None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.
Henry David ThoreauRead
How can we expect a harvest of thought who have not had a seedtime of character?
Interpretation
Character development is essential for intellectual growth.
Henry David Thoreau suggests that in order to foster a fruitful and productive mindset, one must first cultivate their character. Just as a seed must be planted and nurtured for a successful harvest, individuals need to develop their values and principles to nurture their thoughts and ideas.
In practice
This quote can be used during a motivational speech about personal development.
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
Even the holy men who lived before the coming of Christ understood that God had in mind plans of peace for the human race.
America is made of different races and different religions, but we're all co-travelers on the spaceship Earth and must respect and help each other along the way.
The experiences are so innumerable and varied, that the journey appears to be interminable and the Destination is ever out of sight. But the wonder of it is, when at last you reach your Destination you find that you had never travelled at all! It was a journey from here to Here.
There isn't a King Lear for women, or a Henry V, or a Richard III. You reach a level where you can handle that stuff technically and mentally, and it's not there.
I begin to think, that a calm is not desirable in any situation in life. Man was made for action and for bustle too, I believe.
Whether one traces his Americanism back three centuries to the Mayflower, or three years to the steerage, is not half so important as whether his Americanism of today is real and genuine. No matter by what various crafts we came here, we are all now in the same boat.
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