I need to spend more time reading Mark Twain's words.
Every quote I read rings bells in my brain.
Every quote I read rings bells in my brain.
An amazing individual.
This one seems particularly timely at my point in life.
This one seems particularly timely at my point in life.
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| Mark Twain in New Hampshire, 1905 The New York Times Photo Archives |
"In America, we hurry--which is well; but when the day's work is done, we go on thinking of losses and gains, we plan for the morrow, we even carry our business cares to bed with us, and toss and worry over them when we ought to be restoring our racked bodies and brains with sleep. We burn up our energies with these excitements, and either die early or drop into a lean and mean old age at a time of life which they call a man's prime in Europe. When an acre of ground has produced long and well, we let it lie fallow and rest for a season; we take no man clear across the continent in the same coach he started in--the coach is stabled somewhere on the plains and its heated machinery allowed to cool for a few days; when a razor has seen long service and refuses to hold an edge, the barber lays it away for a few weeks, and the edge comes back of its own accord. We bestow thoughtful care upon inanimate objects, but none upon ourselves. What a robust people, what a nation of thinkers we might be, if we would only lay ourselves on the shelf occasionally and renew our edges!" - The Innocents Abroad
4 comments:
The Innocents Abroad is a great book.
Thank-you for sharing that!
That's what retirement is...laying on the shelf waiting for our edge to return.
That is a wise quote. I know he did that world wide lecture tour which would have been fun to attend. During the tour he visited Yellowstone National Park, riding with African American cavalry riders, when it was first created a park. I read that recently while doing research for a book I am writing.
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