You will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do.
David Foster WallaceRead
I think it's easy to stop smoking; it's just hard not to commit a felony after you stop.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Quitting smoking is simple in theory, but the underlying struggles often complicate the process.
David Foster Wallace's quote highlights the irony in the simplicity of quitting smoking versus the complex emotional and behavioral challenges that follow. It emphasizes that while the act of stopping smoking may seem straightforward, it is often accompanied by deeper issues, making the entire process more difficult than it first appears.
Themes
SmokingAddictionStruggleQuittingBehavior
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a support group for individuals trying to quit smoking.
More from David Foster Wallace
All quotes βEverything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute center of the universe, the realest, most vivid and important person in existence.
David Foster WallaceRead
It seems important to find ways of reminding ourselves that most 'familiarity' is meditated and delusive.
David Foster WallaceRead
Under fun's new administration, writing fiction becomes a way to go deep inside yourself and illuminate precisely the stuff you don't want to see or let anyone else see, and this stuff usually turns out (paradoxically) to be precisely the stuff all writers and readers share and respond to, feel.
David Foster WallaceRead
Acceptance is usually more a matter of fatigue than anything else.
David Foster WallaceRead
Bliss - a-second-by-second joy and gratitude at the gift of being alive, conscious - lies on the other side of crushing, crushing boredom. Pay close attention to the most tedious thing you can find (Tax Returns, Televised Golf) and, in waves, a boredom like youβve never known will wash over you and just about kill you. Ride these out, and itβs like stepping from black and white into color. Like water after days in the desert. Instant bliss in every atom.
David Foster WallaceRead
Similar quotes
If you get the dirty end of the stick, sharpen it and turn it into a useful tool.
Colin PowellRead
A great man does not seek applause or place; he seeks for truth; he seeks the road to happiness, and what he ascertains, he gives to others.
Robert Green IngersollRead
Does anybody think these people were just sitting around drinking tea?
Condoleezza RiceRead
I would run into the corner store, the bodega, and just grab a paper bag or buy juice - anything just to get a paper bag. And I'd write the words on the paper bag and stuff these ideas in my pocket until I got back. Then I would transfer them into the notebook.
Jay-ZRead
Rather than continuing to seek the truth, simply let go of your views.
Gautama BuddhaRead
The ear plays the role of the guide in the museum in the concert I'm taking now. We don't have an oral guide, we have to provide it ourselves. One reason why active listening is absolutely essential.
Daniel BarenboimRead