Youth【Recommended】

By Samuel Ullman

An article loved since youth :)

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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 sixty more than a body of twenty.  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 sixty or sixteen, there is in every human being's heart the lure of wonder, the unfailing childlike 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 twenty, but as long as your aerials are up, to catch the waves of optimism, there is hope you may die young at eighty.

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青春不是指生命的一段时间，而是指一种精神状态；它并不是指红润的面颊、透红的嘴唇和灵便的腿脚，而是指坚强的意志、丰富的想象和强烈的感情，它是指生命深泉的活水清新之感。

青春意味着在气质上勇敢盖过怯懦，冒险进取压倒舒适苟安。这在60岁的老年人中往往比在20岁的青年人中更为常见。人之变老不仅由于年岁的增长，我们之变老常常是因为放弃了对理想的追求。

年岁也许会使皮肤增添皱纹，可是一旦丧失热忱，灵魂上的皱纹就会随即出现。忧虑、恐惧和缺乏信心会使人心灰意冷，意志消沉。

无论是60岁，还是16岁，新奇事物对每个人都有吸引力；只要童心未泯，就会对未来有好奇心和享受人生的乐趣。在你的心中和我的心中都有一座无线电台：只要它总在接收人类和上帝发出的美、希望、鼓励、勇气和力量的信息，你就会永远不老。

假如你将天线收起，使你的心灵蒙上玩世不恭的霜雪和悲观厌世的冰层，那么即使你年方20，你也老气横秋；然而只要你将天线竖起，去接收乐观主义的电波，那么你就有希望即使活到80岁死去，也仍然是年轻的。