None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.
Henry David ThoreauRead
We soon get through with nature. She excites an expectation which she cannot satisfy.
Interpretation
Nature inspires hope and anticipation, but often leaves us wanting more.
In this quote, Thoreau reflects on the relationship humans have with nature, suggesting that while we are often captivated by its beauty and splendor, there is an inherent frustration in our inability to fully grasp or satisfy our expectations of it. Nature stirs our imagination and desires, yet it remains elusive and beyond our control, highlighting a profound disconnect in our quest for understanding its essence.
In practice
In a discussion about environmental conservation, one might use this quote to highlight our complicated relationship with nature.
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
By confronting us with irreducible mysteries that stretch our daily vision to include infinity, nature opens an inviting and guiding path toward a spiritual life.
My garden, with its silence and pulses of fragrance that come and go on the airy undulations, affects me like sweet music. Care stops at the gates, and gazes at me wistfully through the bars.
The apple blossom exists to create fruit; when that_x000D_ comes, the petal falls.
This Forest eats itself and lives forever.
Clouds of insects danced and buzzed in the golden autumn light, and the air was full of the piping of the song-birds. Long, glinting dragonflies shot across the path, or hung tremulous with gauzy wings and gleaming bodies.
We torture and kill two billion sentient living beings every week. 10,000 entire species are wiped out every year because of the actions of one, and we are now facing the sixth mass extinction in cosmological history. If any other organism did this, a biologist would consider them a virus.
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