Accept the world for what it is, and at the same time, make it your own. I especially want you to make it your own. You are a particular variety of person, Ms. Smithie. You have spent the last four years in an environment that has encouraged you to be not just yourself, but your best self, your strongest self.
If the past two decades have taught us anything, it’s that the biggest challenges we face cannot be solved in isolation. When overseas states start falling apart, they become breeding grounds for terrorists and ideologies of nihilism and despair that ultimately can reach our shores.
What we face…is above all a moral issue; at stake are not just the details of policy, but fundamental principles of social justice and the character of our country.
College is something you complete. Life is something you experience. So don’t worry about your grade, or the results or success. Success is defined in myriad ways, and you will find it, and people will no longer be grading you, but it will come from your own internal sense of decency. Love what you do. Get good at it. Competence is a rare commodity in this day and age. And let the chips fall where they may.
Now I tell the story, because the world might say you are not allowed to yet. I waited a long time out in the world before I gave myself permission to fail. Please, don’t even bother asking, don’t bother telling the world you are ready. Show it. Do it. Just As Beckett said: “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.”
Kerry Washington’s commencement speech at George Washington University 2013. You and you alone are the only person who can live the life that writes the story that you were meant to tell. And the world needs your story because the world needs your voice. Every single one of you. And because as your story unfolds, you will inspire others to find their stories and so on and so on and so on.
The government I lead will not leave the next generation, your children and grandchildren, with a debt to settle that we were too weak to pay ourselves. I will unite our country, not with words, but with action. I will work day in and day out to deliver for you. This government will have integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level. Trust is earned. And I will earn yours.
This is a moment when we must urgently act not only to restore what has been lost for women and girls, but to end the harmful status quo which keeps inequality thriving. The stakes simply couldn’t be higher. The world – not just women – needs innovative solutions more than ever. Optimizing inclusivity is our best chance at success. Find themselves tasked with making decisions that shape lives.
I guess what I’m trying to say is life is like one big Mardi Gras. But instead of showing your boobs, show people your brain, and if they like what they see, you’ll have more beads than you know what to do with and you’ll be drunk, most of the time.
Former First Lady Michelle Obama’s Commencement Speech at Tuskegee University 2015. I have learned that as long as I hold fast to my beliefs and values — and follow my own moral compass — then the only expectations I need to live up to are my own. So, graduates, that’s what I want for all of you. I want you all to stay true to the most real, most sincere, most authentic parts of yourselves.
As the US grapples with a disinformation crisis, Tom Hanks told graduates of Harvard on Thursday to be superheroes in their defense of truth and American ideals, and to resist those who twist the truth for their own gain.
“For the truth to some is no longer empirical. It’s no longer based on data, nor common sense, nor even common decency,”
I want you to know that as your Prime Minister, I will work night and day to change that, and quickly. Not just by providing relief and peace of mind for the months to come – although we will. But also by changing our country…and building a better future for our children and grandchildren.
The whole world grows when people like you and me take a stand because we know that beyond the idea of how men and women are different, there is a deeper truth that love is love, and parents are parents.
As you leave Stanford, take your genius and your optimism and your empathy and go change the world in ways that will make millions of others optimistic as well. In the course of your lives, without any plan on your part, you’ll come to see suffering that will break your heart. When it happens, and it will, don’t turn away from it; turn toward it.
Muniba Mazari被称为巴基斯坦的铁娘子，Iron Lady。她是一位艺术家、模特、活动家、激励演讲人、歌手、社会改革家和电视主持人。她在21岁时因为一场车祸而不得不一直坐在轮椅上，她也成为巴基斯坦第一位使用轮椅的模特。Muniba Mazari is a Pakistani artist, model, activist, motivational speaker, singer, social reformer and television host. She uses a wheelchair due to injuries sustained in a car accident at the age of 21 which makes her Pakistan’s first wheelchair-using model.
We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.
奥巴马在密歇根大学2010年毕业典礼上的演讲。At the University of Michigan’s Spring Commencement, President Obama discussed the nature of politics in our democracy which he said has “never been for the thick-skinned or the faint-of-heart.” He talked about pundits and politicians who call each other all sorts of names and continue to debate about the role and size of government, but reminded the audience that “our experiment in democracy has worked better than any form of government on Earth.”
5 things I wish I heard at the graduation I never had. I was excited to congratulate them before they begin the next stages of their lives, and share some wisdom I’ve picked up in the decades since I left my own college campus.
In line with the promise of this age, I want to exhort each of the graduates here to take on an issue—a complex problem, a deep inequity, and become a specialist on it. If you make it the focus of your career, that would be phenomenal. But you don’t have to do that to make an impact… don’t let complexity stop you. Be activists. Take on big inequities. I feel sure it will be one of the great experiences of your lives.
本文为斯皮尔伯格在哈佛大学2016年毕业典礼上的演讲。In a two-hour movie, you get a handful of character-defining moments, but in real life, you face them every day. Life is one strong, long string of character-defining moments.
