青    春

——塞繆爾·厄爾曼

青春不是年華，而是心境；青春不是桃面、丹唇、柔膝，而是深沉的意志、恢宏的想象、熾熱的感情；青春是生命的深泉在涌流。

青春氣貫長虹，勇銳蓋過怯弱，進(jìn)取壓倒茍安。如此銳氣，二十后生有之，六旬男子則更多見。年歲有加，并非垂老；理想丟棄，方墮暮年。歲月悠悠，衰微只及肌膚；熱忱拋卻，頹唐心至靈魂。憂煩、惶恐、喪失自信，定使心靈扭曲，意氣如灰。

無論年屆花甲，抑或二八芳齡，心中皆有生命之歡樂，奇跡之誘惑，孩童般天真久盛不衰。

人人心中皆有一臺(tái)天線，只要你從天上人間接受美好、希望、歡樂、勇氣和力量的信號(hào)，你無不青春永駐、風(fēng)華長存。

一旦天線降下，銳氣便被冰雪覆蓋，玩世不恭、自暴自棄油然而生，即便年方二十，實(shí)已垂垂老矣；然則只要豎起天線，捕捉樂觀信號(hào)，你就有望在八十高齡告別塵寰時(shí)仍覺年輕。

(這篇短文寫于20世紀(jì)初，它不足500字，但傾倒了世間為數(shù)眾多的精英，使他們產(chǎn)生著與日俱增的崇敬乃至膜拜的心情。格拉斯·麥克阿瑟將軍生前視《青春》一文為座右銘，不但時(shí)常引用，還精心裝裱后擺在自己的辦公室里。在日本，《青春》一文更是走紅，一位外籍日本通曾斷言：“任何一個(gè)對(duì)日本經(jīng)濟(jì)活動(dòng)懷有興趣的人，都需要了解和運(yùn)用這篇短文。就連松下電器的創(chuàng)始人松下幸之助幾十年來也把《青春》當(dāng)作他的座右銘。
因?yàn)槿毡酒髽I(yè)界的巨子們幾乎普遍地認(rèn)為：《青春》的力量無價(jià)。欲尋求出類拔萃的、品格卓越的進(jìn)步，不能不依靠青春的活力，以及由它派生的新鮮認(rèn)識(shí)和實(shí)踐精神。)

YOUTH             ——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.　Wegrow 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 cynicismand 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.