None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.
Henry David ThoreauRead
Drive a nail home and clinch it so faithfully that you can wake up in the night and think of your work with satisfaction - a work at which you would not be ashamed to invoke the muse.
Interpretation
Strive for excellence in your work so that it brings you satisfaction and pride.
This quote by Henry David Thoreau emphasizes the importance of commitment and diligence in one's work. It suggests that one should approach their tasks with sincerity and care, ensuring that they feel a sense of pride and fulfillment in what they have accomplished, even to the point of reflecting on it during moments of rest.
In practice
During a motivational speech discussing work ethics.
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
Don't sit as if you have nothing to say. You should be bursting with things to say. You just choose at this particular place and time, not to say them.
People often grudge others what they cannot enjoy themselves.
A lighthouse is more useful than a church.
We cannot ignore our pain and feel compassion for it at the same time.
In many cases, if we knew what it would take, we might have thought twice about it, so it's often wonderful that we don't have hindsight.
Experiment with this a little. During these days that you are here with me, don't nourish any desire for happiness, and then see how your heart becomes filled with happiness. Don't have any desire for peace, and see how the turmoil within you vanishes. Don't beg for contentment and see how contentment showers down on you. Please try this - only then will you understand.
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