None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.
Henry David ThoreauRead
Society is commonly too cheap. We meet at very short intervals, not having had time to acquire any new value for each other. We meet at meals three times a day, and give each other a new taste of that old musty cheese that we are.
Interpretation
Thoreau reflects on the superficiality of social interactions and the need for deeper connections.
In this quote, Thoreau critiques the shallow nature of social gatherings, suggesting that frequent meetings among individuals often lack substance and depth. He uses the metaphor of sharing 'old musty cheese' to illustrate how repetitive interactions fail to foster growth or new understanding, indicating that meaningful relationships require time and diversity of experience to develop truly valuable connections.
In practice
In a speech about modern friendships, one might use this quote to emphasize the need for deeper connections.
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 so often tend to think our democracies are ruled by procedures and laws, but they are also governed by implicit rules and assumptions and one of them is the ability to feel shame - that you can be shamed.
Wherever people gather for selfless ends, there is a vast augmentation of their individual capacities. Something wonderful, something momentous happens. An irresistible force begins to move, which, though we may not see it, is going to change our world. In this lies the power and the meaning of spiritual companionship.
In religion and politics, people's belief's and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second hand, and without examination
When I was four I joined a group of girls who were talking about their party dresses. I thought they were imagining, so I imagined a fantastic pink velvet dress with lots of jewels. But they were simply describing what they actually wore, and they had utter contempt for my obvious fiction. After that, I never joined a group again.
We want to answer this classical question, who am I? So I think that most of our works are for art, or whatever we do, including science or religion, tried to answer that question.
They dared not peer down into their own natures, down into the feverish confusion that filled their minds with a kind of dense, acrid mist.
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