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, vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep spring 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 ideas.
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 wonder, the unfailing childlike 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, 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‘ve 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.
青春不是年華,而是心境;青春不是桃面、丹唇、柔膝,而是深沈的意誌,恢宏的想 象,炙熱的戀情;青春是生命的深泉在湧流。 青春氣貫長虹,勇銳蓋過怯弱,進取壓倒茍安。如此銳氣,二十後生而有之,六旬男子則更多見。年歲有加,並非垂老,理想丟棄,方墮暮年。 歲月悠悠,衰微只及肌膚;熱忱拋卻,頹廢必致靈魂。憂煩,惶恐,喪失自信,定使心靈扭曲,意氣如灰。
無論年屆花甲,擬或二八芳齡,心中皆有生命之歡樂,奇跡之誘惑,孩童般天真久盛不衰。人人心中皆有壹臺天線,只要妳從天上人間接受美好、希望、歡樂、勇氣和力量的信號,妳就青春永駐,風華常存。
壹旦天線下降,銳氣便被冰雪覆蓋,玩世不恭、自暴自棄油然而生,即使年方二十,實已垂垂老矣;然則只要樹起天線,捕捉樂觀信號,妳就有望在八十高齡告別塵寰時仍覺年輕。
人生匆匆,青春不是易逝的壹段。青春應是壹種永恒的心態。滿臉紅光,嘴唇紅潤,腿腳靈活,這些都不是青春的全部。真正的青春啊,它是壹種堅強的意誌,是壹種想象力的高品位,是感情充沛飽滿,是生命之泉的清澈常新。
青春意味著勇敢戰勝怯懦,青春意味著進取戰勝安逸,年月的輪回就壹定導致衰老嗎?要知道呵,老態龍鐘是因為放棄了對真理的追求。
無情歲月的流逝,留下了深深的皺紋,而熱忱的喪失,會在深處打下烙印。焦慮、恐懼、自卑,終會使心情沮喪,意誌消亡。
60也罷,16也罷,每個人的心田都應保持著不泯的意誌,去探索新鮮的事物,去追求人生樂趣。我們的心中都應有座無線電臺,只要不斷地接受來自人類和上帝的美感、希望、勇氣和力量,我們就會永葆青春。
倘若妳收起天線,使自己的心靈蒙上玩世不恭的霜雪和悲觀厭世的冰淩,即使妳年方20,妳已垂垂老矣;倘若妳已經80高齡,臨於辭世,若豎起天線去收聽樂觀進取的電波,妳仍會青春煥發。