Samuel Ullman

        Youth is not just a stage of life; it is a stage 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 spring of life.

        Youth means the predominance of courage over timidity,

of adventure over the love of ease. This often exists in a man

of sixty more than in a boy of twenty. Nobody grows old

merely by living 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, doubt, self-distrust, fear and despair

--- these bow the head and turn the growing spirit back to dust.

        Weather sixty or sixteen, there is in every human being's

heart the love of wonder, the sweet amazement of the stars

and the starlike things, the undaunted challenge of events, the

unfailing childlike appetite for what-next and the joy of the

game of living.

        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.

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