You will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do.
David Foster WallaceRead
This is not a matter of virtue-it's a matter of my choosing to do the work of somehow altering or getting free of my natural, hard-wired default-setting, which is to be deeply and literally self-centered, and to see and interpret everything through this lens of self.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of consciously choosing to overcome innate self-centeredness.
David Foster Wallace reflects on the innate tendency of humans to be self-centered and suggests that personal growth requires active effort to alter this default setting. He highlights that virtue is not simply about moral goodness but involves the conscious choice to engage in the arduous work of becoming more aware of and free from our self-absorbed tendencies.
Themes
Self-CenteredDefault-SettingChoiceGrowthAwareness
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a motivational speech to encourage people to reflect on their awareness of self.
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.
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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 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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