(Video Duration: 2 mins. 25 secs.)
Desires resemble sweets and virtues resemble food that is a little salty or sour. When young people are free to choose what are they likely to prefer? Regardless of this however it is our obligation to bring them up to be friends of virtue and enemies of indecency and immorality.
Until we help our young people through education they are captives of their environment. They wander about aimlessly moved by intense passions and far away from knowledge and reason. They can become truly valiant young representatives of the national thought and feeling only if their education integrates them with their past and prepares them intelligently for their future.
Think of society as a crystal vessel and of its young people as the liquid poured into it. Notice that the liquid assumes the vessel's shape and color. Evil-minded champions of regimentation tell young people to obey them instead of the truth. Do such people never question themselves? Should they not also obey the truth?
A nation's progress or decline depends on the spirit and consciousness the upbringing and education given to its young people. Nations that have raised their young people correctly are always ready for progress while those who have not done so find it impossible to take even a single step forward.
A young person is a sapling of power strength and intelligence. If trained and educated properly he or she can become a "hero" overcoming obstacles and acquire a mind that promises enlightenment to hearts and order to the world.
Source: Pearls of Wisdom by Fethullah Gulen
