"A Democratic Spirit is one that combines rigor and humility, i.e., passionate conviction plus sedulous respect for the convictions of others. As any American knows, this is a very difficult spirit to cultivate and maintain, particularly when it comes to issues you feel strongly about. Equally tough is a D.S.'s criterion of 100 percent intellectual integrityyou have to be willing to look honestly at yourself and your motives for believing what you believe, and do it more or less continually."
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AbsurdistsNovelists from the United StatesPeople from New York (state)Academics from the United StatesEssayists from the United States
Original Language: English
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Tense Present: Democracy, English, and the Wars over Usage (Harper's Magazine, April 2001.)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Foster_Wallace
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David Foster Wallace
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