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 enthusiasm wrinkles
the soul. worry, doubt, self-distrust, fear and despair
these are the long, long years that 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 and thoughts, the undaunted
challenge of events, the unfailing 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.

So long as your heart receives messages of beauty, cheer,
courage, grandeur and power from the earth, from man and
from the Infinite, so long as your are young.

When the wires are all down and all the central place of
your heart is covered with the snows of pessimism and the
ice of cynicism, then you are grown old indeed and may
God have mercy on your soul.