You will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do.
David Foster WallaceRead
Hear this or not, as you will. Learn it now, or later -- the world has time. Routine, repetition, tedium, monotony, ephemeracy, inconsequence, abstraction, disorder, boredom, angst, ennui -- these are the true hero's enemies, and make no mistake, they are fearsome indeed. For they are real.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of recognizing and confronting the mundane aspects of life that can hinder personal growth.
In this quote, David Foster Wallace highlights the often-overlooked challenges posed by routine and monotony in life. He asserts that these elements are formidable adversaries to anyone striving for significance and fulfillment, suggesting that awareness and confrontation of these 'enemies' is crucial for personal development and avoiding a life of unexamined tedium. Wallace invites us to acknowledge that while we may have time, the way we engage with our daily experiences shapes our existence profoundly.
Themes
RoutineMonotonyLifeGrowthAwareness
In practice
Example use cases
During a keynote speech on personal development, you can quote this to emphasize the need for self-awareness.
More from David Foster Wallace
All quotes →Everything 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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It seems important to find ways of reminding ourselves that most 'familiarity' is meditated and delusive.
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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.
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 you’ve never known will wash over you and just about kill you. Ride these out, and it’s like stepping from black and white into color. Like water after days in the desert. Instant bliss in every atom.
David Foster WallaceRead
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