Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.
Interpretation
Aging is not just about age; it's the loss of our ideals and enthusiasm that truly makes us feel old.
This quote emphasizes that growing old is not simply a matter of the passage of time but rather a reflection of how we maintain our passion and ideals throughout life. While physical aging may occur naturally, it is the abandonment of our dreams and enthusiasm that truly ages our spirit and outlook on life.
In practice
This quote can be used in a motivational speech about pursuing dreams at any age.
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.
Youth is not a time of life - it is a state of mind.
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, quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions, it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.
When the wires are all down and your heart is covered with the snows of pessimism and the ice of cynicism, then, and only then, have you grown old.
Wise men make more opportunities than they find.
Fear is what prevents the flowering of the mind.
A boy told me if he roller-skated fast enough his loneliness couldn't catch up to him, the best reason I ever heard for trying to be a champion. What I wonder tonight pedaling hard down King William Street is if it translates to bicycles. A victory! To leave your loneliness panting behind you on some street corner while you float free into a cloud of sudden azaleas, pink petals that have never felt loneliness, no matter how slowly they fell.
Your Remedy is within you, but you do not sense it._x000D_ _x000D_ Your Sickness is from you, but you do not perceive it._x000D_ _x000D_ You Presume you are a small entity,_x000D_ _x000D_ But within you is enfolded the entire universe._x000D_ _x000D_ You are indeed the evident book,_x000D_ _x000D_ By whose alphabet the hidden becomes the manifest._x000D_ _x000D_ Therefore, you have no need to look beyond yourself,_x000D_ _x000D_ What you seek is within you, if only you reflect.
It's not just words. Action expresses priorities.
I think itβs intoxicating when somebody is so unapologetically who they are.
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