青春禮讚
作者：塞繆爾·厄爾曼
青春並非人生時段，而是心神境界；青春並非粉頰香腮、櫻口朱唇、健骨柔膝；而是意堅誌篤、天馬行空、多情活潑。青春源自生命深處的一股鮮泉。
青春猶如高屋建瓴，驍勇果敢，進取闖蕩，覆壓害羞怯懦，貪圖安逸。弱冠後生固然有矣，花甲老者常尤過之。歲月流逝，人未必老。喪失理想，老之將至。
失去韶華，斑紋可能爬上肌膚；遺棄熱情，褶皺則會布滿靈魂。憂思愁慮、驚恐害怕、自信喪失，必將導致降心俯首，精神淪歸塵灰。
無論六十花甲，還是妙齡二八，人人心存奇觀勝跡的誘惑，好奇未泯的童心和生活大戲的樂趣。你我心中皆有無線電台一座，無論來自塵世凡間，還是來自浩瀚宇宙，隻要接收到美麗、希望、歡樂、勇氣和力量的信息，你將永葆青春。
一旦接收天線倒下，精神即被憤世嫉俗、悲觀厭世的冰雪覆蓋。即使尚處弱冠之年，人卻老矣。但隻要天線屹立不倒，捕獲積極樂觀信號，即便耄耋之時告別人寰，仍有正值青春年華之感。
On Youth
By Samuel Ullman
(1840 - 1924)
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 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, 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 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 20, but as long as your aerials are up, to catch waves of optimism, there is hope you may die young at 80.
