None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.
Henry David ThoreauRead
Asked whether or not he believed in an afterlife, Thoreau quipped, "One world at a time."
Interpretation
What this quote means
Thoreau emphasizes the importance of focusing on the present and the tangible world rather than speculating about an afterlife.
Henry David Thoreau's quote, 'One world at a time,' highlights the significance of living in the moment and appreciating the life we have. Instead of getting caught up in the uncertainties of what comes after death, he advocates for a grounded existence that values our current reality and experiences, suggesting that our time and attention should be devoted to understanding and engaging with this world.
Themes
PresentRealityLifeMindfulnessFocus
In practice
Example use cases
During a meditation workshop, I shared Thoreau's quote to encourage participants to center their thoughts on the here and now.
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
We often forget that everything we see, animate or inanimate, is a visual manifestation of the work of our invisible God. We have become so accustomed to trees, mountains, sky, air, water, flowers, animals, vegetables and people that we no longer see them for what they are - God's work.
Mother AngelicaRead
Woodcutter. Cut my shadow from me. Free me from the torment of being without fruit. Why was I born among mirrors? Day goes round and round me. The night copies me in all its stars. I want to live without my reflection. And then let me dream that ants and thistledown are my leaves and my parrots.
Federico Garcia LorcaRead
It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it; but the young know they are wretched for they are full of the truthless ideals which have been instilled in them, and each time they come into contact with the real, they are bruised and wounded.
W. Somerset MaughamRead
Capital punishment is against the best judgment of modern criminology and, above all, against the highest expression of love in the nature of God.
Martin Luther King, Jr.Read
Whenever I hear some bigmouth in Washington or the Christian heartland banging on about the evils of sodomy or whatever, I mentally enter his name in my notebook and contentedly set my watch. Sooner rather than later, he will be discovered down on his weary and well-worn old knees in some dreary motel or latrine, with an expired Visa card, having tried to pay well over the odds to be peed upon by some Apache transvestite.
Christopher HitchensRead
It seems to me, Golan, that the advance of civilization is nothing but an exercise in the limiting of privacy.
Isaac AsimovRead