又见Youth (Samuel Ullman)

初中时曾经背过的文章，今天偶然见到了原文，真高兴，发到网上，与友共勉。记得，当时看的那篇文章说，这是挂在麦克阿瑟办公室里的，后来又因松下幸之柱被日本企业界视为瑰宝的一篇短文。

Youth

( by 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, a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep spring of life.

 

Youth means a temperamental predominate of courage over timidity of the appetite, of 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, fears, 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 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 man 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 grow 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.