青春不是年华，而是心境；青春不是桃面、丹唇、柔膝，而是深沉的意志，恢宏的想象，炙热的恋情；青春是生命的深泉在涌流。

岁月悠悠，衰微只及肌肤；热忱抛却，颓废必致灵魂。忧烦，惶恐，丧失自信，定使心灵扭曲，意气如灰。

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.

说明：

太平洋战争打得正酣之时，麦克阿瑟将军常常从繁忙中抬起头，注视着挂在墙上的镜框，镜框里是篇文章，名为《青春》。这篇文章一直伴随着他，也跟着他到了日本。后来，日本人在东京的美军总部发现了它，《青春》便开始在日本流传。

一位资深的日本问题观察家说，在日本实业界，只要有成就者，没有哪一个不熟知不应用这篇美文的，就连松下电器的创始人松下幸之助几十年来也把《青春》当作他的座右铭。

还有这么一件趣事，足以证明《青春》在日本的魅力。一天，美国影片销售协会主席罗森菲尔德参加日本实业界的聚会，晚宴之前的谈话，他随意说了一句：《青春》的作者，便是我的祖父。”在座的各位实业界领袖大为惊讶，其中有一位一边激动地说我一直随身带着它呢”，一边从口袋里掏出了《青春》。

《青春》是怎样的一篇文章，它怎就这么神奇？