第一篇:JKRowling哈佛畢業演講
J.K.Rowling, author of the best-selling Harry Potter book series, delivers her Commencement Address, “The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination,” at the Annual Meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association.Text as delivered follows.Copyright of JK Rowling, June 2008
President Faust, members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers, members of the faculty, proud parents, and, above all, graduates.The first thing I would like to say is ?thank you.? Not only has Harvard given me an extraordinary honour, but the weeks of fear and nausea I have endured at the thought of giving this commencement address have made me lose weight.A win-win situation!Now all I have to do is take deep breaths, squint at the red banners and convince myself that I am at the world?s largest Gryffindor reunion.Delivering a commencement address is a great responsibility;or so I thought until I cast my mind back to my own graduation.The commencement speaker that day was the distinguished British philosopher Baroness Mary Warnock.Reflecting on her speech has helped me enormously in writing this one, because it turns out that I can?t remember a single word she said.This liberating discovery enables me to proceed without any fear that I might inadvertently influence you to abandon promising careers in business, the law or politics for the giddy delights of becoming a gay wizard.You see? If all you remember in years to come is the ?gay wizard? joke, I?ve come out ahead of Baroness Mary Warnock.Achievable goals: the first step to self improvement.Actually, I have wracked my mind and heart for what I ought to say to you today.I have asked myself what I wish I had known at my own graduation, and what important lessons I have learned in the 21 years that have expired between that day and this.I have come up with two answers.On this wonderful day when we are gathered together to celebrate your academic success, I have decided to talk to you about the benefits of failure.And as you stand on the threshold of what is sometimes called ?real life?, I want to extol the crucial importance of imagination.These may seem quixotic or paradoxical choices, but please bear with me.Looking back at the 21-year-old that I was at graduation, is a slightly uncomfortable experience for the 42-year-old that she has become.Half my lifetime ago, I was striking an uneasy balance between the ambition I had for myself, and what those closest to me expected of me.I was convinced that the only thing I wanted to do, ever, was to write novels.However, my parents, both of whom came from impoverished backgrounds and neither of whom had been to college, took the view that my overactive imagination was an amusing personal quirk that would never pay a mortgage, or secure a pension.I know that the irony strikes with the force of a cartoon anvil, now.So they hoped that I would take a vocational degree;I wanted to study English Literature.A compromise was reached that in retrospect satisfied nobody, and I went up to study Modern Languages.Hardly had my parents? car rounded the corner at the end of the road than I ditched German and scuttled off down the Classics corridor.I cannot remember telling my parents that I was studying Classics;they might well have found out for the first time on graduation day.Of all the subjects on this planet, I think they would have been hard put to name one less useful than Greek mythology when it came to securing the keys to an executive bathroom.I would like to make it clear, in parenthesis, that I do not blame my parents for their point of view.There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction;the moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you.What is more, I cannot criticise my parents for hoping that I would never experience poverty.They had been poor themselves, and I have since been poor, and I quite agree with them that it is not an ennobling experience.Poverty entails fear, and stress, and sometimes depression;it means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships.Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts, that is indeed something on which to pride yourself, but poverty itself is romanticised only by fools.What I feared most for myself at your age was not poverty, but failure.At your age, in spite of a distinct lack of motivation at university, where I had spent far too long in the coffee bar writing stories, and far too little time at lectures, I had a knack for passing examinations, and that, for years, had been the measure of success in my life and that of my peers.I am not dull enough to suppose that because you are young, gifted and well-educated;you have never known hardship or heartbreak.Talent and intelligence never yet inoculated anyone against the caprice of the Fates, and I do not for a moment suppose that everyone here has enjoyed an existence of unruffled privilege and contentment.However, the fact that you are graduating from Harvard suggests that you are not very well-acquainted with failure.You might be driven by a fear of failure quite as much as a desire for success.Indeed, your conception of failure might not be too far from the average person?s idea of success, so high have you already flown.Ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure, but the world is quite eager to give you a set of criteria if you let it.So I think it fair to say that by any conventional measure, a mere seven years after my graduation day, I had failed on an epic scale.An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded, and I was jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless.The fears that my parents had had for me, and that I had had for myself, had both come to pass, and by every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew.Now, I am not going to stand here and tell you that failure is fun.That period of my life was a dark one, and I had no idea that there was going to be what the press has since represented as a kind of fairy tale resolution.I had no idea then how far the tunnel extended, and for a long time, any light at the end of it was a hope rather than a reality.So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential.I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me.Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged.I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea.And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable.It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations.Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way.I discovered that I had a strong will, and more discipline than I had suspected;I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly above the price of rubies.The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive.You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity.Such knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has been worth more than any qualification I ever earned.So given a Time Turner, I would tell my 21-year-old self that personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a check-list of acquisition or achievement.Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two.Life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone?s total control, and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes.Now you might think that I chose my second theme, the importance of imagination, because of the part it played in rebuilding my life, but that is not wholly so.Though I personally will defend the value of bedtime stories to my last gasp, I have learned to value imagination in a much broader sense.Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation.In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared.One of the greatest formative experiences of my life preceded Harry Potter, though it informed much of what I subsequently wrote in those books.This revelation came in the form of one of my earliest day jobs.Though I was sloping off to write stories during my lunch hours, I paid the rent in my early 20s by working at the African research department at Amnesty International?s headquarters in London.There in my little office I read hastily scribbled letters smuggled out of totalitarian regimes by men and women who were risking imprisonment to inform the outside world of what was happening to them.I saw photographs of those who had disappeared without trace, sent to Amnesty by their desperate families and friends.I read the testimony of torture victims and saw pictures of their injuries.I opened handwritten, eye-witness accounts of summary trials and executions, of kidnappings and rapes.Many of my co-workers were ex-political prisoners, people who had been displaced from their homes, or fled into exile, because they had the temerity to speak against their governments.Visitors to our offices included those who had come to give information, or to try and find out what had happened to those they had left behind.I shall never forget the African torture victim, a young man no older than I was at the time, who had become mentally ill after all he had endured in his homeland.He trembled uncontrollably as he spoke into a video camera about the brutality inflicted upon him.He was a foot taller than I was, and seemed as fragile as a child.I was given the job of escorting him back to the Underground Station afterwards, and this man whose life had been shattered by cruelty took my hand with exquisite courtesy, and wished me future happiness.And as long as I live I shall remember walking along an empty corridor and suddenly hearing, from behind a closed door, a scream of pain and horror such as I have never heard since.The door opened, and the researcher poked out her head and told me to run and make a hot drink for the young man sitting with her.She had just had to give him the news that in retaliation for his own outspokenness against his country?s regime, his mother had been seized and executed.Every day of my working week in my early 20s I was reminded how incredibly fortunate I was, to live in a country with a democratically elected government, where legal representation and a public trial were the rights of everyone.Every day, I saw more evidence about the evils humankind will inflict on their fellow humans, to gain or maintain power.I began to have nightmares, literal nightmares, about some of the things I saw, heard, and read.And yet I also learned more about human goodness at Amnesty International than I had ever known before.Amnesty mobilises thousands of people who have never been tortured or imprisoned for their beliefs to act on behalf of those who have.The power of human empathy, leading to collective action, saves lives, and frees prisoners.Ordinary people, whose personal well-being and security are assured, join together in huge numbers to save people they do not know, and will never meet.My small participation in that process was one of the most humbling and inspiring experiences of my life.Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without having experienced.They can think themselves into other people?s places.Of course, this is a power, like my brand of fictional magic, that is morally neutral.One might use such an ability to manipulate, or control, just as much as to understand or sympathise.And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all.They choose to remain comfortably within the bounds of their own experience, never troubling to wonder how it would feel to have been born other than they are.They can refuse to hear screams or to peer inside cages;they can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally;they can refuse to know.I might be tempted to envy people who can live that way, except that I do not think they have any fewer nightmares than I do.Choosing to live in narrow spaces leads to a form of mental agoraphobia, and that brings its own terrors.I think the wilfully unimaginative see more monsters.They are often more afraid.What is more, those who choose not to empathise enable real monsters.For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it, through our own apathy.One of the many things I learned at the end of that Classics corridor down which I ventured at the age of 18, in search of something I could not then define, was this, written by the Greek author Plutarch: What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.That is an astonishing statement and yet proven a thousand times every day of our lives.It expresses, in part, our inescapable connection with the outside world, the fact that we touch other people?s lives simply by existing.But how much more are you, Harvard graduates of 2008, likely to touch other people?s lives? Your intelligence, your capacity for hard work, the education you have earned and received, give you unique status, and unique responsibilities.Even your nationality sets you apart.The great majority of you belong to the world?s only remaining superpower.The way you vote, the way you live, the way you protest, the pressure you bring to bear on your government, has an impact way beyond your borders.That is your privilege, and your burden.If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice;if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless;if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped change.We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.I am nearly finished.I have one last hope for you, which is something that I already had at 21.The friends with whom I sat on graduation day have been my friends for life.They are my children?s godparents, the people to whom I?ve been able to turn in times of trouble, people who have been kind enough not to sue me when I took their names for Death Eaters.At our graduation we were bound by enormous affection, by our shared experience of a time that could never come again, and, of course, by the knowledge that we held certain photographic evidence that would be exceptionally valuable if any of us ran for Prime Minister.So today, I wish you nothing better than similar friendships.And tomorrow, I hope that even if you remember not a single word of mine, you remember those of Seneca, another of those old Romans I met when I fled down the Classics corridor, in retreat from career ladders, in search of ancient wisdom: As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.I wish you all very good lives.Thank you very much.
第二篇:2016哈佛畢業演講——斯皮爾伯格
2016哈佛畢業演講——斯皮爾伯格
非常感謝,Faust校長,Paul Choi校長,謝謝你們。
Thank you, thank you, President Faust, and Paul Choi, thank you so much.非常榮幸能被邀請成為哈佛2016年畢業典禮的演講嘉賓,在眾位優秀的畢業生、熱情的朋友和諸位家長前做此次演講。今天我們集聚一堂,祝賀2016屆哈佛畢業生順利畢業。
It’s an honor and a thrill to address this group of distinguished alumni and supportive friends and kvelling parents.We’ve all gathered to share in the joy of this day, so please join me in congratulating Harvard’s Class of 2016.我清楚記得自己的畢業典禮,因為它發生在14年前。你們有多少人花了37年畢業的?像你們大多數一樣,我也是十幾歲時開始上大學,但是我大二時獲得了好萊塢環球影城的理想工作機會,所以我輟學了。我告訴我父母,如果我的電影事業發展的不順利,我會重新入學。
I can remember my own college graduation, which is easy, since it was only 14 years ago.How many of you took 37 years to graduate? Because, like most of you, I began college in my teens, but sophomore year, I was offered my dream job at Universal Studios, so I dropped out.I told my parents if my movie career didn’t go well, I’d re-enroll.但我的電影事業一切進展順利。It went all right.最后,我因為很重要的原因重新回到學校。不同的人因為不同的理由回到大學里讀完學業,有人為了教育,有人為了父母,我是為了我的孩子。我是七個孩子的父親,一直強調上大學的重要性,但是我卻沒有上完大學。所以,在我50歲時,我重新回到加州州立大學長灘分校就讀,并且獲得學位。另外補充一點:因為我拍攝的三部《侏羅紀公園》,古生物學課給了我學分,非常感謝。
But eventually, I returned for one big reason.Most people go to college for an education, and some go for their parents, but I went for my kids.I’m the father of seven, and I kept insisting on the importance of going to college, but I hadn’t walked the walk.So, in my fifties, I re-enrolled at Cal State--Long Beach, and I earned my degree.I just have to add: It helped that they gave me course credit in paleontology for the work I did on Jurassic Park.That’s three units forJurassic Park, thank you.當然,我選擇輟學是因為我清楚地知道我想做什么。你們當中有些人或許清楚地知道自己想做什么,有些人卻并不知道。也許你曾經認為知道了自己想做什么,但現在卻在質疑自己的選擇;也許你們正坐在這里,試圖找到方法告訴自己的父母你想成為一名醫生而不是喜劇作家。
Well I left college because I knew exactly what I wanted to do, and some of you know, too--but some of you don’t.Or maybe you thought you knew but are now questioning that choice.Maybe you’re sitting there trying to figure out how to tell your parents that you want to be a doctor and not a comedy writer.你們接下來選擇做的事情,在電影里我們稱作為“角色定義時刻”(character defining moment)。有些時刻場景你們非常熟悉,比如《星球大戰:原力覺醒》里,Rey意識到身體里的原力,或者是《奪寶奇兵》里印第安那·瓊斯戰勝恐懼自愿送入“蛇口”。
Well, what you choose to do next is what we call in the movies the ‘character-defining moment.’ Now, these are moments you’re very familiar with, like in the last Star Wars: The Force Awakens, when Rey realizes the force is with her.Or Indiana Jones choosing mission over fear by jumping over a pile of snakes.一部兩個小時的電影里,你會看到很多角色定義時刻,但是現實生活中,你每天都會遇到。人生如戲,人生是一系列強有力的“角色定義時刻”。我很幸運18歲的時候就清楚自己想要做什么,但是我卻不清楚“我是誰”。怎么會呢?我們怎么會不知道自己是誰呢?因為我們25歲之前,我們一直都在聽取別人的聲音,家長、老師向我們灌輸智慧和信息,領導、導師以他們的角度告訴我們世界如何運轉。
Now 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.And I was lucky that at 18 I knew what I exactly wanted to do.But I didn’t know who I was.How could I? And how could any of us? Because for the first 25 years of our lives, we are trained to listen to voices that are not our own.Parents and professors fill our heads with wisdom and information, and then employers and mentors take their place and explain how this world really works.通常這些“聲音”有權威性而且奏效,但有時懷疑會涌進我們的內心,尤其是當我們獨立思考、發現這與我們的世界觀并不一致時。一段時間內我們是可以允許自己壓抑自己的想法、與這些矛盾共存的,允許它們定義我們自己的性格,就像哈利·尼爾森唱的“每個人都在議論我,所以我聽不到自己內心”。
And usually these voices of authority make sense, but sometimes, doubt starts to creep into our heads and into our hearts.And even when we think, ‘that’s not quite how I see the world,’ it’s kind of easier to just to nod in agreement and go along, and for a while, I let that going along define my character.Because I was repressing my own point of view, because like in that Nilsson song, ‘Everybody was talkin’ at me, so I couldn’t hear the echoes of my mind.’
起初,我需要聽取的內心聲音幾乎不可聞,很難被注意到,就像我高中時期。但是一旦我開始留意內心所想,直覺就會降臨。
And at first, the internal voice I needed to listen to was hardly audible, and it was hardly noticeable--kind of like me in high school.But then I started paying more attention, and my intuition kicked in.我想大家需要明確一點:直覺并不同于意識。它們通常同時運作,但是有一點不同的是:你的意識會告訴你這是你應該做的,然而直覺會悄悄說這是你能做的,聽從那個告訴你能做什么的聲音,沒有什么比它更能定義你的角色。And I want to be clear that your intuition is different from your conscience.They work in tandem, but here’s the distinction: Your conscience shouts, ‘here’s what you should do,’ while your intuition whispers, ‘here’s what you could do.’ Listen to that voice that tells you what you could do.Nothing will define your character more than that.當我選擇項目時,我會聽從我的直覺,全力投入到一些項目中去,而放棄其他。
Because once I turned to my intuition, and I tuned into it, certain projects began to pull me into them, and others, I turned away from.直到19世紀80年代時,我的電影中的大多數,我猜你們可以稱之為“逃避現實”。我不會拒絕任何這些電影的邀約,不只是《1941》。不止那一部,很多早期電影反映了我當時內心的價值觀,如今我仍然在這樣做。但是我當時處于自己的電影泡沫中,因為我的輟學,我受限的世界觀部分來自于我的想象,而不是外界教會我的。
And up until the 1980s, my movies were mostly, I guess what you could call ‘escapist.’ And I don’t dismiss any of these movies--not even 1941.Not even that one.And many of these early films reflected the values that I cared deeply about, and I still do.But I was in a celluloid bubble, because I’d cut my education short, my worldview was limited to what I could dream up in my head, not what the world could teach me.但是當我執導電影《紫色》時,這部電影開拓了我的眼界,印象頗為深刻。這個故事充滿了深刻的痛苦和真理,就像當時Shug Avery說的,“一切都需要被愛”。我的本能直覺告訴我這些富有靈感的電影人物應當被更多人所知道。通過制作那個電影,我認識到了制作電影可以是一個使命。
But then I directed The Color Purple.And this one film opened my eyes to experiences that I never could have imagined, and yet were all too real.This story was filled with deep pain and deeper truths, like when Shug Avery says, ‘Everything wants to be loved.’ My gut, which was my intuition, told me that more people needed to meet these characters and experience these truths.And while making that film, I realized that a movie could also be a mission.我希望你們每個人都要有使命感。不要等待,不要害怕,直接面對使命感所帶來的一切風險和挑戰。
I hope all of you find that sense of mission.Don’t turn away from what’s painful.Examine it.Challenge it.我的任務是制作時長兩個小時卻能改變世界的電影。你們的任務是改變世界,你們是未來的希望,勇敢的創新者、開拓者、領導者和執行者。
My job is to create a world that lasts two hours.Your job is to create a world that lasts forever.You are the future innovators, motivators, leaders and caretakers.你們開啟光明未來的方法是學習歷史。《侏羅紀公園》的編劇Michael Crichton,畢業于哈佛醫學院,經常引用他最喜歡的一位教授說過的話“如果你不懂歷史,你就一無所知。”就如同你是一片樹葉卻不自知作為樹木一部分的角色。所以歷史專業的學生們,從歷史和文化的角度來講,你們做了很棒的選擇,雖然工作上并沒有明顯優勢。
And the way you create a better future is by studying the past.Jurassic Parkwriter Michael Crichton, who graduated from both this college and this medical school, liked to quote a favorite professor of his who said that if you didn’t know history, you didn’t know anything.You were a leaf that didn’t know it was part of a tree.So history majors: Good choice, you’re in great shape...Not in the job market, but culturally.我們剩下的人就需要多做出些努力。社會化媒介的使命是是詮釋現在和未來,但是我不斷在挑戰讓我的孩子們能夠多花一些時間了解背后的故事,去探究真正發生了什么。因為弄懂自己是誰就是探究父母是誰,了解他們祖父母是誰。美國是一個移民國家,過去和現在都是,所以透過祖父母就知道他們移民過來時這個國家是什么樣子。
The rest of us have to make a little effort.Social media that we’re inundated and swarmed with is about the here and now.But I’ve been fighting and fighting inside my own family to get all my kids to look behind them, to look at what already has happened.Because to understand who they are is to understand who were were, and who their grandparents were, and then, what this country was like when they emigrated here.We are a nation of immigrants--at least for now.對我來說,這意味著我們每個人都有自己的故事可講,都有很多故事可講。如果可以的話,和你的父母、祖父母聊聊天,聽聽他們的故事,我保證,就像我向我的孩子保證的一樣,一定收獲頗豐,絕對不會無聊。
So to me, this means we all have to tell our own stories.We have so many stories to tell.Talk to your parents and your grandparents, if you can, and ask them about their stories.And I promise you, like I have promised my kids, you will not be bored.這是我為什么總是基于現實生活制作電影。我閱讀歷史,并不是為了說教——這只是額外好處——而是因為歷史充斥著最偉大的故事。英雄與惡棍都不是文學中的構想,他們是所有歷史的核心。
And that’s why I so often make movies based on real-life events.I look to history not to be didactic, ‘cause that’s just a bonus, but I look because the past is filled with the greatest stories that have ever been told.Heroes and villains are not literary constructs, but they’re at the heart of all history.這也是為什么聽從內心如此重要的原因。這也是迫使林肯和辛德勒做出正確的道德選擇的原因。在你的定義時刻里,不要讓道德心因為利己左右搖擺。堅持自我需要勇氣,而勇敢需要背后很多人的支持。
And again, this is why it’s so important to listen to your internal whisper.It’s the same one that compelled Abraham Lincoln and Oskar Schindler to make the correct moral choices.In your defining moments, do not let your morals be swayed by convenience or expediency.Sticking to your character requires a lot of courage.And to be courageous, you’re going to need a lot of support.如果你足夠幸運,你會有父母的支持,像我一樣。我把母親看做我的幸運女神。12歲時,我父親給了我一個電影攝像機,也是因為有了這個,我可以更好的去感知這個世界,我很感謝我的父親。現在我很感激父親也來到哈佛坐在這里。
And if you’re lucky, you have parents like mine.I consider my mom my lucky charm.And when I was 12 years old, my father handed me a movie camera, the tool that allowed me to make sense of this world.And I am so grateful to him for that.And I am grateful that he’s here at Harvard, sitting right down there.我父親今年99歲了,只比懷德納圖書館(哈佛最大的圖書館今年100年)年輕1歲,但是不像這個圖書館可以翻新,父親已容顏蒼老。另外,父親,在你身后有一位99歲的女士,這個之后我會介紹她,好嗎?
My dad is 99 years old, which means he’s only one year younger than Widener Library.But unlike Widener, he’s had zero cosmetic work.And dad, there’s a lady behind you, also 99, and I’ll introduce you after this is over, okay? 雖然你的家人并不能到場,但他們始終在背后支持你。《美好人生》結尾時,Clarence在書上寫下了這樣的話:只要你還擁有朋友,你的人生就不是失敗的。希望你們畢業之后能繼續保持在哈佛結下的友誼,并從中收獲能與之分享生活的人。我一直在強調直覺的重要性,而它也應當成為你生活中最重要的聲音,直到你遇見一生摯愛。當我遇見Kate和她結婚時,我體會到了這一點,這也成為我生命中最重要的“角色定義時刻”。
But look, if your family’s not always available, there’s backup.Near the end of It’s a Wonderful Life--you remember that movie, It’s a Wonderful Life? Clarence the Angel inscribes a book with this: “No man is a failure who has friends.” And I hope you hang on to the friendships you’ve made here at Harvard.And among your friends, I hope you find someone you want to share your life with.I imagine some of you in this yard may be a tad cynical, but I want to be unapologetically sentimental.I spoke about the importance of intuition and how there’s no greater voice to follow.That is, until you meet the love of your life.And this is what happened when I met and married Kate, and that became the greatest character-defining moment of my life.愛、支持、勇氣、直覺,所有這些東西都是成為英雄需要的,但是成為英雄還需要一樣東西:戰勝惡棍。你們都是幸運的,這個世界有很多“怪獸”,比如種族歧視、對同性戀的歧視、種族仇恨、階級仇恨、政治仇恨、宗教仇恨等。
Love, support, courage, intuition.All of these things are in your hero’s quiver, but still, a hero needs one more thing: A hero needs a villain to vanquish.And you’re all in luck.This world is full of monsters.And there’s racism, homophobia, ethnic hatred, class hatred, there’s political hatred, and there’s religious hatred.當我還是孩子時,因為猶太血統我曾經被欺凌。這很令人苦惱,但是比起我父母和祖父母面對的局面,這個輕多了。我們真的相信反猶太主義正在消逝,但是我們錯了。過去兩年間,將近20000猶太人離開歐洲尋找更好的生存之地。今年早期時候,奧巴馬總統講述這個可悲的事實時我身在以色列大使館。他說:“我們必須直面這個事實,反猶太主義再度高漲,我們不能否認這個事實”。
As a kid, I was bullied--for being Jewish.This was upsetting, but compared to what my parents and grandparents had faced, it felt tame.Because we truly believed that anti-Semitism was fading.And we were wrong.Over the last two years, nearly 20,000 Jews have left Europe to find higher ground.And earlier this year, I was at the Israeli embassy when President Obama stated the sad truth.He said: ‘We must confront the reality that around the world, anti-Semitism is on the rise.We cannot deny it.’
面對這個事實,我遵從內心,1994年創立了納粹屠猶研究基金會USC Shoah Foundation。自從那時候,我們和63個國家53000位大屠殺幸存者和經歷者交談,制作視頻證據材料。現在我們在收集來自盧旺達、柬埔寨、亞美尼亞、南京種族滅絕中的證據材料。因為我們永遠不會忘記這場難以置信的屠殺行動,但它卻頻繁發生。這些暴行現在仍然在發生。我們不禁疑問“這樣的仇恨什么時候停止?”更會好奇“它到底是怎么發生的?”
My own desire to confront that reality compelled me to start, in 1994, the Shoah Foundation.And since then, we’ve spoken to over 53,000 Holocaust survivors and witnesses in 63 countries and taken all their video testimonies.And we’re now gathering testimonies from genocides in Rwanda, Cambodia, Armenia and Nanking.Because we must never forget that the inconceivable doesn’t happen--it happens frequently.Atrocities are happening right now.And so we wonder not just, ‘When will this hatred end?’ but, ‘How did it begin?’
現在,我不得不告訴Red Sox的粉絲,我們厭煩部落主義。除了為主隊加油外,部落主義也有其黑暗的一面。由于基因,我們把世界分為“我們”和“他們”。因此。目前亟待解決的問題是:我們如何團結起來尋找所謂的“我們”?我們如何做這件事?這仍需要我們做更多努力做更多工作,有時我感覺這項工作甚至從未開始。不僅是反猶太主義正在高漲,伊斯蘭恐懼也正在高漲。被歧視的任何人沒有區別,都是因為“仇恨”,無論是穆斯林、猶太人、邊境的少數民族還是同性戀群體。
Now, I don’t have to tell a crowd of Red Sox fans that we are wired for tribalism.But beyond rooting for the home team, tribalism has a much darker side.Instinctively and maybe even genetically, we divide the world into ‘us’ and ‘them.’ So the burning question must be: How do all of us together find the ‘we?’ How do we do that? There’s still so much work to be done, and sometimes I feel the work hasn’t even begun.And it’s not just anti-Semitism that’s surging--Islamophobia’s on the rise, too.Because there’s no difference between anyone who is discriminated against, whether it’s the Muslims, or the Jews, or minorities on the border states, or the LGBT community--it is all big one hate.于我而言,對你們而言,擺脫更多仇恨的唯一答案就是更多人性。我們必須用好奇心代替恐懼。“我們”和“他們”——我們要通過與每個人建立聯系,來找到“我們”。相信我們是同一部落的成員,與每一個靈魂感同身受,即便是隔壁耶魯大學的學生。(我的兒子畢業于耶魯大學,謝謝。)
And to me, and, I think, to all of you, the only answer to more hate is more humanity.We gotta repair--we have to replace fear with curiosity.‘Us’ and ‘them’--we’ll find the ‘we’ by connecting with each other.And by believing that we’re members of the same tribe.And by feeling empathy for every soul--even Yalies.My son graduated from Yale, thank you …
同情心不只是應該停留在感性層面,而應將其付諸實踐,比如選舉、和平的抗議,為那些不能暢所欲言或者有困難的人辯護與高呼。如果你熱衷幫助他人,請遵從你的內心,竭盡所能。
But make sure this empathy isn’t just something that you feel.Make it something you act upon.That means vote.Peaceably protest.Speak up for those who can’t and speak up for those who may be shouting but aren’t being hard.Let your conscience shout as loud as it wants if you’re using it in the service of others.如果說到幫助他人的行為,你不妨看看好萊塢那個有價值的紀念教堂。它的南墻以哈佛校友會命名,以二戰犧牲生命的學生、校職員工們,總共697條生命。他們曾經行走于你們現在站立的地方,卻已經離我們而去。1945年,這個教堂開始使用時,哈佛的James Conant校長賦予這些勇敢的人們以榮譽,呼吁大家學習他們這種事跡,學會反省。
And as an example of action in service of others, you need to look no further than this Hollywood-worthy backdrop of Memorial Church.Its south wall bears the names of Harvard alumni--like President Faust has already mentioned--students and faculty members, who gave their lives in World War II.All told, 697 souls, who once tread the ground where stand now, were lost.And at a service in this church in late 1945, Harvard President James Conant--which President Faust also mentioned--honored the brave and called upon the community to ‘reflect the radiance of their deeds.’
70年后,這些話仍然適用。因為他們的犧牲并不是一代人能償還的簡單債務。每一代人都必須學會感激。就像我們不能忘記那些暴行一樣,我們也不能忘記那些為自由抗爭的人士。因此當你離開校園進入社會時,請繼續保持反省的精神,向他們學習,就像《拯救大兵瑞恩》里說的,“不要辜負你的生命”。
Seventy years later, this message still holds true.Because their sacrifice is not a debt that can be repaid in a single generation.It must be repaid with every generation.Just as we must never forget the atrocities, we must never forget those who fought for freedom.So as you leave this college and head out into the world, continue please to ‘reflect the radiance of their deeds,’ or as Captain Miller in Saving Private Ryanwould say, “Earn this.”
請保持聯系,不要忽視眼神交流。可能這并不是你希望從創造了媒體的人身上聽到的道理,但是現在我們花費大量時間在手機上,而不是看身邊的人。所以,從現在開始,在座的各位,請與你周邊的人身邊任何人對視幾秒鐘。他們也許站在你身后,也許隔著幾排人,眼神交流即可。你現在感受到的就是我們要分享的博愛精神,即便混合著一點點社會不安。
And please stay connected.Please never lose eye contact.This may not be a lesson you want to hear from a person who creates media, but we are spending more time looking down at our devices than we are looking in each other’s eyes.So, forgive me, but let’s start right now.Everyone here, please find someone’s eyes to look into.Students, and alumni and you too, President Faust, all of you, turn to someone you don’t know or don’t know very well.They may be standing behind you, or a couple of rows ahead.Just let your eyes meet.That’s it.That emotion you’re feeling is our shared humanity mixed in with a little social discomfort.即便你不記得今天的任何東西,我希望你能記住此刻的交流。你們所有人過去四年發生了很多故事,即將開啟新的人生,你們今天站立的地方,下一代人也會站立在這。我在我的電影里想象過很多種未來的可能性,但你們將決定真正的未來,我希望那將是正義和和平。But, if you remember nothing else from today, I hope you remember this moment of human connection.And I hope you all had a lot of that over the past four years.Because today you start down the path of becoming the generation on which the next generation stands.And I’ve imagined many possible futures in my films, but you will determine the actual future.And I hope that it’s filled with justice and peace.最后,我希望你們都能有一個“真正的,好萊塢式的歡樂大結局”。我希望你們能跑贏T.rex恐龍,能抓到罪犯,另外,考慮到你們的父母,時不時地象E.T.一樣,回家看看!謝謝大家!
And finally, I wish you all a true, Hollywood-style happy ending.I hope you outrun the T.rex, catch the criminal and for your parents’ sake, maybe every now and then, just like E.T.: Go home.Thank you.
第三篇:哈佛校長2016畢業演講
哈佛校長2016畢業演講:誰來講述你的故事? 只有你自己
當你告訴別人你的故事,是為了發現真正的你,而不是那個別人認為你應該成為的那個你!聽別人的建議,但是做你自己的決定!——哈佛校長 Drew Gilpin Faust 去從事你真正關心的事業吧,無論是物理還是神經科學,無論是金融還是電影制片。如果你想好了目的地,就直接往那里去吧。這就是我的“停車位理論”:不要因為覺得肯定沒有停車位了,就把車停在距離目的地10個街區遠的地方。直接去你想去的地方,如果車位已滿,你總可以再繞回來。
哈佛校長2016畢業演講:誰來講述你的故事? 只有你自己 人們也許會說哈佛是天堂,充滿了各種難以想象的機遇和好運——確實,我們每個人都有幸在她漫長而成功的歷史中占有一席之地。但這也對我們提出了要求:我們有責任走出自己的舒適區,尋找屬于我們的挑戰,踐行哈佛奮斗不息的精神。
在我準備今天演講的時候,我想到了音樂劇《漢密爾頓》中最后那首歌里的問題: 誰來講述你的故事? 我想這個問題奠定了你們過去四年大學生活的基調,也將對你們未來作為哈佛畢業生和校友的生活產生深遠的影響,無論是作為公民或是領袖—— 誰,來講述你的故事? 是你,你要來講述你的故事!這就是今天我要對你們說的話:講你自己的故事,一個充滿了無限可能性和新秩序的嶄新故事,這是每一代人的任務,也是現在擺在你面前的任務。你在哈佛所接受的文理博雅教育,將會用以下三種重要方式,幫助你去完成這項任務。聽別人的建議,做你自己的決定
講述你的故事意味著發現你自己是誰——而不是成為別人認為你的誰。你要參考別人的意見,但要做出自己的決定。講述一個別人定義好的或別人希望聽到的故事,那太容易了。哈佛的傳奇人物之
一、可敬的彼得·戈麥斯教授曾說:“不要讓任何人替你把話說完。”戈麥斯教授自己經常“自相矛盾”,令人難以捉摸,但永遠忠于他自己:他是一位劍橋市的共和黨人(注:在哈佛所在的劍橋市,共和黨是少數派);他是一位浸禮會的牧師,但同時是個同性戀(注:基督教大多不支持同性戀);他是朝圣者協會的會長,同時又是一位黑人(注:朝圣者協會白人居多)。
他對自己的信仰堅定不移,他不為外人的期望牽掛束縛。他說:“我的不同尋常,讓開啟新的對話變為可能。”
開啟與他人的對話,傾聽他人的故事
開啟新的對話,這是我的下一個重點。講述我們自己的故事并不意味著只關注我們自己。講故事是與他人對話,借此探尋更遠大的目標、探索其他的世界、探究不同的思維方式——你所受的教育不是一個真空的大泡沫。
如果我們只講述單一的故事,那將是危險的,就像諾大的場地只有一個逃生口,令所有人變得異常脆弱。單一的故事不一定是假的,但它是不完整的。所有的故事都很重要,不能把單一角度的故事變成唯一的故事。
過去四年,你們感受到了傾聽他人故事的益處,也體驗到了忽略他人故事所帶來的危險。只有意識到,世界上充滿了各種各樣的故事,我們才能想象一個不一樣的未來。21世紀的醫療是什么樣?能源是什么樣?移民是什么樣?城市將如何設計?面對這些問題,你要問的不是“我會成為什么樣的人”,而是 我能解決什么問題? “在不安和不確定中,不斷修正你的故事” 這也引出了最后一個重點:不斷修正。每個故事其實都只是一個草稿,我們連最古老的傳說都會不斷拿來重提——不管是漢密爾頓將軍的故事、美國獨立戰爭的史詩、亦或是哈佛自己的歷史。
好的教育之所以好,是因為它讓你坐立不安,它強迫你不斷重新認識我們自己和我們周遭的世界,并不斷去改變。
斯蒂芬·斯皮爾伯格將在畢業典禮上為我們演講,他就曾經這樣解釋他創作的基石:“恐懼是我的動力。當我瀕臨走投無路的時候,那也是我遇見最好的想法的時候。”
大學,不正是這樣一個讓每一個人都接受挑戰、讓每一個人都產生不確定性的地方嗎? 就這樣,大學四年間,你都一直在學習重新講述你的故事:尋找你自己的聲音,將自己放入一個故事中——無論是對氣候變化采取反抗行動,發現你對統計學的熱衷,還是發起了一項有意義的運動,你親眼目睹故事不斷被重新講述。不要妥協,直奔你的目標
這些年,我一直在告訴大家:追隨你所愛!去從事你真正關心的事業吧,無論是物理還是神經科學,無論是金融還是電影制片。如果你想好了目的地,就直接往那里去吧。這就是我的“停車位理論”:不要因為覺得肯定沒有停車位了,就把車停在距離目的地10個街區遠的地方。直接去你想去的地方,如果車位已滿,你總可以再繞回來。
所以在這里,我想祝賀你們,2016屆的哈佛畢業生們。別忘了你們來自何處,不斷改變你的故事,不斷重寫你的故事。我相信這項任務除了你們自己,誰也無法替你們完成!
第四篇:比爾蓋茨哈佛畢業演講
Bill Gates鈥? Commencement address at Harvard University,2007(extract)
Members of the Harvard Family: Here in the Yard is one of the great
collections of intellectual talent in the world.What for?
There is no question that the faculty, the alumni, the students, and the
benefactors of Harvard have used their power to improve the lives of people here and around the world.But can we do more? Can Harvard dedicate its intellect to improving the lives of people who will never even hear its name?
Let me make a request of the deans and the professors鈥攖he
intellectual leaders here at Harvard: As you hire new faculty, award tenure, review curriculum, and determine degree requirements, please ask
yourselves:
Should our best minds be dedicated to solving our biggest problems?
Should Harvard encourage its faculty to take on the world鈥檚 worst
inequities? Should Harvard students learn about the depth of global poverty鈥he prevalence of world hunger鈥he scarcity of clean water鈥he girls kept out of school鈥he children who die from diseases we can cure?
Should the world鈥檚 most privileged people learn about the lives of the world鈥檚 least privileged?
These are not rhetorical questions鈥攜ou will answer with your policies.When you consider what those of us here in this Yard have been given鈥攊n talent, privilege, and opportunity鈥攖here is almost no limit to what the world has a right to expect from us.In line with the promise of this age, I want to exhort each of the graduates here to take on an issue鈥攁 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鈥檛 have to do that to make an impact.For a few hours every week, you can use the growing power of the Internet to get
informed, find others with the same interests, see the barriers, and find ways to cut through them.Don鈥檛 let complexity stop you.Be activists.Take on the big inequities.It will be one of the great experiences of your lives.You graduates are coming of age in an amazing time.As you leave
Harvard, you have technology that members of my class never had.You have awareness of global inequity, which we did not have.And with that awareness, you likely also have an informed conscience that will torment you if you
abandon these people whose lives you could change with very little effort.You have more than we had;you must start sooner, and carry on longer.Knowing what you know, how could you not?
And I hope you will come back here to Harvard 30 years from now and reflect on what you have done with your talent and your energy.I hope you will judge yourselves not on your professional accomplishments alone, but also on how well you have addressed the world鈥檚 deepest inequities鈥n how well you treated people a world away who have nothing in common with you but their humanity.Good luck.(words: 497)
第五篇:奧普拉2016哈佛畢業勵志演講
奧普拉哈佛畢業典禮演講:人生唯一目標就是做真實的自己 oh my goodness!im at haaaaaarvard!thats how oprah winfrey began her speech at harvard university graduation ceremony—in her spirited, signature way.winfrey also received an honorary doctor of law degree from the university before taking to the podium.溫弗瑞演講中4條最勵志的語錄
談失敗的好處 there is no such thing as failure.failure is just life trying to move us in another direction.世間并不存在“失敗”,那不過是生活想讓我們換個方向走走罷了。learn from every mistake, because every experience, particularly your mistakes, are there to teach you and force you into being more who you are.要從錯誤中吸取教訓,因為你的每一次經歷、尤其是你犯下的錯誤,都將幫助你、推動你更好地做自己。
2.on her own biggest personal failure.談自身最大的失敗
我突然想到某首古老贊美詩中的一句話:“困難只是暫時的”,我遇到的麻煩同樣會有結束的一天。然后我想,我會將這一頁翻過去,我會好起來的。
談職業生涯所做訪談的共同性 beyonce in all her beyonce-ness...they all want to know: was that okay? did you hear me? did you see me? did what i said mean anything to you? 我發現,我所有的訪談有一個共同性,那就是人人都希望自己被認可、被理解。they all want to know: was that okay? did you hear me? did you see me? did what i said mean anything to you? 我的采訪對象都想知道:“我的表現ok嗎?你聽到我看到我嗎?我說的話對你有價值嗎?”
4.on the key to success and happiness.談成功和快樂的關鍵 you will find true success and happiness if you have only one goal.there really is only one, and that is this: to fulfill the highest, most truthful expression of yourself as a human being.如果你只認準一個目標,那你就能獲得真正的成功和快樂。人生確實只有一個目標,那就是:最大程度地、最真實地展現自己。
“不要問自己世界需要什么,問問是什么讓你精神抖擻地活著,然后就去做,因為世界所需要的就是一個個朝氣蓬勃的人。”篇二:奧普拉哈佛畢業典禮演講
奧普拉哈佛畢業典禮演講:人生唯一目標就是做真實的自己 oprah winfrey: oh my goodness!im at harvard!wow!to president faust, my fellow honorands, carl that was so beautiful, thank you so much, and james rothenberg, stephanie wilson, harvard faculty with a special bow to my friend dr.henry lewis gates.oprah winfrey: all of you alumni with a special bow to the class of 88, your hundred fifteen million dollars.oprah winfrey: and to you, members of the harvard class of 2013!hello!oprah winfrey: and we understand that most americans believe in a clear path to citizenship for the 12,000,000 undocumented immigrants who reside in this country because its possible to both enforce our篇三:奧普拉2013哈佛畢業演講(中英)oh my goodness!im at harvard!wow!to president faust, my fellow honorands, carl that was so beautiful, thank you so much, and james rothenberg, stephanie wilson, harvard faculty with a special bow to my friend dr.henry lewis gates.all of you alumni with a special bow to the class of 88, your hundred fifteen million dollars.and to you, members of the harvard class of 2013!hello!a personality.but it helps.and while i may not have graduated from here i admit that my 童鞋們直接點擊下面的視頻觀看就可以了,有中文字幕。如果看不了視頻,可以看后面附加的文字版。
附文字版:
———————————————
所有2013屆的畢業生們!大家好!
感謝你們讓我成為你們人生這一篇章的結束與下一篇章開始的紐帶。對我而言,榮幸根本無法表達我內心深處對哈佛授予我榮譽學位的感激之情。不是每個來自密西西比州的農村小姑娘都能來到劍橋城的。我希望今天我能為你們帶來一些啟發。我的演講是為那些曾在人生中感到自卑
或覺得自己沒有優點,甚至覺得生活一團糟的人。
大家都知道,我的電視事業生涯開始的出乎意料,我當時在參加“防火小姐”比賽。那年我16歲,在田納西州的納什維爾。問答環節問道:“年輕的女士,你長大后想做什么?為什么?”因為那天早上我正好在“今日秀”中看到了芭芭拉·沃爾特斯(barbara walters)女士,所以我說:“我想成為一名記者,我想成為為人們帶來一些在某種程度上能改變人們生活和世界的故事。”當我說出這些話時,我覺得:“哇!還挺不錯的!我想做個記者,我要做出一番事業。”后來,19歲時我上了電視。在1986年,我推出了我自己的電視節目,一開始就下定決心要成功。我以前對競爭很緊張,后來我和自己競爭,每年設立一個更高的目標,一步一步地推到極限。對大家來說聽著挺熟悉吧?最終,我們成功達到巔峰,并保持了25年。
“奧普拉·溫弗瑞秀”在同一時間段的電視節目中連續21年排名第一,我必須說我對于這個成績非常的滿足。但是幾年前,我覺得,在人生的某一時刻,你必須重新來過,找到新的領域,實現新的突破。所以我離開了“奧普拉·溫弗瑞秀”,以我的名字命名推出了我自己的電視網絡“奧普拉·溫福瑞電視網”,縮寫正好是“own(自己的)”。在奧普拉·溫弗瑞電視網推出一年后,幾乎所有的媒體都認為我的新項目是失敗的。不僅僅是失敗,他們稱之為一個大寫的失敗。我還記得有一天我打開《今日美國報》時看到頭條新聞說“奧普拉搞不定‘自己的’電視網”。這正是我職業生涯最低谷的時刻。我壓力超大,近乎崩潰。老
實說,我感到羞愧。就在那個時候,福斯特(faust)校長打電話邀請我到哈佛做畢業演講。我心想:“你讓我給哈佛的畢業生演講?我能跟這些世界上最成功的畢業生說什么?而我已經不再成功。”我掛了福斯特校長的電話后去洗了個澡。我洗了很長時間,在洗澡的時候我突然想到某首古老贊美詩中的一句話,你可能沒聽過“終于,清晨來臨。”之后我就想,我的黎明也許要來了。因為那時我覺得我被困在一個洞里了。我又想到那首古老贊美詩中的另一句話:“困難只是暫時的,都會過去。”當我走出浴室時,我想:我遇到的麻煩同樣會有結束的一天,我會將這一頁翻過去,我會好起來的,等我做到了,我就去哈佛,把這個真實的故事告訴大家!今天我來了并且想告訴你們,我已經把“奧普拉·溫弗瑞電視網”帶上正軌了!
在今天早上來的路上,納吉(nagy)教授說:“溫弗瑞女士,請堅決地向前走。” 我應該堅決地向前走。這就是我想分享的。無論你已經達到怎樣的成就,在某個節點,你會發現你會跌倒,因為如果你一直不斷的在做我們每個人做的事:不斷設定更高的目標。如果你一直不斷把你自己推向更高的目標,你將在某一點上落下,更不必說伊卡洛斯能預測你會跌倒的神話。當你真的跌倒時我想讓你知道,并請記住:“世間并不存在失敗,那不過是生活想讓我們換個方向走走罷了。”現在當你在人生谷底,那看起來像是失敗。在過去的一年里,這些話支撐著我自己。當你到了人生谷底,到那時候,你可以難過一段時間,給自己時間去哀悼你認為你可能失去的一切,但關鍵在于:從每個失敗和遭遇中學習,特別是你的每個錯誤,都會迫使你成為真正的自己,然后想想接下 來怎么做。
生活的重點在于建立內在道德和情感上的定位系統,它能為你指路,因為現在或將來當你在谷歌上搜索你自己,結果會是“哈佛2013畢業生”。在這個競爭激烈的世界,那的確是塊敲門磚。我作為一個雇傭過很多人的人,可以說當我聽到哈佛的畢業生,我都會坐直一點,然后說“他或她在哪,帶來見我”。這是一個令人印象深刻的敲門磚,在未來的日子里那的確是顆有力的子彈:成為律師、議員、老板、科學家、物理學家,諾貝爾獎普利策獎獲得者或者晚間脫口秀主持人。然而來自生活的挑戰并不是做個履歷簡單地告訴大家你想做什么,而是你想成為什么樣的人。這份履歷不只是告訴大家你完成了什么,而是你為什么做這些?這份履歷不僅僅是一個頭銜和職位的羅列,而是告訴大家你究竟想做什么?因為當你不可避免地跌倒或陷入困境時,它可以幫你走出困境,人生真正的意義是什么?你的人生哲學是什么?你的目標是什么? 對我來說,我真正發現自己的目標與價值是在1994年,當時我采訪了一位決定攢零花錢來幫助他人的小女孩,她籌集了一千美金。我想:“嗯,如果一個9歲的小姑娘,用一個筐和熱忱的心就能做到,我能做到什么?”所以我請我們的觀眾們拿出自己的零錢,在一個月內我從一分一毫籌集到超過300萬美金,我們用這筆錢從每個州選出一個學生供他們上大學。這就是“天使網絡”的開始。
其實我做的只是簡單地請求我們的觀眾:“無論你在哪里、處于人生的哪個階段,如果可以,請拿出你的時間、天賦以及金錢,做你力所能及 的事。”他們這樣做了。無論你在哪里,將你的仁慈帶給他人。眾人拾柴火焰高,我們一起在12個國家建了55所學校,重建了近300個被麗塔和卡特里娜颶風摧毀的家園。所以“天使網絡”聚集了我內在的定位系統。它能幫助我知道,我不是僅僅每天在電視上出現,還有我的采訪目標,我的生意,我的慈善事業,所有的一切。無論我追求怎樣的事業,我更清楚把我們凝聚在一起的力量比分離我們的力量更令人滿足和不可抗拒。但我想讓你們知道,任何事情的一開始對于我們未必明朗,正如我所說我19歲就開始上電視,然而到了94年我才漸漸清楚,所以不要期待一下子就想清楚、并馬上明白自己的使命。對我來說,我最終清楚,我要利用電視而不是被電視利用,利用電視來照亮我們內在天使的一面。這個“天使網絡”,它不只是改變那些我們幫助過的人們的生活,同時也改變那些提供幫助的人們的生活。它提醒我們,無論是誰,看上去如何,或者我們相信什么,更重要的是它成為了我們為共同目標走到一起的驅動力。
正如我們了解的那樣,你們能理解,因為你們上了哈佛。來自兩黨派和無黨派的人同樣堅信:貧困的母親和家庭都理應獲得使其兒女健康成長的食物、住所以及強有力的教育支持。因為我們現在正生活在全世界最為富有的國家中,我們有能力去提供確保人們得到安全與機遇所需的最基礎的社會保障。于是問題便隨之而來:我們將對此有何打算呢?說真的,我們將要對此做些什么呢?也許你是贊同這些理念的,也有可能你會持反對意見。關鍵是你們這一代人肩負著突破國家積年累月無法突破的重重圍嶂的使命。