Youth is
not a time of life - it is a state of mind, it is a
temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a
vigor of
the emotions, a predominance of courage over timidity,
of the appetite for adventure over love of ease.Nobody
grows old by merely living a number of years.
People grow old only by deserting their ideals. Years
wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the
soul.
Worry, doubt, self-distrust, fear and despair - these
are the long, long years that bow the head and turn the
growing spirit back to dust.
Whether they are sixteen or seventy, there is in every
being's heart the love of wonder, the sweet amazement
at the stars and star like things and thoughts, the
undaunted challenge of events, the unfailing childlike
appetite for what is to come next, and the joy and the
game of life.
You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as
young as your self-confidence, as old as
your fear, as young as your hope, as old as your despair.
When the
wires are all down and all the innermost core of your
heart is covered with the snows of pessimism and the ice
of cynicism, then you are grown old indeed.
But so long as your heart receives messages of beauty,
cheer, courage, grandeur and power from the earth,
from man and from the Infinite, so long you are young.
