None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.
Henry David ThoreauRead
The stars are the apexes of what wonderful triangles! What distant and different beings in the various mansions of the universe are contemplating the same one at the same moment!
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the beauty of the universe and the shared experience of different beings contemplating the stars.
Henry David Thoreau's quote invites us to appreciate the wonder of the stars as a symbol of a greater connection among all beings in the universe. It suggests that, despite the vast distances and differences between them, there is a shared moment of contemplation that unites us, highlighting both the beauty of nature and the interconnectedness of life.
In practice
During a night sky observation event, one might use this quote to inspire awe in participants.
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 prefer self-government with danger to servitude in tranquility.
The pursuit of truth does not permit violence on one's opponent.
I could not understand why men who knew all about good and evil could hate and kill each other.
Insanity is in the eyes of the beholder. So I will continue to live my personal folly.
How then to enforce peace? Not by reason, certainly, nor by education. If a man could not look at the fact of peace and the fact of war and choose the former in preference to the latter, what additional argument could persuade him? What could be more eloquent as a condemnation of war than war itself? What tremendous feat of dialectic could carry with it a tenth the power of a single gutted ship with its ghastly cargo?
I have not come to know atheism as a result of logical reasoning and still less as an event in my life: in me it is a matter of instinct.
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