David Foster Wallace Quotes

We become what we pay attention to.

Learning 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.

You become what you give your attention to...If you yourself don't choose what thoughts and images you expose yourself to, someone else will, and their motives may not be the highest.

Attention is the key to life. Whatever you really give your attention to, you become. Whatever you really concentrate upon will come into your life. We grow into the thing that fills our thoughts as inevitably as the stream merges into the ocean at last.

You are responsible for what you give your attention to.

At any moment in time, our reality is based on whatever we focus on.

The relationship between the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala fundamentally changes with meditation.

Paying attention to what we allow ourselves to pay attention to is a tricky thing. It's like being in two places at once but completely worth the discipline. We can react mindlessly or respond mindfully. It's up to us.

We make real that to which we pay attention. The Master knows this. The Master places himself at choice with regard to that which she chooses to make real.

The beginning of personal transformation is absurdly easy. We have only to pay attention to the flow of attention itself.

What is the difference between attention and inattention? What is attention and what is concentration? ...Attention has no centre.

Attention is like energy in that without it no work can be done, and in doing work is dissipated. We create ourselves by how we use this energy. Memories, thoughts and feelings are all shaped by how use it. And it is an energy under control, to do with as we please; hence attention is our most important tool in the task of improving the quality of experience.

Remember, whatever we put our attention on expands in our experience, so consider where you are focusing your time and energy.

Besides learning to see, there is another art to be learned - not to see what is not.

Mindfulness means moment-to-moment, non-judgmental awareness. It is cultivated by refining our capacity to pay attention, intentionally, in the present moment, and then sustaining that attention over time as best we can. In the process, we become more in touch with our life as it is unfolding.

Attention is a limited resource, so pay attention to where you pay attention.

Well... ...That's what you always forget, isn't it? I mean, you forget to pay attention to what's happening. And that's the same as not being here and now.

Attention is the cardinal psychological virtue. On it depends perhaps the other cardinal virtues, for there can hardly be faith nor hope nor love for anything unless it first receives attention.

You cannot give your full attention to something, and at the same time resist it.

Surely there is something to be said for drawing a circle around our attention and remaining within that circle. But how large should this circle be?

Concentration is that ability to not think about anything.

Our life experiences area result of where our attention takes us.

Pay attention to what you're paying attention to.

The patterns of activity of neurons in sensory areas can be altered by patterns of attention. Experience coupled with attention leads to physical changes in the structure and future functioning of the nervous system. This leaves us with a clear physiological fact…moment by moment we choose and sculpt how our ever-changing minds will work. We choose who we will be in the next moment in a very real sense, and these choices are left embossed in physical form in our material selves.

To succeed, you must be able to concentrate, and to know what to concentrate on.