You will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do.
David Foster WallaceRead
It seems important to find ways of reminding ourselves that most 'familiarity' is meditated and delusive.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Familiarity may distort our perception, making us complacent and blind to deeper truths.
David Foster Wallace suggests that what we often perceive as familiarity in our lives can be misleading. It encourages us to be aware that our understanding of the world is shaped by our experiences and perceptions, which may not always reflect reality. By questioning this familiarity, we can gain a clearer insight into our surroundings and ourselves.
Themes
FamiliarityPerceptionRealityAwarenessMeditation
In practice
Example use cases
A public speaker might use this quote to highlight the importance of questioning our assumptions.
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.
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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.
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Acceptance is usually more a matter of fatigue than anything else.
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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
The great thing about irony is that it splits things apart, gets up above them so we can see the flaws and hypocrisies and duplicates.
David Foster WallaceRead
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