“What goes on inside is just too fast and huge and all interconnected for words to do more than barely sketch the outlines of at most one tiny little part of it at any given instant.”

— David Foster Wallace

Variant: The true thoughts that go on inside us are just too fast and huge and all interconnected for words to do more than barely sketch the outlines of, at most, one tiny little part of us at any given instant.
Source: Oblivion

Last update June 3, 2021. History

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David Foster Wallace 185

American fiction writer and essayist 1962–2008

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(original Dutch, citaat van Schelfhout, uit zijn brief:) ..toen den verschrikkelijke storm en hogen watervloed allerverschrikkelijkst woede, begaf ik mij naar Schevelinge [=Scheveningen].. ..zee en lucht scheene een element te zijn; op de hoogte waar ik stond, want de zee had reeds duinen weggespoeld en stond tot aan het dorp, was het gezigt verschrikkelijk; het gejammer der bewoners akelig. - bij mijne thuiskomst heb ik echter dadelijk een schets daarvan op papier gebragt - doch die schets voldoet zo weinig, aan het geen men terplaatse zelve zag.. ..[waar] geen partij zig op deed waar van eigenlijk een tekening te maken was.. ..[dus] zal het nodig zijn dat ik [mij] nog een andere maal naar Scheveningen begeeft en die punten waar het water het meest gewoeld heeft afteschetsen..
Quote of Schelfhout in his letter to , 10 Feb. 1825; the original letter is in the collection of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Den Haag, inv. Nr: 133 C12, nr. 4

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“What goes on inside is just too fast and huge and all interconnected for words to do more than barely sketch the outlines of at most one tiny little part of it at any given instant.”

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David Foster Wallace 185

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