--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Sitting in this small pub with its cool…" description: "\"“Sitting in this small pub with its cool flagged floor, listening to the murmuring voices of the haymakers and the click of dominoes falling, drinking ..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7d4/william-boyd-3581_drinking-beer_sitting-in-this-small-pub-with-its-cool_3124780.jpg" --- # Sitting in this small pub with its cool flagged floor… ![“Sitting in this small pub with its cool flagged floor, listening to the murmuring voices of the haymakers and the click of dominoes falling, drinking beer here in the midle of summer in England in 1914, he suddenly felt a stillness creep up on him as if he were suffering from a form of mental…” quote by William Boyd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7d4/william-boyd-3581_drinking-beer_sitting-in-this-small-pub-with-its-cool_3124780.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7d4/william-boyd-3581_drinking-beer_sitting-in-this-small-pub-with-its-cool_3124780.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7d4/william-boyd-3581_drinking-beer_sitting-in-this-small-pub-with-its-cool_3124780.jpg) > ““Sitting in this small pub with its cool flagged floor, listening to the murmuring voices of the haymakers and the click of dominoes falling, drinking beer here in the midle of summer in England in 1914, he suddenly felt a stillness creep up on him as if he were suffering from a form of mental palsy -- as if time had stopped and the world's turning, also. It was a strange sensation -- that he would be for ever stuck in this late June day in 1914 like a fly in amber -- the past as irrelevant to him as the future. A perfect statis; the most alluring inertia.”” [William Boyd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-boyd/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. He experiences a timeless, immobilizing stillness amid ordinary summer life, feeling detached from past and future. **In simple terms:** A moment feels frozen and detached. Key Takeaway Notice and accept fleeting stillness. Themes nostalgia time detachment inertia reflection Mood melancholic contemplative Type literary philosophical When to use this quote - summer day - war onset - personal introspection - creative writing Key Concepts existentialism temporal perception psychology Questions to Reflect On - How does feeling detached affect decision making? - Can stillness be a source of insight? A Different Perspective Such stillness can hinder engagement with reality. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [1914 Like](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/1914-like-5501915/) [1914 Suddenly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/1914-suddenly-5501914/) [Alluring Inertia](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/alluring-inertia-5501917/) [Drinking beer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/drinking-beer/) [England 1914](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/england-1914-5501918/) [Felt Stillness](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/felt-stillness-5501916/) ## Related quotes > [... not only is life put in new patterns from the air, but it is somehow arrested, frozen into form. (The leaping hare is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anne-morrow-lindbergh/not-only-is-life-put-in-new-patterns-from-the-air-but-it-is-somehow/) [Anne Morrow Lindbergh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anne-morrow-lindbergh/) > [Beer: Helping ugly people have sex since 3000 B. 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It was a crazy…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ed-o-neill/in-the-summer-we-graduated-we-flipped-out-completely-drinking-beer/) [Ed O'Neill](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ed-o-neill/) > [I'm Catholic and I can't commit suicide, but I plan to drink myself to death.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jack-kerouac/i-m-catholic-and-i-can-t-commit-suicide-but-i-plan-to-drink-myself-to/) [Jack Kerouac](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jack-kerouac/) ## More by William Boyd > [Sometimes limbo is a tolerable place to be stuck.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-boyd/sometimes-limbo-is-a-tolerable-place-to-be-stuck/) [William Boyd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-boyd/) > [“Here at its extremities the terrified transients gathered, gazing out at the vast refulgent ocean for some sign of security.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-boyd/here-at-its-extremities-the-terrified-transients-gathered-gazing-out/) [William Boyd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-boyd/) > [“We all possess, like it or not, the people we know, and are possessed by them in turn.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-boyd/we-all-possess-like-it-or-not-the-people-we-know-and-are-possessed-by/) [William Boyd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-boyd/) > [“Old Testament prophets. ‘You savvy dis fetish thing?”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-boyd/old-testament-prophets-you-savvy-dis-fetish-thing/) [William Boyd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-boyd/) > [Human beings are interested in the human condition.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-boyd/human-beings-are-interested-in-the-human-condition/) [William Boyd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-boyd/) > [“A warm sunny evening, the plash and gurgle of the waves in the rock pools, the rush of the cold gin. 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Total.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-boyd/i-am-a-total-stranger-you-see-total/) [William Boyd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-boyd/) > [There is a disconnect between the film Bond and the literary Bond which is their contemporaneity. I don't suffer from that.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-boyd/there-is-a-disconnect-between-the-film-bond-and-the-literary-bond/) [William Boyd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-boyd/) > [“So much for my great vendetta, so much for the tireless hunt for my betrayer. Isn't this how life turns out, more often than…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-boyd/so-much-for-my-great-vendetta-so-much-for-the-tireless-hunt-for-my/) [William Boyd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-boyd/) [Explore all 125 William Boyd quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-boyd/) ## More Drinking beer quotes > [I'm Catholic and I can't commit suicide, but I plan to drink myself to death.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jack-kerouac/i-m-catholic-and-i-can-t-commit-suicide-but-i-plan-to-drink-myself-to/) [Jack Kerouac](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jack-kerouac/) > [In the summer we graduated we flipped out completely, drinking beer, cruising in our cars and beating up each other. It was a crazy…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ed-o-neill/in-the-summer-we-graduated-we-flipped-out-completely-drinking-beer/) [Ed O'Neill](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ed-o-neill/) > [It is most absurdly said, in popular language, of any man, that he is disguised in liquor; for, on the contrary, most men are…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-de-quincey/it-is-most-absurdly-said-in-popular-language-of-any-man-that-he-is/) [Thomas de Quincey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-de-quincey/) > [“I wasn't interested in drinking beer or vodka or smoking cigarettes or doing all the other things Greta thinks I can't even imagine. I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carol-rifka-brunt/i-wasn-t-interested-in-drinking-beer-or-vodka-or-smoking-cigarettes/) [Carol Rifka Brunt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carol-rifka-brunt/) > [To some it's a six-pack, to me it's a "support group". Salvation in a can!](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/leo-durocher/to-some-it-s-a-six-pack-to-me-it-s-a-support-group-salvation-in-a-can/) [Leo Durocher](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/leo-durocher/) > [Grades are getting low, the teens are getting high. That 12 year old is pregnant and her parents wonder why. A 1st grader is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/grades-are-getting-low-the-teens-are-getting-high-that-12-year-old-is/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [“Faith healers. God-loves-you religions. State-supported lotteries. All that enormous energy expended to conquer nothing at all, stadia full of people watching no conquering going…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sheri-s-tepper/faith-healers-god-loves-you-religions-state-supported-lotteries-all/) [Sheri S. Tepper](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sheri-s-tepper/) > [Beer's intellectual. What a shame so many idiots drink it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ray-bradbury/beer-s-intellectual-what-a-shame-so-many-idiots-drink-it/) [Ray Bradbury](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ray-bradbury/) > [“You see how fake it all is. It's not even hard enough to be made out of plastic. It's a paper town. I mean…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-green/you-see-how-fake-it-all-is-it-s-not-even-hard-enough-to-be-made-out-2/) [John Green](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-green/) > [You go to jail for drinking beer and then walking with your bike. You go to jail for smoking a joint. For abortion. 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Silicon Valley's view of the creative process in Hollywood is a bunch of guys in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/steve-jobs/the-technology-companies-don-t-understand-creative-things-at-all/) [Steve Jobs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/steve-jobs/) [Browse all 120 Drinking beer quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/drinking-beer/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Sitting in this small pub with its cool flagged floor, listening to the murmuring voices of the haymakers and the click of dominoes falling, drinking beer here in the midle of summer in England in 1914, he suddenly felt a stillness creep up on him as if he were suffering from a form of mental palsy -- as if time had stopped and the world's turning, also. It was a strange sensation -- that he would be for ever stuck in this late June day in 1914 like a fly in amber -- the past as irrelevant to him as the future. 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