You will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do.
David Foster WallaceRead
What passes for hip cynical transcendence of sentiment is really some kind of fear of being really human, since to be really human [...] is probably to be unavoidably sentimental and naïve and goo-prone and generally pathetic.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote critiques the superficial avoidance of genuine human emotions and connections, suggesting that authenticity involves embracing sentimentality.
David Foster Wallace argues that in an effort to appear 'cool' or detached, many people adopt a cynical attitude that actually stems from a fear of vulnerability and genuine humanity. He suggests that true human connection requires us to accept our sentimental side, acknowledging that being emotionally open and even 'naïve' is a fundamental part of the human experience, despite the messiness it entails.
Themes
HumanSentimentCynicismVulnerabilityAuthenticity
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about the impact of social media on human emotions.
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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