None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.
Henry David ThoreauRead
Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something.
Interpretation
Strive for a purpose beyond mere goodness; aim to contribute positively to the world.
This quote encourages individuals to look beyond conventional notions of morality and to pursue a deeper purpose. Thoreau suggests that simply being good is not enough; one should also aim to be good for a meaningful cause, emphasizing the importance of active engagement and contribution to society.
In practice
In a motivational speech about community service.
None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.
Through want of enterprise and faith men are where they are, buying and selling and spending their lives like servants.
An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.
Have no mean hours, but be grateful for every hour, and accept what it brings. The reality will make any sincere record respectable.
As every season seems best to us in its turn, so the coming in of spring is like the creation of Cosmos out of Chaos and the realization of the Golden Age.
That grand old poem called Winter
A wise man does not trust all his eggs to one basket.
Look at the sparrows; they do not know what they will do in the next moment. Let us literally live from moment to moment.
Human beings suffer agonies, and their sad fates become legends; poets write verses about them and playwrights compose dramas, and the remembrance of past grief becomes a source of present pleasure - such is the strange alchemy of the spirit.
Tertön Sogyal, the Tibetan Mystic, said that he was not really impressed by someone who could turn the floor into the ceiling or fire into water. A real miracle, he said, was if someone could liberate just one negative emotion.
The greatest enemy of good thinking is busyness.
That which a man continually thinks about determines his actions in times of opportunity and stress. I will know what you are if you tell me what you think about when you don't have to think.
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