QuoteProject
The parts of me that used to think I was different or smarter or whatever, almost made me die.
David Foster Wallace
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote reflects on the struggles of feeling different or superior, suggesting that such thoughts can lead to profound personal distress.

David Foster Wallace's quote delves into the complex inner struggle of identity and intellect. It highlights the paradox that feelings of being different or more intelligent can isolate an individual, ultimately leading to existential crises or despair. Such thoughts can create a rift between an individual and society, resulting in emotional turmoil and a sense of alienation.

Themes

IdentityStruggleAlienationIntellectSelf-Perception

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used in a motivational speech about mental health awareness.

More from David Foster Wallace

You will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do.
David Foster WallaceRead
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.
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 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

Similar quotes

...two thirds of all sorrow is homemade and, so far as the universe is concerned, unnecessary.
Aldous HuxleyRead
This is reality, whether you like it or not--all those frivolities of summer, the light and shadow, the living mask of green that trembled over everything, they were lies, and this is what was underneath. This is the truth.
Willa CatherRead
When I was fifteen, all I wanted was to go off to some other world, a place beyond anybody’s reach. A place beyond the flow of time.” - But there’s no place like that in this world. - Exactly. Which is why I’m living here, in this world where things are continually damaged, where the heart is fickle, where time flows past without a break.
Haruki MurakamiRead
Man associates ideas not according to logic or verifiable exactitude, but according to his pleasure and interests. It is for this reason that most truths are nothing but prejudices.
Remy De GourmontRead
The Catholics have a Pope. Protestants laugh at them, and yet the Pope is capable of intellectual advancement. In addition to this, the Pope is mortal, and the church cannot be afflicted with the same idiot forever. The Protestants have a book for their Pope. The book cannot advance. Year after year, and century after century, the book remains as ignorant as ever.
Robert Green IngersollRead
Seal the openings, shut the doors, dull the sharpness, untie the knots, dim the light, become one with the dust. This is called the profound union.
LaoziRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.