None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.
Henry David ThoreauRead
Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb nail.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Focus on simplicity in life and reduce complexity to enhance clarity and understanding.
In this quote, Henry David Thoreau advocates for a life of simplicity, suggesting that one should prioritize a few important matters instead of becoming overwhelmed by countless tasks or possessions. He encourages individuals to distill their lives down to the essentials, thereby promoting peace of mind and clarity in decision-making.
Themes
SimplicityClarityOrganizationMinimalismLifeThoreau
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about mindfulness, one might quote Thoreau to emphasize the importance of reducing mental clutter.
More from Henry David Thoreau
All quotes →Through 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
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The sweetest two words in any negotiation are actually, 'That's right.' Before you convince them to see what you're trying to accomplish, you have to say the things to them that will get them to say, 'That's right.'
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We must not only obtain Wisdom: we must enjoy her.
Marcus Tullius CiceroRead