威廉·萨默塞特·毛姆/William Somerset Maugham
It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it；but the young know they are wretched, for they are full of the truthless ideals which have been instilled into them, and each time they come in contact with the real they are bruised and wounded. It looks as if they were victims of a conspiracy；for the books they read, ideal by the necessity of selection, and the conversation of their elders, who look back upon the past through a rosy haze of forgetfulness, prepare them for an unreal life.
They must discover for themselves that all they have read and all they have been told are lies, lies, lies；and each discovery is another nail driven into the body on the cross of life. The strange thing is that each one who has gone through that bitter disillusionment adds to it in his turn, unconsciously, by the power within him which is stronger than himself.
以为青春是快乐的，这是一种错觉，是失去了青春的人的错觉。年轻人知道自己是不幸的，因为他们被灌输而来的、不切实际的理想充斥着，他们只要接触到现实，就会碰得头破血流。看起来他们就像是一场阴谋的牺牲品，因为他们读的书由于被精挑细选过而变得完美。长辈回忆往事时，隔了健忘这一层玫瑰色薄雾，用他们的话为年轻人准备了不真实的生活。
年轻人必须自己去发现，那些他们读来听来的事情，全都是谎言、谎言、谎言；每一次这样的发现，都像是一根钉子，把身体钉在生活的十字架上。奇怪的是，每个人在经过这种苦涩的幻灭之后，因内心某种无法自已的力量，而无意识地为它继续增添幻觉。
心灵小语
青春的痛苦在于梦想、憧憬和现实的碰撞，其过程犹如珍珠的孕育、钻石的打磨，是在苦痛中诞生光华与体现价值。
illusion n.幻觉；幻想；错误的印象；假象