Quotes From David Foster Wallace’s Famous Commencement Speech
From his most famous novel, 1996’s Infinite Jest (an epic at just over 1,000 pages) to his many articles and essays, David Foster Wallace is celebrated for his deep meditations on modern life.
The writer often asked existential questions and explored what it means to relate to other people — questions he did not shy away from when asked to speak to the graduating class of 2005 at Kenyon College. His address, titled “This Is Water,” is now considered one of the greatest commencement speeches of all time. The title of the speech is taken from a parable about a young fish who doesn’t even know what water is, just as humans often operate on autopilot without being fully aware of our surroundings or actions.
At its heart, the speech is an invitation to wake up and pay attention. Wallace encouraged his audience to use their schooling to assess their role in the world more thoughtfully. “Learning how to think,” he offered, “really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think.”
Wallace was essentially expounding the benefits of mindfulness: He explained that we can all be more conscious of what we choose to focus on, that instead of running on “default” settings guided by outside forces, we have to remind ourselves, “this is water.”
In 2009, a year after Wallace’s death at age 46, the speech was released as a short book with its full title: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life. Its message has resonated with thousands of readers and listeners miles and years beyond the 2005 class at Kenyon College.
Here are nine quotes that get to the heart of “This Is Water,” urging us to “stay conscious and alive, day in and day out.”
