None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.
Henry David ThoreauRead
The best thing a man can do for his culture when he is rich is to endeavor to carry out those schemes which he entertained when he was poor
Interpretation
We should strive to fulfill our noble ideals and plans, regardless of our financial status.
Thoreau emphasizes the importance of remaining true to our values and aspirations, no matter our circumstances. When one becomes wealthy, it is essential to pursue the dreams and projects one had in times of struggle, thereby contributing positively to society and culture.
In practice
This quote can be used during a charity event to inspire generosity.
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
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.
I was anti-everything and everyone. I didn't want people around me. This aversion was not some big crippling anxiety; merely a mature recognition of my own psychological vulnerability and my lack of suitability as a companion. Thoughts jostled for space in my crowded brain as i struggled to give them some order which might serve to motivate my listless life.
The machine will grind you down, but the machine is not bigger than the imagination. Rome fell in a day. We know this.
Well, I write in exile because I cannot return to my country, so I have no choice but to see myself as an exiled writer.
There are plenty of good reasons for fighting, I said, but no good reason ever to hate without reservation, to imagine that God Almighty Himself hates with you, too.
He was never without misery, and never without hope.
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