~今日(2010.12.26)の青春の詩碑~
<撮影:2010.12.26 14:20>
“ YOUTH ”
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 adventureover 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 enthusiasmwrinkles 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 seventy or sixteen, there is in every
being's heart the love of wonder,
the sweet amazement at the stars and the starlike things
andthoughts, the undaunted challenge of events,
theunfailing childlike appetite for what 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.
Samuel Ullman