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 will ,a
qulity of imagination, a 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 exits in
a man of 60 more than a boy of 20. No body 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
wonders, the unfailing childlike appetite of what's next and the job
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
as you are young.
When the aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with snows of
cynicism and the ice of pessimism, then you've grow 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.
