None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.
Henry David ThoreauRead
All sound heard at the greatest possible distance produces one and the same effect, a vibration of the universal lyre, just as the intervening atmosphere makes a distant ridge of earth interesting to our eyes by the azure tint it imparts to it.
Interpretation
Sound and perception are interconnected, providing a shared experience of the universe.
In this quote, Thoreau emphasizes the profound connection between sound and our sensory experiences of the world. The idea that all sounds, regardless of distance, resonate in a way that unifies our perception suggests a deep harmony in nature, akin to how the atmosphere enhances our visual appreciation of distant landscapes. This perspective invites us to consider how various elements of nature interact to create a unified experience of reality.
In practice
In a speech about environmental awareness, you could incorporate this quote to highlight the connection between sound and 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
The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.
All of us, poor & rich alike, have been conditioned by our upbringings. Impoverished men & women may become lulled into a state of "learned helplessness" without hope to change their lives. Likewise, the wealthy can walk in a state of "learned blindness" ignoring the desperation of the local & global poor.
The society in which we live is the result of our psychological state.
What a chimaera then is man, what a novelty, what a monster, what chaos, what a subject of contradiction, what a prodigy! Judge of all things, yet an imbecile earthworm; depository of truth, yet a sewer of uncertainty and error; pride and refuse of the universe. Who shall resolve this tangle?
Vengeance comes from the individual and punishment from God.
Hands make the world each day.
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