70 Bored Quotes that Inspire You to Find Your Spark

There are so many opinions about being bored that it’s not surprising that nearly everyone has something to say about it in these ‘bored’ quotes.

This collection was curated from philosophers to authors, and actresses to artists, and everyone in between.

These short bored quotes are perfect for that Instagram picture of you doing something you love, learning something new, or even doing something crazy!

Laughter is an excellent cure for boredom, and some of these quotes about boredom will leave you chuckling!

The real question here, though, is boredom a good or a bad thing?

Depending on who you ask, that answer can go either way, just like the opinions in some of these quotes!

A recent study published in the Academy of Management Discoveries journal found that boredom can increase productivity and spark creativity.

Meaning, that being bored can cause you to dream ideas you might not have if you stay ‘busy.’

Other scientists claim boredom is bad for your mental health and can lead to drug addictions and academic or professional hardships.

Keep reading through these bored quotes before deciding!

Don’t forget to also check out these calming solitude quotes to bring you peace.

If you like this article, we suggest you explore our most popular quotes article, a list of short inspirational quotes for daily encouragement. 

Read more related content on our inspirational quotes category page.

Short bored quotes and captions for Instagram

1. “Boredom: the desire of desire.” — Leo Tolstoy

2. “He who seeks rest finds boredom. He who seeks work finds rest.” — Dylan Thomas

3. “It’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than be absolutely boring.” — Marilyn Monroe

4. “Boredom is simply the absence of an interesting perspective.” — Brandon A. Trean

5. “The cure for boredom is curiosity.” — Dorothy Parker

6. “I would rather die of passion than of boredom.” — Vincent Van Gogh

7. “Boredom is the fear of self.” — Marie Josephine de Suin

8. “Boredom is the deadliest poison.” — William F. Buckley

9. “The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.” — Ellen Parr

10. “Punctuality is the virtue of the bored.” — Evelyn Waugh

11. “The man who lets himself be bored is even more contemptible than the bore.” — Samuel Butler

You will also enjoy our article on I’m tired quotes.

Thought-provoking bored quotes and sayings

12. “Human beings make life so interesting. Do you know, that in a universe so full of wonders, they have managed to invent boredom. (Death)” ― Terry Pratchett

13. “I’m bored, is a useless thing to say. I mean, you live in a great, big, vast world that you’ve seen none percent of. Even the inside of your own mind is endless; it goes on forever, inwardly, do you understand? The fact that you’re alive is amazing, so you don’t get to say, I’m bored.” ― Louis C.K.

14. “Is life not a thousand times too short for us to bore ourselves?” ― Friedrich Nietzsche

15. “Millions long for immortality who don’t know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.” — Susan Ertz

16. “My despair is less despair than boredom and loneliness.” — Anthony Swofford

17. “There’s no excuse to be bored. Sad, yes. Angry, yes. Depressed, yes, Crazy, yes. But there’s no excuse for boredom, ever.” — Viggo Mortensen

18. “You don’t burn out from going too fast. You burn out from going too slow and getting bored.” — Cliff Burton

19. “Nobody is bored when he is trying to make something that is beautiful or to discover something that is true.” — William Inge

20. “I have never been bored an hour in my life. I get up every morning wondering what new strange, glamorous thing is going to happen, and it happens at fairly regular intervals.” — William Allen White

Inspirational bored quotes on ways to use and channel boredom

21. “In order to live free and happily, you must sacrifice boredom. It is not always an easy sacrifice.” — Richard Bach

22. “Boredom is the conviction that you can’t change… the shriek of unused capacities.” — Saul Bellow

23. “If you’re bored with life – you don’t get up every morning with a burning desire to do things – you don’t have enough goals.” — Lou Holtz

24. “I think it’s necessary to let kids get bored once in a while – that’s how they learn to be creative.” — Kim Raver

25. “Be bored and see where it takes you because the imagination’s dusty wilderness is worth crossing if you want to sculpt your soul.” — Nancy Gibbs

26. “You get ideas from daydreaming. You get ideas from being bored. You get ideas all the time. The only difference between writers and other people is we notice when we’re doing it.” — Neil Gaiman

27. “Are you bored with life? Then throw yourself into some work you believe in with all your heart, live for it, die for it, and you will find happiness that you had thought could never be yours.” — Dale Carnegie

28. “The man who is aware of himself is henceforward independent, and he is never bored, and life is only too short, and he is steeped through and through with a profound yet temperate happiness.” — Virginia Woolf

Bored quotes from psychologists and philosophers

29. “Boredom is the root of all evil—the despairing refusal to be oneself.” — Soren Kierkegaard

30. “The two enemies of human happiness are pain and boredom.” — Arthur Schopenhauer

31. “Boredom is just the reverse side of fascination: both depend on being outside rather than inside a situation, and one leads to the other.” — Arthur Schopenhauer

32. “I’ve got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom.” — Thomas Carlyle

33. “To do the same thing over and over again is not only boredom: it is to be controlled by rather than to control what you do.” — Heraclitus

34. “Perhaps the world’s second-worst crime is boredom. The first is being a bore.” — Jean Baudrillard

35. “When people are bored, it is primarily with their own selves that they are bored.” — Eric Hoffer

36. “I am convinced that boredom is one of the greatest tortures. If I were to imagine Hell, it would be the place where you were continually bored.” — Erich Fromm

37. “Unless a man has been taught what to do with success after getting it, the achievement of it must inevitably leave him a prey to boredom.” — Bertrand Russell

38. “The truth is that everyone is bored and devotes himself to cultivating habits.” — Albert Camus

Funny I’m bored quotes to make you laugh and break up the monotony

39. “And I’m not as young as I once was. At my age, I don’t have time to be bored.” — Lev Grossman

40. “I take risks because I get bored. And I get bored very easily.” — Rihanna

41. “Here’s what I’ve learned about raising boys… if you keep ’em busy, they’re fine. You let ’em get bored, they’ll dismantle your house board by board.” — Kenny Rogers

42. “Sometimes I think that we are living in a simulation controlled by the reigns of a destructive child who often gets bored or distracted, leaving us trapped inside feedback loops for years at a time.” — Mija

43. “The penalty of success is to be bored by people who used to snub you.” — Nancy Astor

44. “People are worms, and even the God who created them is immensely bored with their antics.” — Ama Ata Aidoo

45. “When you’re bored with yourself, marry and be bored with someone else.” — Edward VIII

46. “The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.” — Dorothy Parker

47. “Be warned: I’m bored. This could get dangerous.” — Unknown

48. “I’m so bored of being bored because being bored is really boring.” — Unknown

49. “I tried to be good, but I got bored.” — Unknown

50. “I’m so bored I may even have to do some homework.” — Louise Rennison

Bored Quotes To Help You Overcome the Feeling

51, “Boredom comes simply from ignorance and lack of imagination.” ― Susan Ertz

52. “You have to evolve. Stagnation breeds boredom.” ― Matt Bellamy

53. “Boredom comes from a boring mind.” ― Metallica

54. “Without lies humanity would perish of despair and boredom.” ― Anatole France

55. “Boredom, that traitorous devil that possesses us to do things sometimes useless, and often stupid.” ― Apol Lejano-Massebieau

56. “Boredom is not a thing. It’s not a feeling or a condition. It is the absence of feelings, things, and conditions.” ― A. A. Gill

57.”Yes, when we are bored, we can become a bore too!” — P C Balasubramanian

58. Out of boredom man decided to build the Tower of Babel. The height of the tower matched the height of his boredom.— Samuel Hugo Bergman

59. “Boredom is your mind and body’s way of telling you you’re not living up to your potential.” ― Hal Sparks

60.”To be bored is an insult to one’s self.” ― Jules Renard

Funny Bored Quotes To Beat Boredom

61. “To be bored to death is a form of suicide.” — Frederick Buechner

62. “The only boring people I know are bored people.” — Elizabeth Gilbert

63. “We can be bought, but we can’t be bored.” — Lynn Fontanne

64. “When I get bored, I get into trouble.” — Angie Harmon

65. “I was really bored and unhappy in school, and I used to act out and do horrible things.” — Christina Ricci

66. “There is mercy for everyone, except those who are bored with life.” — Cesare Pavese

67. “I know many books which have bored their readers, but I know of none which has done real evil.” — Voltaire

68. “You’re bored? That’s because you keep your senses awake and your soul asleep.” — Josemaria Escriva

69. “Bored people, unless they sleep a lot, are cruel.” — Renata Adler

70. “Get bored with your past, it’s over!” — Caroline Myss

What did you learn from these bored quotes?

My children learned early on that I am not a fan of the words “I’m bored.”

When they were younger and first said that to me, I would offer some wonderful solutions like: drawing a picture, reading a book, playing outside, or listening to music.

When they would shoot those down, I would try again, with things like writing a story, playing with the dog, or playing a game.

As they got older and would continue to shoot those ideas down, I would have them clean something.

Eventually, they stopped coming to tell me they were bored and found things to entertain themselves rather than me giving them a chore they didn’t want to do.

The lesson I hoped to teach here is that there is always something to do, and as humans, we get to decide what that is.

Is it something enjoyable, like any of our hobbies or creative activities?

Something necessary, like cleaning the house or doing homework?

Is it an activity we need to do for self-care, like walking or meditating?

Whatever it is, boredom can be a chance to stretch our imagination, get something done, or enjoy the world around us.

Sure, I can see how it could lead to other feelings like depression and loneliness, which could lead to adverse activities like drugs and other reckless behaviors.

Still, I don’t think we end up at those decisions from boredom alone.

What’s your biggest takeaway from these bored quotes and sayings?

What do you do when you are bored?

Have a favorite activity you want to share with us, use the comment section below!

Let us know, do you think boredom is a good or a bad thing?