None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.
Henry David ThoreauRead
First, there is the power of the Wind, constantly exerted over the globe... Here is an almost incalculable power at our disposal, yet how trifling the use we make of it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Thoreau emphasizes the immense power of the wind and our minimal utilization of it.
In this quote, Thoreau reflects on the vast potential energy that the wind presents to humanity, suggesting that while we are surrounded by a force that could be harnessed for greater purposes, we remain largely indifferent or ineffective in utilizing it. This highlights not only our lack of innovation in tapping into natural resources but also serves as a metaphor for the untapped potential within ourselves and our communities.
Themes
WindPowerNaturePotentialThoreau
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about renewable energy, one might quote Thoreau to emphasize the importance of harnessing natural forces.
More from Henry David Thoreau
All quotes →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
The prayer of the farmer kneeling in his field to weed it, the prayer of the rower kneeling with the stroke of his oar, are true prayers heard throughout nature.
Ralph Waldo EmersonRead
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Rebecca SolnitRead
I'd like to see the giant squid. Nobody has ever seen one. I could tell you people who have spent thousands and thousands of pounds trying to see giant squid. I mean, we know they exist because we have seen dead ones. But I have never seen a living one. Nor has anybody else.
David AttenboroughRead
We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.
Aldo LeopoldRead
Nature goes to the same place to create a galaxy of stars: a cluster of nebulas, a rain forest, a human body, or a thought. That place is Spirit.
Deepak ChopraRead
We catched fish, and talked, and we took a swim now and then to keep off sleepiness. It was kind of solemn, drifting down the big still river, laying on our backs looking up at the stars, and we didn’t ever feel like talking loud, and it warn’t often that we laughed, only a kind of low chuckle. We had mighty good weather, as a general thing, and nothing ever happened to us at all, that night, nor the next, nor the next.
Mark TwainRead