Youth
Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of pink cheeks, red lips and flexible knees; it is a matter of will, a quality of imagination, a vigor of the emotion;it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.
Youth means a dispositional control of courage over cowardice, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease. This often exists in a man of 60 more than a boy of 20. Nobody grows old merely by a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals.
Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, fear, self-distrust bows the heart and turns the spirit back to dust.
Whether 60 or 16, there is in every human being’s heart the looking forward to wonder, the endless child-like appetite of what’s next and the joy of the game of living. In the center of your heart and my heart there is a wireless station: so long as it is receiving messages of beauty, hope, cheer, courage and power from men and from God, you are young.
When the aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism and the ice of pessimism, then you are grown old, even at 20, but as long as your aerials are up to catch waves of optimism, there is hope you may die young at 80.
青春寄語(yǔ)
青春不是人生的一個(gè)時(shí)期，而是一種心境、，青春不是 指粉紅色的面頰、紅潤(rùn)的嘴唇和靈活的膝蓋，而是指堅(jiān)強(qiáng)的意志、豐富的想象和激越的情感。青春是生命深處的一泓清泉。
青春是一種氣質(zhì)：勇猛果敢而不是怯懦退縮，渴望冒險(xiǎn)而不是貪圖安逸。一個(gè)60歲的老人身上常常散發(fā)著這種氣息，而20歲的青年身上倒未必可尋。沒(méi)有人會(huì)單純因?yàn)槟隁q增長(zhǎng)而衰老，而一旦喪失理想，就會(huì)真正變老。
年歲也許會(huì)在皮膚上生出皺紋，而熱情不在則會(huì)使心靈起皺。憂慮、恐懼、自卑都會(huì)使人心灰意懶，一蹶不振。
無(wú)論60歲還是16歲，每一個(gè)人心里都懷有對(duì)新奇事物的向往，都會(huì)像兒童一樣對(duì)未來(lái)充滿永不衰減的憧憬，都能在生活的游戲中汲取快樂(lè)。在你我的心靈中央都有一座無(wú)線電臺(tái)：只要它正在接受其他·人和上帝發(fā)出的美麗、希望、快樂(lè)、勇氣和力量的信息，你就會(huì)永遠(yuǎn)年輕。
當(dāng)你的天線收攏，當(dāng)你的心靈覆蓋著憤世嫉俗的霜雪和悲觀厭世的堅(jiān)冰，即使你年方二十，你也已進(jìn)入了垂暮之年。然而，只要你的天線張開(kāi)，接收著樂(lè)觀向上的電波，那么你可以指望，在80歲死去時(shí)你依然年輕。
