The longer I live the more I respect enthusiasm.
There is no perfection of technique that will substitute for the lift of spirit that enthusiasm produces. Some people keep their zest until the day they die. They keep a sense of curiosity. They care about things. They reach out. They enjoy. They risk failure.
They may even allow themselves some moderately cheerful expectations for the time ahead. Such expectations may be greeted with with skepticism in the current climate, but we should welcome the buoyancy from which they spring.
Otherwise, in our world-weary wisdom, we shall be unresponsive to the challenges that keep societies alive and moving.
From "Morale" by John W. Gardner