Attention Quotes by David Foster Wallace

People, unless they're paying attention, tend to confuse fanciness with intelligence or authority.

— David Foster Wallace

It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from…

— David Foster Wallace

The entire ball game, in terms of both the exam and life, was what you gave attention to vs. what you willed…

— David Foster Wallace

Whatever you get paid attention for is never what you think is most important about yourself.

— David Foster Wallace

Almost anything that you pay close, direct attention to becomes interesting.

— David Foster Wallace

The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other…

— David Foster Wallace

You can be shaped, or you can be broken. There is not much in between. Try to learn. Be coachable. Try to…

— David Foster Wallace

Probably the most dangerous thing about college education, at least in my own case, is that it enables my tendency to over-intellectualize…

— David Foster Wallace

But if you've really learned how to think, how to pay attention, then you will know you have other options. It will…

— David Foster Wallace

How promising you are as a Student of the Game is a function of what you can pay attention to without running…

— David Foster Wallace

But if you've really learned how to think, how to pay attention...it will actually be within your power to experience a crowded,…

— David Foster Wallace

The point is that petty, frustrating crap like this is exactly where the work of choosing comes in. Because the traffic jams…

— David Foster Wallace

Learning how to think" really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious…

— David Foster Wallace

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…

— David Foster Wallace

“To me, at least in retrospect, the really interesting question is why dullness proves to be such a powerful impediment to attention.…

— David Foster Wallace