The Quotes canon
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Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Acceptance1 quote
"Acceptance" is usually more a matter of fatigue than anything else. — David Foster Wallace · 1996Animal cruelty1 quote
Is it all right to boil a sentient creature alive just for our gustatory pleasure? — David Foster Wallace · 2004Atheism1 quote
In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. — David Foster Wallace · 2005Caring for others1 quote
The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty, unsexy ways, every day. — David Foster Wallace · 2005Civic duty1 quote
In reality there is no such thing as not voting: you either vote by voting, or you vote by staying home and tacitly doubling the value of some Diehard's vote. — David Foster Wallace · 2000Destiny1 quote
Both destiny's kisses and its dope-slaps illustrate an individual person's basic personal powerlessness over the really meaningful events in his life: i.e. almost nothing important that ever happens to you happens because you engineer it. Destiny has no beeper; destiny always leans trenchcoated out of an alley with some sort of Psst that you usually can't even hear because you're in such a rush to or from something important you've tried to engineer. — David Foster Wallace · 1996Food1 quote
Is it all right to boil a sentient creature alive just for our gustatory pleasure? — David Foster Wallace · 2004Irony1 quote
Make no mistake: irony tyrannizes us. — David Foster Wallace · 1993Libraries1 quote
I do things like get in a taxi and say, "The library, and step on it." — David Foster Wallace · 1996Man and animals1 quote
Is it all right to boil a sentient creature alive just for our gustatory pleasure? — David Foster Wallace · 2004Mindfulness1 quote
The mind is an excellent servant but a terrible master. — David Foster Wallace · 2005Narcissism1 quote
Everything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute center of the universe. — David Foster Wallace · 2005Nature of God1 quote
In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. — David Foster Wallace · 2005Perception vs. reality1 quote
Everything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute center of the universe. — David Foster Wallace · 2005Politics1 quote
In reality there is no such thing as not voting: you either vote by voting, or you vote by staying home and tacitly doubling the value of some Diehard's vote. — David Foster Wallace · 2000Resignation1 quote
"Acceptance" is usually more a matter of fatigue than anything else. — David Foster Wallace · 1996Self-control1 quote
The mind is an excellent servant but a terrible master. — David Foster Wallace · 2005The mind1 quote
The mind is an excellent servant but a terrible master. — David Foster Wallace · 2005The painful truth1 quote
The truth will set you free. But not until it is finished with you. — David Foster Wallace · 1996The universe1 quote
Everything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute center of the universe. — David Foster Wallace · 2005Truth1 quote
The truth will set you free. But not until it is finished with you. — David Foster Wallace · 1996Uniqueness of each person1 quote
Everybody is identical in their secret unspoken belief that way deep down they are different from everyone else. — David Foster Wallace · 1996Voting1 quote
In reality there is no such thing as not voting: you either vote by voting, or you vote by staying home and tacitly doubling the value of some Diehard's vote. — David Foster Wallace · 2000Worship1 quote
In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. — David Foster Wallace · 2005