None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.
Henry David ThoreauRead
Invariably our best nights were those when it rained.
Interpretation
The most memorable experiences often occur during unexpected circumstances, like rain.
Thoreau's quote reflects the idea that some of our most cherished moments can arise from conditions that are typically seen as undesirable. Rain, often associated with gloom, can provide a unique backdrop for memorable nights, encouraging reflection and spontaneity, and reminding us that beauty can be found in the unconventional.
In practice
During a speech about making the best out of challenging circumstances.
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
Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it.
When we pulled out into the winter night and the real snow, our snow, began to stretch out beside us and twinkle against the windows, and the dim lights of small Wisconsin stations moved by, a sharp wild brace came suddenly into the air. That's my middle-west - not the wheat or the prairies or the lost Swede towns, but the thrilling returning trains of my youth and the street lamps and sleigh bells in the frosty dark and the shadows of holly wreaths thrown by lighted windows on the snow.
Nature is a tropical swamp in sunshine, on whose purlieus we hear the song of summer birds, and see prismatic dewdrops, - but her interiors are terrific, full of hydras and crocodiles.
The planting of trees is the least self-centered of all that we can do. It is a purer act of faith than the procreation of children.
The greatest delight the fields and woods minister is the suggestion of an occult relation between man and the vegetable. I am not alone and unacknowledged. They nod to me and I to them.
I never get tired of the blue sky.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.