Samuel Ullman等

□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 0r 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.

Samuel Ullman（塞繆爾·烏爾曼，1840-1920），是位猶太人，出生于德國，1851年隨家人移民到美國密西西比，他不僅以教育家和社會活動家而聞名于世，在文學創作方面也很有才華。

第二次世界大戰太平洋戰爭打得正酣之時，麥克阿瑟將軍常常從繁忙中抬起頭，注視著掛在墻上的鏡框，鏡框里正是這篇名為《青春》的文章，這篇文章一直伴隨著他到東京。后來，日本人在東京的美軍總部發現了它，《青春》便開始在日本流傳。

一位資深的日本問題觀察家說，在日本實業界，凡有成就之人，幾乎都受過這篇美文的激勵，松下電器的創始人松下幸之助就一直把《青春》當做他的座右銘。

青春不是年華，而是心態；青春不是粉面、紅唇、柔膝，而是堅強的意志，恢弘的想象，炙熱的戀情；青春是生命深處的自在涌流。

青春氣貫長虹，勇銳蓋過怯弱，進取壓倒茍安。如此銳氣，二十后生而有之，六旬男子則更多見。年歲有加，并非垂老，理想丟棄，方是暮年。

歲月悠悠，衰微只及肌膚；熱忱拋卻，頹廢必致靈魂。憂慮、惶恐、喪失自信，定使靈魂扭曲，意氣如灰。

無論年屆花甲，抑或芳齡，心中皆有生命之歡樂，好奇之沖動，孩童般天真久盛不衰。

你我心中都有一架天線，只要你從天上、人間接受美好，希望、歡樂、勇氣和力量的信號，你就會青春永駐，風華常存。

一旦天線墜下，銳氣便被冰雪覆蓋，玩世不恭、自暴自棄油然而生，即使年方二十，實則垂垂老矣；然而只要豎起天線，捕捉樂觀信號，即使八十高齡，行將告別塵寰，你也會覺得年輕依舊，希望永存。