None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.
Henry David ThoreauRead
The very uprightness of the pines and maples asserts the ancient rectitude and vigor of nature. Our lives need the relief of such a background, where the pine flourishes and the jay still screams.
Interpretation
Nature's strength and integrity inspire our own lives.
In this quote, Thoreau emphasizes how the steadfastness of trees like pines and maples reflects nature's enduring strength and moral integrity. He suggests that being in the presence of such natural beauty provides a necessary relief for our human experiences, highlighting the connection between our lives and the natural world.
In practice
During a speech about the importance of nature conservation, this quote can illustrate the impact of nature on our lives.
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
[...] endless action and reaction. Those beautifully rounded pebbles which you gather on the sand and which you hold in your hand and marvel at their exceeding smoothness, were chiseled into their varies and graceful forms by the ceaseless action of countless waves. Nature is herself a great worker and never tolerates, without certain rebuke, any contradiction to her wise example. Inaction is followed by stagnation. Stagnation is followed by pestilence and pestilence is followed by death.
I sincerely congratulate you on the arrival of the mockingbird. Learn all the children to venerate it as a superior being in the form of a bird, or as a being which will haunt them if any harm is done to itself or its eggs.
In a delightful garden, sowing, planting or digging are not hardship but are done with a zeal and a certain pleasure.
I go to the wild mountains where I am responsible for myself. Step by step I am making sure that I don't die.
Pacific Islands are among those that contribute least to global warming, yet suffer most.
We had always dwelled together, beneath a tropical sun, in the Valley of the Many Colored Grass.
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