The truth is that the heroism of your childhood entertainments was not true valor. It was theatre. The grand gesture, the moment of choice, the mortal danger, the external foe, the climactic battle whose outcome resolves all--all designed to appear heroic, to excite and gratify and audience. Gentlemen, welcome to the world of reality--there is no audience. No one to applaud, to admire. No one to see you. Do you understand?Here is the truth--actual heroism receives no ovation, entertains no one. No one queues up to see it. No one is interested. β¨ The Pale King. Book by David Foster Wallace, 2011.
More Author Quotes
- the psychological need to believe that others take you as seriously as you take yourself. There is nothing particularly wrong with it, as psychological needs go, but yet of course we should always re β¦ βΆ
- Lonely people tend, rather, to be lonely because they decline to bear the psychic costs of being around other humans. They are allergic to people. People affect them too strongly. β¨ David Foster Wall β¦ βΆ
- When a solipsist dies ... everything goes with him.
- Truly decent, innocent people can be taxing to be around. β¨ David Foster Wallace (2012). Consider The Lobster: Essays and Arguments, p.18, Hachette UK
- The fact that the most powerful and significant connections in our lives are (at the time) invisible to us seems to me a compelling argument for religious reverence rather than skeptical empiricism a β¦ βΆ
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