YOUTH
Youth is not a time of life ;it is state of mind; it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of hte 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 by 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,selfdistrust bows heart and turns the spring back to dust.
Whether 60 or 16,there is in every human being's heart the lureof wonder,the unfariling chidlike 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 receives messages of beauty,hope,cheer,courage and power from men and from the Infinite,so long are you 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 potimism,there is hope you may die young at 80.

作者 Samuel Ullman 生于德国，童年移居美国，参加过南北战争，曾经是五金制造商，并热衷于公益事业，是著名的教育家和社会活动家。他的名篇《青春》美妙绝伦，曾被美军名将道格拉斯和日本实业家松下幸之助视为座右铭。