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.