None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.
Henry David ThoreauRead
I am sorry to think that you do not get a man's most effective criticism until you provoke him. Severe truth is expressed with some bitterness.
Interpretation
Critical insights often come out when someone is provoked, revealing deeper truths.
In this quote, Thoreau suggests that genuine criticism or insight about a person's character is often only revealed when that person is pushed or provoked. He highlights how harsh truths may carry a sense of bitterness, indicating that the delivery of such truths is often colored by emotions and context, reflecting the complexity of human interactions.
In practice
In a debate about ethics, one might quote Thoreau to emphasize the importance of honest critique.
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
The more room you give yourself to express your true thoughts and feelings, the more room there is for your wisdom to emerge.
Remember always, you are the gift!
A few observation and much reasoning lead to error; many observations and a little reasoning to truth.
If the lecture is good, then everything is too smooth. That's the same in music: if the performance is too good, you really don't enjoy it, because it just goes by, and you can never penetrate into the heart of it. Sometimes a poor performance is better for enjoyment, because you can look at those things that were wrong and analyze them.
...operational proof...it's all theory until you see for yourself whether or not something works.
I felt a trembling along my skin, a treaveling current that moved up my spine, down my arms, pulsing out from my fingertips. I was practically radiating. The body knows things a long time before the mind catches up to them. I was wondering what my body knew that I didn't.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.