None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.
Henry David ThoreauRead
They take great pride in making their dinner cost much; I take my pride in making my dinner cost so little.
Interpretation
Thoreau values simplicity and frugality over extravagance and social status.
In this quote, Thoreau contrasts two approaches to life: one that finds worth in expensive, extravagant dinners, and another that derives satisfaction from being frugal and resourceful. He emphasizes the idea that true pride comes not from material wealth or the appearance of affluence, but rather from the ability to enjoy life's simple pleasures without incurring unnecessary costs.
In practice
In a discussion about budgeting and meal planning, this quote could highlight the benefits of frugality.
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
What vast additions to the conveniences and comforts of living might mankind have acquired, if the money spent in wars had been employed in works of public utility; what an extension of agriculture even to the tops of our mountains; what rivers rendered navigable, or joined by canals; what bridges, aqueducts, new roads, and other public works, edifices, and improvements might not have been obtained by spending those millions in doing good, which in the last war have been spent in doing mischief.
Trust your instinct to the end, though you can render no reason.
Gratitude is an attitude that hooks us up to our source of supply. And the more grateful you are, the closer you become to your maker, to the architect of the universe, to the spiritual core of your being. It's a phenomenal lesson.
The deeds you do may be the only sermon some persons will hear today.
Human beings suffer agonies, and their sad fates become legends; poets write verses about them and playwrights compose dramas, and the remembrance of past grief becomes a source of present pleasure - such is the strange alchemy of the spirit.
All I know is just what I read in the papers, and that's an alibi for my ignorance.
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