赖大师的精选---我的挚爱(12)

（单词翻译:单击）

第十二弹：青春永在
Youth

Youth is not just a stage of life; it is a state of mind. It is not a matter
of rosy¹ cheeks, red lips and supple² knees; it is a matter of the will, a
quality of the imagination, a vigor³ of the emotions, it is the freshness
of the deep spring of life.

Youth means the predominance of courage over timidity, of adventure
over the love of ease. This often exists in a man of sixty more than in a
boy of twenty. Nobody grows old merely by believing 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, doubt, self-distrust, fear and despair---these bow the head and
turn the growing spirit back o dust.

Whether sixty or sixteen there is in every human being’s heart the love
of wonder, the sweet amazement⁴ of the stars and the star-like things,
the undaunted challenge of events, the unfailing childlike appetite for
what-next and the joy of the game of living.

You are ay young ad 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.