How do you feel about this quote from Thoreau?

Question

"As if you could kill time without injuring eternity. "

Henry David Thoreau.

how do you feel about that quote?

what does it mean to you?

i'm curious to hear what you think :)

Answer 1

It is similar to the saying that once you throw only one stone into the lake, the lake is forever changed  -

Answer 2

we speak of Infinity in terms of Space and Eternity in terms of Time. Thus if you kill time, then eternity which is just a phase of time is bound to get effected and injured. If there is no time, there is no 5 seconds of time, nor any 5days of it or an eternity of it.

Answer 3

Not having the context of the phrase hampers my fuller understanding of it. However, this is what I make of it.

It's like saying, "if you kill the child, you will never have the man."

"Killing time"is to spend it in an inconsequential manner according to Wikipedia. So, if you waste your time in frivolity, then you will never come to fruition as an adult. We've all heard that a mis-spent youth leads to disaster; well Thoreau is just saying it using a different analogy.