You will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do.
David Foster WallaceRead
It now lately sometimes seemed a black miracle to me that people could actually care deeply about a subject or pursuit, and could go on caring this way for years on end. Could dedicate their entire lives to it. It seemed admirable and at the same time pathetic. We are all dying to give our lives away to something, maybe.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the human desire to dedicate oneself fully to a passion or cause, evoking both admiration and a sense of tragedy.
David Foster Wallace's quote highlights the paradox of intense dedication to a subject or pursuit: while it is admirable to care deeply and commit one's life to something, it can also appear somewhat sad or even misguided. This duality reveals a fundamental aspect of the human experience—a yearning to find meaning and significance in life through devotion, despite the inevitable impermanence of our existence.
Themes
DedicationPassionLifeMeaningHuman Experience
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational speech about following one's passion, you might use this quote to illustrate the depth of dedication.
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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