None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.
Henry David ThoreauRead
It is too late to be studying Hebrew; it is more important to understand even the slang of today.
Interpretation
Prioritizing contemporary knowledge and understanding is more valuable than focusing on obsolete studies.
Henry David Thoreau emphasizes the significance of being in tune with the present rather than getting lost in the past. He suggests that understanding current language and culture is crucial for effective communication and relevance in today's society, even if that means letting go of more traditional forms of study, like Hebrew. This quote serves as a reminder that adapting to the present is essential for meaningful engagement with the world.
In practice
In a lecture on modern communication techniques, this quote could highlight the importance of staying relevant.
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
I haven't a particle of confidence in a man who has no redeeming petty vices whatsoever.
Although I usually think I know what I'm going to be writing about, what I'm going to say, most of the time it doesn't happen that way at all. At some point I get misled down a garden path, I get surprised by an idea that I hadn't anticipated getting, which is a little bit like being in a laboratory.
You are more than you think you are. There are dimensions of your being and a potential for realization and consciousness that are not included in your concept of yourself. Your life is much deeper and broader than you conceive it to be here. What you are living is but a fractional inkling of what is really within you, what gives you life, breadth, and depth.
Some men's words I remember so well that I must often use them to express my thought. Yes, because I perceive that we have heard the same truth, but they have heard it better.
The human mind works at low efficiency. Twenty percent is the figure usually given. When, momentarily, there is a flash of greater power, it is termed a hunch, or insight, or intuition.
May we do good everywhere as we have opportunity, and results will not be wanting!
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.