven or hell, because neither could be more fearful than absolute nothingness; salvation and damnation were one and the same if the only thing out there was total nothingness.”

Kenzaburō Ōe (1935) Japanese author

p 54
Shizuka-na seikatsu (A Quiet Life) (1990)

Theodore Roosevelt photo

“People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care”

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States

Variant: No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care

Related topics