None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.
Henry David ThoreauRead
Fame is not just. She never finely or discriminatingly praises, but coarsely hurrahs.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Fame lacks true discernment and often offers shallow praise instead of meaningful recognition.
In this quote, Thoreau critiques the nature of fame, suggesting that it does not provide genuine or thoughtful validation of one's efforts or achievements. Instead, fame tends to offer broad, loud approval that lacks depth, indicating a more chaotic and superficial acknowledgment rather than a nuanced appreciation of true merit.
Themes
FameRecognitionSuperficialityPraiseMerit
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the pitfalls of seeking fame over genuine achievement.
More from Henry David Thoreau
All quotes βThrough 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
Or why it is acceptable to train fast runners and high jumpers but not to breed them. I can think of some answers, and they are good ones, which would probably end up persuading me. But hasn't the time come when we should stop being frightened even to put the question?
Richard DawkinsRead
I teach you the Overman. Man is something that shall be overcome. What have you done to overcome him? ... The time has come for man to set himself a goal. The time has come to plant the seed to his highest hope.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
We have a strange anxiety in us; that if we don't interfere then it won't happen. Now that's the root of an enormous amount of trouble.
Alan WattsRead
And there, right in the middle of it, I find 'Forgive us our sins as we forgive those that sin against us.' There is no slightest suggestion that we are offered forgiveness on any other terms. It is made perfectly clear that if we do not forgive we shall not be forgiven.
C. S. LewisRead
Getting well is not the only goal. Even more important is learning to live without fear, to be at peace with life and ultimately death.
Bernie SiegelRead
Even in the mud and scum of things, something always, always sings.
Ralph Waldo EmersonRead