None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.
Henry David ThoreauRead
Old deeds for old people, and new deeds for new.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the distinction between the actions and responsibilities of different generations.
Henry David Thoreau's quote suggests that individuals should embrace actions and responsibilities that align with their own generation. Older individuals should focus on the lessons and deeds of the past, while younger generations should engage with new ideas and contribute to contemporary progress, highlighting the importance of generational perspectives and the evolution of thought and action.
In practice
During a generational discussion, this quote can highlight the differences in values between young and old.
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
These days I must take the world in small and carefully measured doses. It is a sort of homeopathic cure I am undergoing, though I am not certain what this cure is meant to mend. Perhaps I am learning to live amongst the living again. Practising, I mean. But no, that is not it. Being here is just a way of not being anywhere.
In just the same way the thousands of successive positions of a runner are contracted into one sole symbolic attitude, which our eye perceives, which art reproduces, and which becomes for everyone the image of a man who runs.
Giving is the business of the rich.
Our lack of forgiveness makes us hate, and our lack of compassion makes us hard-hearted. Pride in our hearts makes us resentful and keeps our memory in a constant whirlwind of passion and self-pity.
No one that encounters prosperity does not also encounter danger.
We are not afraid of predators, we're transfixed by them, prone to weave stories and fables and chatter endlessly about them, because fascination creates preparedness, and preparedness, survival. In a deeply tribal way, we love our monsters.
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