青春的本质

青春不是人生的一个时期，而是一种心态。

青春的本质不是粉面桃腮，不是朱唇红颜，也不是灵活的关节，而是坚定的意志 ，丰富的想象，饱满的情绪，也是荡漾在生命甘泉中的一丝清凉。

青春的内涵，是战胜怯懦的勇气，是敢于冒险的精神，而不是好逸恶劳。许多60岁的人反比20岁的人更具上述品质。年岁虽增并未衰老；衰老的成因，是放弃了对理想的追求。 岁月褶皱肌肤，暮气却能褶皱灵魂。烦恼、恐惧，乃至自疑，均可摧垮精神，伤害元气。 人人心中都有一部无线电台。只要能从他人和造物主那里收到美好、希望、欢畅、勇敢和力量的信息，我们便拥有青春。 一旦天线坍塌，精神便会遭到愤世和悲观的冰霜镇压。此时，即使20岁的人也会觉得老了；然而，只要高竖天线，不断接收乐观向上的电波，那么，即使你年过80岁，也觉得年轻。

 

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, 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.nobody grows merely by the 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-distrust1 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 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 infinite, so long as you are young.
　　When the aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with the snows of cynicism and the ice of pessimism, then you’ve grown old, even at 20, but as long as your aerials are up, to catch waves of optimism9, there’s hope you may die young at 80.