--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: He found himself in habiting the vast…" description: "\"He found himself in habiting the vast, empty plateau where most people live, between boredom and contentment.\" — Jess Walter" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/30b/jess-walter-2228_boredom_he-found-himself-in-habiting-the-vast-em_1646054.jpg" --- # He found himself in habiting the vast, empty plateau where… ![“He found himself in habiting the vast, empty plateau where most people live, between boredom and contentment.” quote by Jess Walter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/30b/jess-walter-2228_boredom_he-found-himself-in-habiting-the-vast-em_1646054.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/30b/jess-walter-2228_boredom_he-found-himself-in-habiting-the-vast-em_1646054.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/30b/jess-walter-2228_boredom_he-found-himself-in-habiting-the-vast-em_1646054.jpg) > “He found himself in habiting the vast, empty plateau where most people live, between boredom and contentment.” [Jess Walter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jess-walter/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. He feels caught between monotony and complacency on an empty plateau, reflecting existential stagnation. **In simple terms:** Stuck between boredom and contentment. Key Takeaway Seek purpose beyond the plateau. Themes existential stagnation search for meaning Mood reflective melancholic Type philosophical literary When to use this quote - career rut - relationship plateau - creative block Key Concepts nihilism self‑reflection Questions to Reflect On - What would break the monotony? - Is comfort worth the loss of growth? A Different Perspective Contentment can mask deeper dissatisfaction. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Boredom](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/boredom/) [Boredom Contentment](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/boredom-contentment-609934/) [Contentment](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/contentment/) [Empty](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/empty/) [Found](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/found/) [Habiting Vast](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/habiting-vast-609933/) [Habits](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/habits/) [Happiness](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/happiness/) [People](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/people/) [Plateau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/plateau/) [Plateau People](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/plateau-people-609935/) [Vast Plateau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/vast-plateau-609932/) ## Related quotes > [“He found himself inhabiting the vast, empty plateau where most people live, between boredom and contentment.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jess-walter/he-found-himself-inhabiting-the-vast-empty-plateau-where-most-people/) [Jess Walter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jess-walter/) > [You break a world record and then you plateau. You know you won't get any better, so you're training for improvement but you know…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/colin-jackson/you-break-a-world-record-and-then-you-plateau-you-know-you-won-t-get/) [Colin Jackson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/colin-jackson/) > [Our population is headed for a stable plateau, which means an aging population.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emanuel-celler/our-population-is-headed-for-a-stable-plateau-which-means-an-aging/) [Emanuel Celler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emanuel-celler/) > [When you get to a plateau, think of it as a landing on the stairway to your goal. 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But I need to go above…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-beckham/i-don-t-think-i-have-reached-a-plateau-i-have-just-reached-the-level/) [David Beckham](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-beckham/) > [Stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/irving-fisher/stock-prices-have-reached-what-looks-like-a-permanently-high-plateau-2/) [Irving Fisher](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/irving-fisher/) > [Home sales are coming down from the mountain peak, but they will level out at a high plateau - a plateau that is higher…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-lereah/home-sales-are-coming-down-from-the-mountain-peak-but-they-will-level/) [David Lereah](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-lereah/) > ['Breaking Bad' was such a high plateau.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aaron-paul/breaking-bad-was-such-a-high-plateau/) [Aaron Paul](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aaron-paul/) > [Plateau experiencing can be achieved, learned, earned by long hard work… A transient glimpse is certainly possible in the peak experiences which may, after…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/abraham-maslow/plateau-experiencing-can-be-achieved-learned-earned-by-long-hard-work/) [Abraham Maslow](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/abraham-maslow/) > [The 'OK Plateau' is that place we all get to where we just stop getting better at something. Take typing, for example. You might…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joshua-foer/the-ok-plateau-is-that-place-we-all-get-to-where-we-just-stop-getting/) [Joshua Foer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joshua-foer/) > [“God placed humans on a plateau above the rest of creation when he fashioned them in his relational image and likeness. To”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/josh-mcdowell/god-placed-humans-on-a-plateau-above-the-rest-of-creation-when-he/) [Josh McDowell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/josh-mcdowell/) > [To love the plateau is to love what is most essential and enduring in your life.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-leonard/to-love-the-plateau-is-to-love-what-is-most-essential-and-enduring-in/) [George Leonard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-leonard/) > [With ski jumping I reached a plateau and the more I did it the worse I got.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mike-tindall/with-ski-jumping-i-reached-a-plateau-and-the-more-i-did-it-the-worse/) [Mike Tindall](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mike-tindall/) ## More by Jess Walter > [For many people it's Facebook, or sports on TV, whatever it is. I have my own demons that I battle. But whatever they are,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jess-walter/for-many-people-it-s-facebook-or-sports-on-tv-whatever-it-is-i-have/) [Jess Walter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jess-walter/) > [Without sounding overly sentimental about the process, I'd say trying to describe how you tend to conceive of a book is like describing how…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jess-walter/without-sounding-overly-sentimental-about-the-process-i-d-say-trying/) [Jess Walter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jess-walter/) > [“What person who has enjoyed life could possibly think one is enough?”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jess-walter/what-person-who-has-enjoyed-life-could-possibly-think-one-is-enough/) [Jess Walter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jess-walter/) > [For me, movies and television are interesting because they are the dominant storytelling form of our time. My first love will always be fiction,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jess-walter/for-me-movies-and-television-are-interesting-because-they-are-the/) [Jess Walter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jess-walter/) > [In seventh grade, with some vague sense that I wanted to be a writer, I crouched in the junior high school library stacks to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jess-walter/in-seventh-grade-with-some-vague-sense-that-i-wanted-to-be-a-writer-i/) [Jess Walter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jess-walter/) > [“There would seem to be nothing more obvious, more tangible and palpable than the present moment. And yet it eludes us completely. All the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jess-walter/there-would-seem-to-be-nothing-more-obvious-more-tangible-and/) [Jess Walter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jess-walter/) > [People sometimes ask who I would cast in my books and I never have any idea. 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It was like prying a magnet off steel, but he did it: he turned…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jess-walter/and-pasquale-forced-himself-to-look-away-from-her-then-it-was-like/) [Jess Walter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jess-walter/) > [I've been simultaneously drawn to and repelled from Hollywood for years.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jess-walter/i-ve-been-simultaneously-drawn-to-and-repelled-from-hollywood-for/) [Jess Walter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jess-walter/) > [I cling to the idea that Herman Melville had to work at the end of his career watching ships in a dock, as a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jess-walter/i-cling-to-the-idea-that-herman-melville-had-to-work-at-the-end-of/) [Jess Walter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jess-walter/) > [I come from a newspaper background, so maybe I'm attuned to current events.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jess-walter/i-come-from-a-newspaper-background-so-maybe-i-m-attuned-to-current/) [Jess Walter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jess-walter/) > [Maybe every couple lived in the gaps between conversations, unable to say the important things for fear they had already been said, or couldn't…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jess-walter/maybe-every-couple-lived-in-the-gaps-between-conversations-unable-to/) [Jess Walter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jess-walter/) > [“How do you think it should end?” Young Pasquale considered the question. “Well, instead of going back to America during the war, he could…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jess-walter/how-do-you-think-it-should-end-young-pasquale-considered-the-question/) [Jess Walter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jess-walter/) [Explore all 177 Jess Walter quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jess-walter/) ## More Boredom quotes > [I am fairly tired--bored beyond endurance--by the world we live in, and its ideals, and am ready to say so, not violently, but kindly,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-adams/i-am-fairly-tired-bored-beyond-endurance-by-the-world-we-live-in-and/) [Henry Adams](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-adams/) > [Life is what you make it¦If one refuses to use ones imagination..it will be boring.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/life-is-what-you-make-it-if-one-refuses-to-use-ones-imagination-it/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [Boredom is vastly underrated. Boredom means that nothing is trying to kill you every day.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robin-hobb/boredom-is-vastly-underrated-boredom-means-that-nothing-is-trying-to/) [Robin Hobb](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robin-hobb/) > [I'm bored of being bored because being bored is very boring](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sachithra/i-m-bored-of-being-bored-because-being-bored-is-very-boring/) [Sachithra](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sachithra/) > [When people look in the mirror, sometimes they see are their shells in the mirror, nothing else.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/when-people-look-in-the-mirror-sometimes-they-see-are-their-shells-in/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [I don't think anyone wants to do the same thing over and over again.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/eric-bachmann/i-don-t-think-anyone-wants-to-do-the-same-thing-over-and-over-again/) [Eric Bachmann](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/eric-bachmann/) > [“A car is one of the most interesting inventions, but driving is one of the most boring activities.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mokokoma-mokhonoana/a-car-is-one-of-the-most-interesting-inventions-but-driving-is-one-of/) [Mokokoma Mokhonoana](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mokokoma-mokhonoana/) > [The most total opposite of pleasure is not pain but boredom, for we are willing to risk pain to make a boring life interesting.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/peter-kreeft/the-most-total-opposite-of-pleasure-is-not-pain-but-boredom-for-we/) [Peter Kreeft](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/peter-kreeft/) > [We shop out of boredom, for release, for excitement, for a sense of achievement, for a sense of control over our unruly existences. And…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tim-gunn/we-shop-out-of-boredom-for-release-for-excitement-for-a-sense-of/) [Tim Gunn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tim-gunn/) > [That human life must be some kind of mistake is sufficiently proved by the simple observation that man is a compound of needs which…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/arthur-schopenhauer/that-human-life-must-be-some-kind-of-mistake-is-sufficiently-proved/) [Arthur Schopenhauer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/arthur-schopenhauer/) > [Isn’t ‘not to be bored’ one of the principal goals of life?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gustave-flaubert/isn-t-not-to-be-bored-one-of-the-principal-goals-of-life/) [Gustave Flaubert](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gustave-flaubert/) > [The worst sin, the ultimate sin for me, in anything, is to be bored.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ted-turner/the-worst-sin-the-ultimate-sin-for-me-in-anything-is-to-be-bored/) [Ted Turner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ted-turner/) > [Exploitation and manipulation produce boredom and triviality; they cripple man, and all factors that make man into a psychic cripple turn him also into…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/erich-fromm/exploitation-and-manipulation-produce-boredom-and-triviality-they/) [Erich Fromm](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/erich-fromm/) > [“To me, at least in retrospect, the really interesting question is why dullness proves to be such a powerful impediment to attention. Why we…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-foster-wallace/to-me-at-least-in-retrospect-the-really-interesting-question-is-why/) [David Foster Wallace](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-foster-wallace/) > [Listen deeply. Meditate on that which is arising. Even if it's boredom or difficulty or maybe a feeling of being stuck, that in itself…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rodney-yee/listen-deeply-meditate-on-that-which-is-arising-even-if-it-s-boredom/) [Rodney Yee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rodney-yee/) [Browse all 1,505 Boredom quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/boredom/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "He found himself in habiting the vast, empty plateau where most people live, between boredom and contentment.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jess Walter" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jess-walter/he-found-himself-in-habiting-the-vast-empty-plateau-where-most-people/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Boredom" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jess-walter/he-found-himself-in-habiting-the-vast-empty-plateau-where-most-people/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/30b/jess-walter-2228_boredom_he-found-himself-in-habiting-the-vast-em_1646054.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/30b/jess-walter-2228_boredom_he-found-himself-in-habiting-the-vast-em_1646054.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/30b/jess-walter-2228_boredom_he-found-himself-in-habiting-the-vast-em_1646054.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“He found himself in habiting the vast, empty plateau where most people live, between boredom and contentment.” — Jess Walter", "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": "Jess Walter", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jess-walter/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "He found himself in habiting the...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jess-walter/he-found-himself-in-habiting-the-vast-empty-plateau-where-most-people/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jess-walter/he-found-himself-in-habiting-the-vast-empty-plateau-where-most-people/#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 } } ] } ```