You will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do.
David Foster WallaceRead
If you've never wept and want to, have a child.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Having a child can evoke deep emotional experiences, including the potential for profound love and sorrow.
David Foster Wallace's quote suggests that parenthood is a profound emotional journey, filled with the capacity for tears and intense feelings. It implies that the experience of raising a child opens one up to the full spectrum of human emotions, bringing both joy and heartache, which can lead to personal growth and deeper connections.
Themes
ParenthoodEmotionsChildTearsLove
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the challenges and joys of parenthood.
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.
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.
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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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Dear parents, teach your children to pray. Pray with them.
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I'm going to keep it real gully with you; the first two months, I wanted to give him back. I expected someone to come and save me because after you have the baby, nobody cares about you anymore. Nobody cares if you sleep, nobody cares if you eat. It's just you and this all-consuming thingy!
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