青春

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，恢宏的想像，炙熱的戀情；青春是生命的深泉在涌流。

青春氣貫長虹，勇銳蓋過怯弱，進取壓倒苟安。如此銳氣，二十後生而有之，六旬男子則更多見。年歲有加，並非垂老，理想丟棄，方墮暮年。

歲月悠悠，衰微只及肌膚；熱忱拋卻，頹廢必致靈魂。憂煩，惶恐，喪失自信，定使心靈扭曲，意氣如灰。

無論年屆花甲，擬或二八芳齡，心中皆有生命之歡樂，奇蹟之誘惑，孩童般天真久盛不衰。人人心中皆有一台天線，只要你從天上人間接受美好、希望、歡樂、勇氣和力量的信號，你就青春永駐，風華常存。

一旦天線下降，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，實已垂垂老矣；然則只要樹起天線，捕捉樂觀信號，你就有望在八十高齡告別塵寰時仍覺年輕。

英文：

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 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 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 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.

說明：

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，注視著掛在牆上的鏡框，鏡框裡是篇文章，名為《青春》。這篇文章一直伴隨著他，也跟著他到了日本。後來，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，只要有成就者，沒有哪一個不熟知不套用這篇美文的，就連松下電器的創始人松下幸之助幾十年來也把《青春》當作他的座右銘。

還有這么一件趣事，足以證明《青春》在日本的魅力。一天，美國影片銷售協會主席羅森菲爾德參加日本實業界的聚會，晚宴之前的談話，他隨意說了一句：“《青春》的作者，便是我的祖父。”在座的各位實業界領袖大為驚訝，其中有一位一邊激動地說“我一直隨身帶著它呢”，一邊從口袋裡掏出了《青春》。

《青春》是怎樣的一篇文章，它怎就這么神奇？