You will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do.
David Foster WallaceRead
...logical validity is not a guarantee of truth.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Logical validity does not ensure that something is true; it means it follows a structure that makes it coherent.
This quote by David Foster Wallace suggests that just because an argument is logically sound does not necessarily mean the conclusion it leads to is true. It emphasizes the distinction between valid reasoning and factual accuracy, reminding us that logical structures can be applied to false premises or assumptions, leading to incorrect conclusions despite their internal coherence.
Themes
Logical ValidityTruthReasoningPhilosophyFallacy
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate about ethics, one might refer to this quote to highlight how valid arguments can still reach incorrect conclusions.
More from David Foster Wallace
All quotes βEverything 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.
David Foster WallaceRead
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 youβve never known will wash over you and just about kill you. Ride these out, and itβs like stepping from black and white into color. Like water after days in the desert. Instant bliss in every atom.
David Foster WallaceRead
Similar quotes
If, indeed, a firearm were more dangerous to its possessors than to potential aggressors, would it not make sense for the government to arm all criminals, and let them accidentally shoot themselves? Is this absurd? Yes, and yet the government, of course, is arming criminals.
David MametRead
I know I was born and I know that I'll die... _x000D_ The in between is mine._x000D_ I Am Mine
Eddie VedderRead
There may be responsible persons, but there are no guilty ones.
Albert CamusRead
I entirely concur in the propriety of resorting to the sense in which the Constitution was accepted and ratified by the nation. In that sense alone it is the legitimate Constitution.
James MadisonRead
Why I came here, I know not; where I shall go it is useless to inquire - in the midst of myriads of the living and the dead worlds, stars, systems, infinity, why should I be anxious about an atom?
Lord ByronRead
So obscure are the greatest events, as some take for granted any hearsay, whatever its source, others turn truth into falsehood, and both errors find encouragement with posterity.
TacitusRead