It is not the simple statement of facts that ushers in freedom it is the constant repetition of them that has this liberating effect. Tolerance is the result not of enlightenment, but of boredom.

Quentin Crisp (1908–1999), an English writer and performer who lived openly as a gay man through decades of hostility, often framed social change as a matter of persistence rather than sudden moral conversion. The remark reflects his experience that prejudice rarely collapses after a single “truth” is spoken; instead, repeated, matter-of-fact visibility and insistence can wear down resistance. Crisp’s public persona—wry, provocative, and skeptical of sentimental narratives of progress—frequently emphasized how social acceptance can arrive less from people becoming enlightened than from their fatigue with maintaining outrage.

Crisp argues that liberation is achieved not by merely presenting accurate information, but by reiterating it until it becomes unavoidable and ordinary. Repetition normalizes what was once treated as scandalous, shifting it from the realm of controversy into the realm of the everyday. His second claim—“Tolerance is the result not of enlightenment, but of boredom”—is deliberately deflationary: people may stop persecuting not because they have grown ethically, but because they tire of the effort of sustained indignation. The insight is both cynical and strategic, suggesting that persistence and visibility can be more effective than appeals to reason or virtue.