YOUTH

By: Samuel Ullman

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 starlike 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.