You will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do.
David Foster WallaceRead
When a solipsist dies ... everything goes with him.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the idea that individual perception is central to one's reality; when a solipsist dies, their unique perspective and reality cease to exist.
David Foster Wallace's quote reflects the philosophical concept of solipsism, which posits that only one's mind is sure to exist. When a solipsist passes away, not only does their personal experience and consciousness vanish, but so does the world as they perceived it, illustrating the isolation and subjectivity of individual reality.
Themes
SolipsismRealityExistencePerceptionPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
In a philosophy class discussing the nature of reality and existence.
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.
David Foster WallaceRead
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.
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
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