None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.
Henry David ThoreauRead
A broad margin of leisure is as beautiful in a man's life as in a book.
Interpretation
Having ample free time is essential for a fulfilling life, just as a wide margin enhances the beauty of a book.
Henry David Thoreau's quote emphasizes the importance of leisure time in a person's life. Just as a book is aesthetically pleasing with its broad margins that provide space for reflection and annotation, a life enriched with leisure allows for personal growth, contemplation, and enjoyment, making it more beautiful and meaningful.
In practice
In a speech about work-life balance, one could use this quote to highlight the importance of downtime.
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
No matter what advantages you are born with-- money, intelligence, an appealing personality, a sunny outlook, or good social connections-- none of these provides a magic key to an easy existence. Somehow life manages to bring difficult problems, the causes of untold suffering and struggle. How you meet your challenges makes all the difference between the promise of success and the specter of failure.
I'm only asking you to stop every so often and turn off your mobile device, put down the Angry Birds and the Words with Friends and take a moment. Stop to look up and look around. Pause and check in with yourself - and spend a moment there.
I turned away from him and went on my way, up the street and about my business. The past was dead. The future was resignation, fatality, and could only end one way now. The present was numbness, that could feel nothing. Like Novocaine needled into your heart. What was there in all the dimensions of time for me? ("Life Is Weird Sometimes" first chapter of unpublished novel THE LOSER)
You'd think I'd have been happiest in my life playing music in front of 50,000 people at Gillette Stadium. But let me tell you, it's an odd feeling to feel alone in the spotlight.
Being a teenager and figuring out who you are is hard enough without someone attacking you.
But better die than live mechanically a life that is a repetition of repetitions.
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