To make someone an icon is to make him an abstraction, and abstractions are incapable of vital communication with living people.
David Foster WallaceLearning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience. Because if you cannot or will not exercise this kind of choice in adult life, you will be totally hosed.
David Foster WallaceThe entire ball game, in terms of both the exam and life, was what you gave attention to vs. what you willed yourself to not.
David Foster Wallace