QuoteProject
We do not ignore maturity. Maturity consists in not losing the past while fully living in the present with a prudent awareness of the possibilities of the future.
Thomas Traherne
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Maturity involves balancing our past experiences with an active presence in the moment and consideration for the future.

This quote emphasizes that true maturity is not just about age or knowledge; rather, it is the ability to acknowledge and learn from our past while fully engaging in the present. It requires an awareness and understanding of the future's potential, guiding us in how we live today.

Themes

MaturityPresentPastFutureAwareness

In practice

Example use cases

In a graduation speech to inspire students to reflect on their journeys while looking ahead.

More from Thomas Traherne

More company increases happiness, but does not lighten or diminish misery.
Thomas TraherneRead
Happiness was not made to be boasted, but enjoyed. Therefore tho others count me miserable, I will not believe them if I know and feel myself to be happy; nor fear them.
Thomas TraherneRead
To love one person with a private love is poor and miserable: to love all is glorious.
Thomas TraherneRead
You never know yourself till you know more than your body.
Thomas TraherneRead
Certainly Adam in Paradise had not more sweet and curious apprehensions of the world, than I when I was a child.
Thomas TraherneRead
The soul is made for action, and cannot rest till it be employed. Idleness is its rust. Unless it will up and think and taste and see, all is in vain.
Thomas TraherneRead

Similar quotes

If there is one thing that I take pride in, it is the fact that I never, ever make a charge without offering a substantial amount of support for it. You may ultimately end up not agreeing with me, but you will have to concede that I offered much evidence in support of my position, something that people frequently do not do.
Vincent BugliosiRead
When you lose the ability to step up and hit the ball as hard and as far as you want, that also affects your ability to will the ball to go where you want it to go, if you know what I mean.
Arnold PalmerRead
Genius is nothing more nor less than childhood recaptured at will.
Charles BaudelaireRead
The apple tree never asks the beech how he shall grow, nor the lion, the horse, how he shall take his prey.
William BlakeRead
I like the spirit of this great London which I feel around me. Who but a coward would pass his whole life in hamlets; and for ever abandon his faculties to the eating rust of obscurity?
Charlotte BronteRead
Faith in the gospel restructures our motivations, our self-understanding, our identity, and our view of the world. Behavioral compliance to rules without heart-change will be superficial and fleeting… We can only change permanently as we take the gospel more deeply into our understanding and into our hearts. We must feed on the gospel, as it were, digesting it and making it part of ourselves. That is how we grow.
Timothy KellerRead

A little wisdom, now and then

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