None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.
Henry David ThoreauRead
Death is beautiful when seen to be a law, and not an accident. It is as common as life.
Interpretation
Death is a natural part of existence and should be appreciated rather than feared.
In this quote, Henry David Thoreau emphasizes the idea that death is an essential law of nature, inevitable and as intrinsic to life as life itself. By recognizing death as a natural occurrence rather than an unfortunate accident, one can cultivate a deeper appreciation for life and the beauty that exists within the cycle of existence.
In practice
During a eulogy, to remind attendees that death is a part of life.
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
The perpetual obstacle to human advancement is custom.
Poverty of goods is easily cured; poverty of soul, impossible.
The visionary is the only realist.
But the makers of legend have seldom rested content to regard the world's great heroes as mere human beings who broke past the horizons that limited their fellows and returned such boons as any man with equal faith and courage might have found.
We are not angry with people we fear or respect, as long as we fear or respect them; you cannot be afraid of a person and also at the same time angry with him.
For many decades - and this was reinforced by the broadcast networks' standards-and-practices department - bad guys on TV had to get their comeuppance, and good guys had to be brave and true and unconflicted. Those were the laws of the business.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.