The basic idea that the purpose of life is to be happy or is to experience the most favorable ratio of pleasure to suffering or productivity to work or gratification to sacrifice or any of that stuff, which, you know, a couple generations ago, to say that kind of stuff would have made you, you know, a freak - a freak and an Epicurean - and now seems to be so much - simply an unquestioned assumption of the culture that we don't really even talk about it anymore.
David Foster WallacePeople, unless they're paying attention, tend to confuse fanciness with intelligence or authority.
David Foster WallaceNuclear weapons and TV have simply intensified the consequences of our tendencies, upped the stakes.
David Foster WallaceYou get to consciously decide what has meaning and what doesn't. You get to decide what to worship.
David Foster Wallace