original source: http://deogener.tripod.com/poem.htm
Live with Enthusiasm
Youth is not a time of life;
it's a state of mind.
It's temper of vigor of a will,
a quality of the imagination, vigor of emotions,
a predominance of courage over timidity,
of the appetite for adventure
over the of ease.
Nobody grows old by merely living
a number of years.
People grow only by deserting their ideals.
Years wrinkle the skins, 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.
Whether 60 or 16, there is in every being's heart
the love of wonder, the sweet amazement
at the stars and
the star like things and thought,
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.
So long as young heart receives
messages of beauty, cheer, courage,
grandeur, and power from the earth,
from man and from infinite,
so long are you young.
When the wires are all down,
and all the central places of your heart
are covered with the snows of
pessimism and the ice of cynicism,
then, and only then, are you grown
old indeed, and God have mercy on
your soul.
"Live everyday of your life as though you expect to live forever."
