None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.
Henry David ThoreauRead
As naturally as the oak bears an acorn and the vine a gourd, man bears a poem, either spoken or done.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Thoreau suggests that creating art is a natural process for humans, much like the way trees and plants naturally produce their fruits.
In this quote, Thoreau draws a parallel between nature and human creativity, emphasizing that just as an oak tree produces acorns and a vine produces gourds, so too do people naturally create poems and artistic expressions. He highlights the intrinsic relationship between humanity and art, implying that the act of creation is a fundamental aspect of being human, as natural and inevitable as the cycles found in the natural world.
Themes
CreativityArtNaturalPoetrySelf-Expression
In practice
Example use cases
During a poetry reading event, one could inspire the audience with this quote to encourage their creative expression.
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
Poetry is meant to inspire readers and listeners, to connect them more deeply to themselves even as it links them more fully to others. But many people feel put off by the terms of poetry, its odd vocabulary, its notorious difficulty.
Edward HirschRead
Imagine books and music and movies being filtered and homogenized. Certified. Approved for consumption. People will be happy to give up most of their culture for the assurance that the tiny bit that comes through is safe and clean. White noise.
Chuck PalahniukRead
The only way you can write the truth is to assume that what you set down will never be read. Not by any other person, and not even by yourself at some later date. Otherwise you begin excusing yourself. You must see the writing as emerging like a long scroll of ink from the index finger of your right hand; you must see your left hand erasing it.
Margaret AtwoodRead
Essentially, perspective is a form of abstraction. It simplifies the relationship between eye, brain and object. It is an ideal view, imagined as being seen by a one-eyed, motionless person who is clearly detached from what he sees. It makes a God of the spectator, who becomes the person on whom the whole world converges, the Unmoved Onlooker.
Robert HughesRead
For those who were desperate, my camera became an object of hope (...)Throughout my year-long coverage of the monsoon world, my strongest conviction was that I was involved in the fundamentals of life.
Steve MccurryRead
The Artist is no other than he who unlearns what he has learned, in order to know himself.
E. E. CummingsRead