Youth 青春

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 temperamental 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 spirit back to dust.

Whether 60 or 16, there is in every human being’s heart the lure of wonders, the unfailing appetite for 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, courage and power from man and from the infinite, so long as you are young.

When your aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism and the ice of pessimism, then you’ve grown old, even at 20; but as long as your aerials are up, to catch waves of optimism, there’s hope you may die young at 80.

青春不是生命的一個(gè)階段,它是一種精神狀態(tài);它不是紅潤(rùn)的面頰,紅唇和冰肌柔骨,它是一種意愿、最優(yōu)的創(chuàng)造力和充滿活力的情感;它是生命深泉的新鮮。

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。如此銳氣,一個(gè)60歲的老者比一個(gè)20歲的青年更多。人老不僅僅是歲月流逝所致年之久。年歲有加,并非垂老,理想丟棄,方墮暮年。

歲月悠悠,衰微只及肌膚;熱忱拋卻,頹唐必至靈魂。憂慮、恐懼、缺乏自信,會(huì)扭曲人的靈魂,并將青春化為灰燼。

無(wú)論是60歲還是16歲,你需要保持永不衰竭的好奇心,永不熄滅的孩提奇跡之誘惑的欲望和對(duì)未來(lái)的什么享受生活帶來(lái)的樂(lè)趣。中心的心中,都有一座無(wú)線電臺(tái),它能在多長(zhǎng)時(shí)間里接收到人間萬(wàn)物傳遞來(lái)的美好、希望、歡樂(lè)、勇氣和力量的電波永不消失,人,你就會(huì)年輕多長(zhǎng)時(shí)間。

一旦天線倒塌,銳氣便被冰雪覆蓋,玩世不恭的霜雪和悲觀厭世的冰層,那么即使你已經(jīng)年老了,已垂垂老矣;然則只要豎起天線,捕捉樂(lè)觀的信號(hào),你就有希望在80歲死去,也仍然年輕可以嗎?