None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.
Henry David ThoreauRead
Men profess to be lovers of music, but for the most part they give no evidence in their opinions and lives that they have heard it.
Interpretation
Many claim to appreciate music, yet their actions often reveal otherwise.
Thoreau points out the contradiction between people's claims of loving music and their actual engagement with it. He suggests that true appreciation of music should reflect in their actions and choices, rather than being merely a verbal declaration.
In practice
In a discussion about the role of art in society, this quote highlights the importance of genuine engagement.
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
We have the script, we have the actors, and we're trying to figure out what this is, and you don't know what it is. You have to be open to what it's going to become rather than have this thing that you're trying to get to, which is boring.
Because if we the storytellers don't do this, then the bad people will win.
Overhead, the two moons worked together to bathe the world in a strange light.
I think if I had been writing fiction, where the work is entirely dependent on the writer's creativity and the potential directions the narrative might take are infinite, I might have frozen
Swing your razor wide! Sweeney, hold it to the skies!
The flower you single out is a rejection of all other flowers; nevertheless, only on these terms is it beautiful.
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