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
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.
In practice
In a debate about ethics, one might refer to this quote to highlight how valid arguments can still reach incorrect conclusions.
You will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do.
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.
It seems important to find ways of reminding ourselves that most 'familiarity' is meditated and delusive.
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.
Acceptance is usually more a matter of fatigue than anything else.
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.
One of the main purposes of laws in a democratic society is to put burdens upon intelligence and reduce it to impotence. Ostensibly, their aim is to penalize anti-social acts; actually their aim is to penalize heretical opinions. At least ninety-five Americans out of every 100 believe that this process is honest and even laudable; it is practically impossible to convince them that there is anything evil in it. In other words, they cannot grasp the concept of liberty.
In all intellectual debates, both sides tend to be correct in what they affirm, and wrong in what they deny.
America is a willingness of the heart.
We stress humanity, and this is done at considerable cost. We can't have a lot of dramatics that other shows get away with - promiscuity, greed, jealousy. None of those have a place in 'Star Trek.'
No one likes to admit they are racist or bear prejudices. Nor do they even like to be open and honest when they witness racist behaviour.
An important function of theology is to keep religion tied to reason and reason to religion. Both roles are of essential importance for humanity.
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