None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.
Henry David ThoreauRead
It is in vain to dream of a wildness distant from ourselves. There is none such.
Interpretation
We cannot escape our own nature, and the wildness we seek is within us.
Henry David Thoreau suggests that the longing for an external wildness or freedom is futile because true wildness and authenticity come from within. This quote encourages introspection and acknowledges that the essence of what we seek in nature or freedom is a reflection of our inner self and state of being.
In practice
During a nature retreat, this quote can inspire participants to find the wildness within themselves.
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
For my part, when I enter most intimately into what I call myself, I always stumble on some particular perception or other, of heat or cold, light or shade, love or hatred, pain or pleasure. I never can catch myself at any time without a perception, and never can observe anything but the perception.
What could you say to a dying person that would not enrage by its triviality?
Poverty of goods is easily cured; poverty of soul, impossible.
Homer's work hits again and again on the topos of the inexpressible. People will always do that.
We strain to hear. But instead of hearing an answer we catch sight of God himself scraped and torn. Through our tears we see the tears of God
When you and I hurt deeply, what we really need is not an explanation from God but a revelation of God. We need to see how great God is; we need to recover our lost perspective on life. Things get out of proportion when we are suffering, and it takes a vision of something bigger than ourselves to get life's dimensions adjusted again
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.