英漢英語美文：經典傳世 青春---by Samuel Ullman
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 tempera-mental 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 spring back to dust.
whether 60 or 16, there is in every human being’s heart the lure of wonder, 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 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.
青春，不是肉體表征，而是思想境界；不是非主流，腦殘和惡搞。敢闖敢拼，敢想敢做，敢愛敢恨，才是青春真諦，是長生不老之源。
青春意味著一種靈魂內戰的勝利，意味著勇敢向前戰勝畏懼退縮，意味著渴望冒險壓倒安逸平淡。二十歲年輕人的青春是偽青，六十歲不老者的青春才是真青。一個人青春不再不只是因為年華逝去，而是因為理想和熱血被匆匆埋葬。
歲月的腐蝕止于肌膚，放棄熱望的腐蝕則深及靈魂。憂慮、恐懼、自卑，使人的心靈卑微，把青春燃為灰燼。
無論是六十歲的花甲老人，還是十六歲的少男少女，每個人的心中都充滿對新鮮事物的好奇渴望，對未來無盡的爛漫憧憬，對人生游戲的歡欣享受。在我們的心底都有一個綠壩，只要它接受著人類和宇宙間美好、希望、快樂、勇氣和力量的信號，你就不會衰老。
而當電線傾倒，壩體洞穿，你的精神被玩世不恭和悲觀主義的冰雪覆蓋，你就老了，即使只有二十歲。但若你的電線保持一柱擎天，始終捕捉樂觀主義的信號，那么，即使你在80歲逝去，仍有望保持童子之身。
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