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
wonders, the unfailing appetite for 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, courage and power
from man and from the infinite, so long as you are young.When your aerials
are down, and your spirit is covered with 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 optimism, there's hope you may die young at 80.