David Foster Wallace

David Foster Wallace was an American author. He was born in 1962, and he is best known as the author of the novel Infinite Jest. He died in the year 2008. In May of 2005, he was the commencement speaker at Kenyon College, addressing the graduating class. This Is Water is the title of the speech he delivered during that commencement ceremony. In this speech, Wallace speaks on the urgent necessity of approaching life—especially the seemingly mundane and frustrating aspects of everyday routines—with a sense of compassion and selflessness. Wallace warns of the dangers of consistently approaching life in a way that passively accepts certain principles of selfishness.

Wallace qualifies his statements by stating that he often struggles to follow his own advice, as acting with selflessness and compassion is something that requires constant effort and awareness. After opening the speech with an anecdote about two...