年轻,并非人生旅程中一段时光,也并非粉颊红唇和体魄的矫健,它是心灵中的一种状态,是头脑中的一个意识,是理性思维中的创造潜力,是情感活动中的一股勃勃朝气,是人生春色深处的一缕清新。
年轻,意味着甘愿放弃温馨浪漫的爱情去闯荡生活,意味着超越羞涩、怯懦和欲望的胆识与气质。而六十岁的男人可能比二十岁的小伙子更多地拥有这种胆识与气质。没有人仅仅因为时光的流逝而变得衰老,只是随着理想的毁灭,人类才出现老人。
岁月可以在皮肤上留下皱纹,却无法为灵魂刻上一丝痕迹。忧虑、恐惧、缺乏自信才使人佝偻于时间的尘埃之中。
无论是六十岁还是十六岁,每个人都会被未来所吸引,都会对人生竞争中的欢乐怀着孩子般无穷无尽的渴望。在你我心灵的深处,同样有一个无线电台,只要他不停地从人群中、从无限的时空中接受美好、希望、欢欣、勇气和力量的信息,你我就永远年轻。
一旦这无线电台坍塌,你的心便会被玩世不恭和悲观绝望的寒冰酷雪所覆盖,你便衰老了──即使你只有二十岁;但如果这无线电台始终矗立你的心中,捕捉着每一个乐观向上的电波,你便有希望死于年轻的八十岁。
英文原文：
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 child-like 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.
