The secret of being a bore is to tell everything.

The quip defines “boredom” as a failure of selection. A bore is not merely someone with nothing to say, but someone who cannot judge what should be left unsaid—who confuses completeness with interest. “Tell everything” also hints at a social and rhetorical error: conversation depends on pacing, implication, and responsiveness to others, whereas exhaustive narration centers the speaker and drains curiosity. In Enlightenment terms, the line is a miniature lesson in reasoned taste: intelligence includes the ability to discriminate, summarize, and respect an audience’s attention. It remains a durable warning against both long-windedness and indiscretion, suggesting that charm often lies in omission and restraint.