None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.
Henry David ThoreauRead
From my experience with wild apples, I can understand that there may be reason for a savage's preferring many kinds of food which the civilized man rejects. The former has the palate of an outdoor man. It takes a savage or wild taste to appreciate a wild fruit.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the difference in taste and appreciation between the savage and civilized man, using wild apples as a metaphor for natural, unrefined experiences.
Henry David Thoreau's quote explores the idea that individuals who are close to nature, or who live a simpler, more primitive life, may have a deeper appreciation for things that those in civilized society often overlook or reject. He suggests that a 'savage' or untamed perspective allows for a richer, more authentic enjoyment of the natural world, exemplified by wild apples, which are often deemed inferior by those accustomed to the cultivated and refined tastes of civilization.
Themes
NatureWildAppreciationSavageCivilization
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about environmental conservation, one could use this quote to emphasize the importance of appreciating natural, untamed landscapes.
More from Henry David Thoreau
All quotes →Through want of enterprise and faith men are where they are, buying and selling and spending their lives like servants.
Henry David ThoreauRead
An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.
Henry David ThoreauRead
Have no mean hours, but be grateful for every hour, and accept what it brings. The reality will make any sincere record respectable.
Henry David ThoreauRead
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.
Henry David ThoreauRead
That grand old poem called Winter
Henry David ThoreauRead
Similar quotes
Fog everywhere. Fog up the river where it flows among green airs and meadows; fog down the river, where it rolls defiled among the tiers of shipping, and the waterside pollutions of a great (and dirty) city.... Chance people on the bridges peeping over the parapets into a nether sky of fog, with fog all round them, as if they were up in a balloon and hanging in the misty clouds.
Charles DickensRead
There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,_x000D_ _x000D_ The earth, and every common sight,_x000D_ _x000D_ To me did seem_x000D_ _x000D_ Apparelled in celestial light,_x000D_ _x000D_ The glory and the freshness of a dream.
William WordsworthRead
Every time I have some moment on a seashore, or in the mountains, or sometimes in a quiet forest, I think this is why the environment has to be preserved.
Bill BradleyRead
If you lose touch with nature you lose touch with humanity. If there's no relationship with nature then you become a killer; then you kill baby seals, whales, dolphins, and man either for gain, for "sport," for food, or for knowledge. Then nature is frightened of you, withdrawing its beauty. You may take long walks in the woods or camp in lovely places but you are a killer and so lose their friendship. You probably are not related to anything to your wife or your husband.
Jiddu KrishnamurtiRead
In traditional societies, nature was seen as one’s wife, but the modern West turned it into a prostitute.
Seyyed Hossein NasrRead
I think, on a personal level, everybody, when you go through the checkout line after you get your groceries and they say, 'Paper or plastic?' We should be saying, 'Neither one.' We should have our own cloth bags.
Woody HarrelsonRead