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.
Interpretation
True aging occurs not with physical age but with a loss of hope and positivity.
In this quote, Samuel Ullman highlights that true aging stems from a negative mindset rather than merely the passage of time. When one's heart is shrouded in pessimism and cynicism, it reflects a loss of youthful spirit and resilience, indicating that emotional and mental vitality are essential to feeling young regardless of physical age.
In practice
In a motivational speech about staying positive through challenges.
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.
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.
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.
Sell Not Yourself At Little Price, Being So Precious In _x000D_ God's Eyes.
Whatever evil befalls us, we ought to ask ourselves... how we can turn it into good. So shall we take occasion, from one bitter root, to raise perhaps many flowers.
I believe in the discipline of mastering the best that other people have ever figured out. I don't believe in just sitting down and trying to dream it all up yourself. Nobody's that smart.
Remember that the good angels do what they can to preserve men from sin and obtain God's honor. But they do not lose courage when men fail.
The road to ignorance is paved with good editors.
To demand that others should provide you textbook prognoses is like asking a strange woman to give birth to your baby. There are insights that can be born only of your own pain, and they are the most precious.
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