None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.
Henry David ThoreauRead
I begin to see an object when I cease to understand it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Understanding can limit our perception of reality, while letting go of preconceptions allows us to truly see.
This quote by Henry David Thoreau suggests that our attempts to understand something can cloud our perception of it. When we cling too tightly to our interpretations and analyses, we may miss out on the true essence of the object or experience in question. By stepping back and removing our preconceived notions, we open ourselves to a more genuine comprehension of the world around us.
Themes
UnderstandingPerceptionRealityKnowledgePhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
In a philosophical discussion about knowledge and perception, this quote can highlight the importance of humility in understanding.
More from Henry David Thoreau
All quotes βThrough 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
Let us not seek to make it less monstrous, for our own convenience, our own sense of beauty, lest, awakened in one unthinkable hour, we are embarrassed by the miracle, and crushed by remonstrance.
John UpdikeRead
All of us have been trained by education and environment to seek personal gain and security and to fight for ourselves. Though we cover it over with pleasant phrases, we have been educated for various professions within a system which is based on exploitation and acquisitive fear.
Jiddu KrishnamurtiRead
Imprisoned in every fat man a thin man is wildly signaling to be let out.
Cyril ConnollyRead
The only unbearable thing is that nothing is unbearable.
Arthur RimbaudRead
I have everything, yet have nothing; and although I possess nothing, still of nothing am I in want.
Jean RacineRead
The Self then functions as a union of opposites and thus constitutes the most immediate experience of the Divine which it is psychologically possible to imagine
Carl JungRead