QuoteProject
I say beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes.
Henry David Thoreau
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote warns against valuing external appearances over genuine inner transformation.

Henry David Thoreau's quote encourages readers to focus on personal growth and self-improvement rather than superficial changes in appearance. It suggests that many endeavors that emphasize new clothing or outward symbols may distract from the more important task of developing one’s character and integrity. Essentially, Thoreau advocates for a shift in perspective from materialism to authentic self-awareness and personal evolution.

Themes

AppearanceSelf-ImprovementMaterialismGrowthTransformation

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be shared during a discussion about personal development.

More from Henry David Thoreau

None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.
Henry David ThoreauRead
Through want of enterprise and faith men are where they are, buying and selling and spending their lives like servants.
Henry David ThoreauRead
An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.
Henry David ThoreauRead
Have no mean hours, but be grateful for every hour, and accept what it brings. The reality will make any sincere record respectable.
Henry David ThoreauRead
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.
Henry David ThoreauRead
That grand old poem called Winter
Henry David ThoreauRead

Similar quotes

I am too much in love with my lies and hypocrisies not to confess them fervently.
Albert CamusRead
We hunger to understand, so we invent myths about how we imagine the world is constructed - and they're, of course, based upon what we know, which is ourselves and other animals. So we make up stories about how the world was hatched from a cosmic egg or created after the mating of cosmic deities or by some fiat of a powerful being.
Carl SaganRead
Law And Freedom without Violence (Anarchy) Law And Violence without Freedom (Despotism) Violence without Freedom And Law (Barbarism) Violence with Freedom And Law (Republic)
Immanuel KantRead
Meditation is an insight that all goals are false. Meditation is an understanding that desires don't lead anywhere. Seeing that... And this is not a belief that you can get from me or from Buddha or from Jesus. This is not knowledge; you will have to see it. You can see it right now!
RajneeshRead
The true inner self must be drawn up like a jewel from the bottom of the sea, rescued from confusion, from indistinction, from immersion in the common, the nondescript, the trivial, the sordid, the evanescent.
Thomas MertonRead
The man dies in all those that keep silent.
Wole SoyinkaRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.