YOUTH
Samuel Ullman
Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a
matter of
rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of the will,
a
quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the
freshness of
the deep springs of life.
Youth means a tempera-mental predominance of courage over timidity,
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 spring back
to dust.
Whether 60 or 16, there is in every human
bein