You will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do.
David Foster WallaceRead
The capital-T Truth is about life BEFORE death. It is about the real value of a real education, which has almost nothing to do with knowledge, and everything to do with simple awareness; awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us, all the time, that we have to keep reminding ourselves over and over: "This is water." "This is water." It is unimaginably hard to do this, to stay conscious and alive in the adult world day in and day out.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of awareness in life over mere knowledge, encouraging us to recognize the everyday realities that we often overlook.
David Foster Wallace's quote suggests that true understanding and appreciation of life come from being mindful of our surroundings and experiences. He argues that education should not just equip us with knowledge but also cultivate a deeper awareness of the 'water' we swim in daily, which represents the often unnoticed but essential truths of existence. He highlights the difficulty of maintaining this awareness in a complex adult world, emphasizing that recognizing such realities requires continual effort.
Themes
AwarenessEducationTruthLifeMindfulness
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about personal growth and consciousness.
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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