--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: People would eat a boot if it was home…" description: "\"“People would eat a boot if it was home made.”\" — Elizabeth Bowen" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a4c/elizabeth-bowen-1197_boot_people-would-eat-a-boot-if-it-was-home-m_2494092.png" --- # People would eat a boot if it was home made. ![“People would eat a boot if it was home made.” quote by Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a4c/elizabeth-bowen-1197_boot_people-would-eat-a-boot-if-it-was-home-m_2494092.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a4c/elizabeth-bowen-1197_boot_people-would-eat-a-boot-if-it-was-home-m_2494092.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a4c/elizabeth-bowen-1197_boot_people-would-eat-a-boot-if-it-was-home-m_2494092.png) > ““People would eat a boot if it was home made.”” [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. A hyperbolic statement about extreme hunger, using humor to emphasize scarcity. **In simple terms:** People would eat a boot if it were homemade, showing desperation. Key Takeaway Use humor to highlight scarcity, but seek real solutions. Themes humor desperation scarcity resourcefulness Mood wry ironic lighthearted Type satirical anecdotal When to use this quote - wartime rationing - poverty - food insecurity Key Concepts exaggeration social commentary Questions to Reflect On - What does this say about human adaptability? - How can humor help cope with scarcity? A Different Perspective The metaphor may trivialize genuine suffering. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Boot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/boot/) [Boot Home](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/boot-home-994208/) [Cooking](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/cooking/) [Eat Boot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/eat-boot-994207/) [Eating](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/eating/) [Fads](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/fads/) [Homemade](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/homemade/) [People](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/people/) [People Eat](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/people-eat/) ## Related quotes > [My uncle was the first brown person to have a market stall on Petticoat Lane in the 1960s. He worked his way up from…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/m-i-a/my-uncle-was-the-first-brown-person-to-have-a-market-stall-on/) [M.I.A](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/m-i-a/) > [I always used to put my right boot on first, and then obviously my right sock.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/barry-venison/i-always-used-to-put-my-right-boot-on-first-and-then-obviously-my/) [Barry Venison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/barry-venison/) > [Oh, come! That boot is on the other leg. Why should you call me to account for eating decently? If I battened on the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-bernard-shaw/oh-come-that-boot-is-on-the-other-leg-why-should-you-call-me-to/) [George Bernard Shaw](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-bernard-shaw/) > [“What is government? Government is the boot. The boot steps here and there, careful to avoid a blade of grass, to nurture it, coddle…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-wilson-watts/what-is-government-government-is-the-boot-the-boot-steps-here-and/) [Alan Wilson Watts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-wilson-watts/) > [I was in better shape when I went into boot camp than when I came out.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kai-ryssdal/i-was-in-better-shape-when-i-went-into-boot-camp-than-when-i-came-out/) [Kai Ryssdal](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kai-ryssdal/) > [The very stone one kicks with one's boot will outlast Shakespeare.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/virginia-woolf/the-very-stone-one-kicks-with-one-s-boot-will-outlast-shakespeare/) [Virginia Woolf](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/virginia-woolf/) > [WWE is like showbiz boot camp.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dean-ambrose/wwe-is-like-showbiz-boot-camp/) [Dean Ambrose](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dean-ambrose/) > [A boot cut does not look great on most people.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tan-france/a-boot-cut-does-not-look-great-on-most-people/) [Tan France](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tan-france/) > [The IronClad is faster than most thumb drives but far slower than a standard hard drive. 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I like a good trouser, but then I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jacquelyn-jablonski/i-m-boyish-with-a-feminine-twist-i-definitely-gravitate-toward/) [Jacquelyn Jablonski](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jacquelyn-jablonski/) > [We're boot-friendly here.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jon-pardi/we-re-boot-friendly-here/) [Jon Pardi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jon-pardi/) > [Growing up in a group home, and with an undiagnosed learning disability to boot, the odds of success were not on my side. But…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/darell-hammond/growing-up-in-a-group-home-and-with-an-undiagnosed-learning/) [Darell Hammond](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/darell-hammond/) > [The great thing about a sitcom is that you're in front of a live audience, so you really get in touch with what audience…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/topher-grace/the-great-thing-about-a-sitcom-is-that-you-re-in-front-of-a-live/) [Topher Grace](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/topher-grace/) > [An ant has no quarrel with a boot.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tom-hiddleston/an-ant-has-no-quarrel-with-a-boot/) [Tom Hiddleston](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tom-hiddleston/) ## More by Elizabeth Bowen > [Temperamentally, the writer exists on happenings, on contacts, conflicts, action and reaction, speed, pressure, tension. Were he acontemplative purely, he would not write.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/temperamentally-the-writer-exists-on-happenings-on-contacts-conflicts/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [“Are you really an orphan? Yes, I am, said Portia a shade shortly. Are you? No, not at present, but I suppose it's a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/are-you-really-an-orphan-yes-i-am-said-portia-a-shade-shortly-are-you/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [It is not our exalted feelings, it is our sentiments that build the necessary home.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/it-is-not-our-exalted-feelings-it-is-our-sentiments-that-build-the/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [Every love has a poetic relevance of its own; each love brings to light only what to it is relevant. Outside lies the junk-yard…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/every-love-has-a-poetic-relevance-of-its-own-each-love-brings-to/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [without fiction, either life would be insufficient or the winds from the north would blow too cold.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/without-fiction-either-life-would-be-insufficient-or-the-winds-from/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [One's sentiments -- call them that -- one's fidelities are so instinctive that one hardly knows they exist: only when they are betrayed or,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/one-s-sentiments-call-them-that-one-s-fidelities-are-so-instinctive/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [Only in a house where one has learnt to be lonely does one have this solicitude for things. One's relation to them, the daily…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/only-in-a-house-where-one-has-learnt-to-be-lonely-does-one-have-this/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [To walk into history is to be free at once, to be at large among people.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/to-walk-into-history-is-to-be-free-at-once-to-be-at-large-among-people/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [The wish to lead out one's lover must be a tribal feeling; the wish to be seen as loved is part of one's self-respect.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/the-wish-to-lead-out-one-s-lover-must-be-a-tribal-feeling-the-wish-to/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [Convention was our safeguard: could one have stronger?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/convention-was-our-safeguard-could-one-have-stronger/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [“First love, with its frantic haughty imagination, swings its object clear of the everyday, over the rut of living, making him all looks, silences,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/first-love-with-its-frantic-haughty-imagination-swings-its-object/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [to leap is not only to leap, it is to hit the ground somewhere.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/to-leap-is-not-only-to-leap-it-is-to-hit-the-ground-somewhere/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [That is partly why women marry - to keep up the fiction of being in the hub of things.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/that-is-partly-why-women-marry-to-keep-up-the-fiction-of-being-in-the/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [“But Miss Pym gave an impression, somehow, of having been attacked from within .”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/but-miss-pym-gave-an-impression-somehow-of-having-been-attacked-from/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) > [rudeness to Mrs. Dosely was like dropping a pat of butter on to a hot plate - it slid and melted away.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/rudeness-to-mrs-dosely-was-like-dropping-a-pat-of-butter-on-to-a-hot/) [Elizabeth Bowen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) [Explore all 275 Elizabeth Bowen quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/) ## More Boot quotes > [My uncle was the first brown person to have a market stall on Petticoat Lane in the 1960s. 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I definitely gravitate toward oversized things like shirts and jackets. I like a good trouser, but then I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jacquelyn-jablonski/i-m-boyish-with-a-feminine-twist-i-definitely-gravitate-toward/) [Jacquelyn Jablonski](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jacquelyn-jablonski/) > [The act of exercising at 6 A.M. really helped me. It made me not dread the workout part of my day all day long.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marissa-jaret-winokur/the-act-of-exercising-at-6-a-m-really-helped-me-it-made-me-not-dread/) [Marissa Jaret Winokur](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marissa-jaret-winokur/) > [The IronClad is faster than most thumb drives but far slower than a standard hard drive. Boot up, application launch and other Windows operations…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/barton-gellman/the-ironclad-is-faster-than-most-thumb-drives-but-far-slower-than-a/) [Barton Gellman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/barton-gellman/) > [A boot cut does not look great on most people.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tan-france/a-boot-cut-does-not-look-great-on-most-people/) [Tan France](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tan-france/) > [WWE is like showbiz boot camp.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dean-ambrose/wwe-is-like-showbiz-boot-camp/) [Dean Ambrose](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dean-ambrose/) > [The very stone one kicks with one's boot will outlast Shakespeare.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/virginia-woolf/the-very-stone-one-kicks-with-one-s-boot-will-outlast-shakespeare/) [Virginia Woolf](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/virginia-woolf/) > [I was in better shape when I went into boot camp than when I came out.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kai-ryssdal/i-was-in-better-shape-when-i-went-into-boot-camp-than-when-i-came-out/) [Kai Ryssdal](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kai-ryssdal/) > [“What is government? Government is the boot. The boot steps here and there, careful to avoid a blade of grass, to nurture it, coddle…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-wilson-watts/what-is-government-government-is-the-boot-the-boot-steps-here-and/) [Alan Wilson Watts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-wilson-watts/) > [Oh, come! That boot is on the other leg. Why should you call me to account for eating decently? If I battened on the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-bernard-shaw/oh-come-that-boot-is-on-the-other-leg-why-should-you-call-me-to/) [George Bernard Shaw](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-bernard-shaw/) > [I always used to put my right boot on first, and then obviously my right sock.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/barry-venison/i-always-used-to-put-my-right-boot-on-first-and-then-obviously-my/) [Barry Venison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/barry-venison/) > [An ant has no quarrel with a boot.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tom-hiddleston/an-ant-has-no-quarrel-with-a-boot/) [Tom Hiddleston](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tom-hiddleston/) [Browse all 72 Boot quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/boot/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“People would eat a boot if it was home made.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Elizabeth Bowen" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/people-would-eat-a-boot-if-it-was-home-made/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Boot" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/people-would-eat-a-boot-if-it-was-home-made/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a4c/elizabeth-bowen-1197_boot_people-would-eat-a-boot-if-it-was-home-m_2494092.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a4c/elizabeth-bowen-1197_boot_people-would-eat-a-boot-if-it-was-home-m_2494092.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a4c/elizabeth-bowen-1197_boot_people-would-eat-a-boot-if-it-was-home-m_2494092.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“People would eat a boot if it was home made.” — Elizabeth Bowen", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Elizabeth Bowen", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-bowen/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "“People would eat a boot if...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/people-would-eat-a-boot-if-it-was-home-made/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-bowen/people-would-eat-a-boot-if-it-was-home-made/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```