JKRowling哈佛毕业演讲

第一篇：JKRowling哈佛毕业演讲

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哈佛毕业演讲——斯皮尔伯格

2016哈佛毕业演讲——斯皮尔伯格

非常感谢，Faust校长，Paul Choi校长，谢谢你们。

Thank you, thank you, President Faust, and Paul Choi, thank you so much.非常荣幸能被邀请成为哈佛2016年毕业典礼的演讲嘉宾，在众位优秀的毕业生、热情的朋友和诸位家长前做此次演讲。今天我们集聚一堂，祝贺2016届哈佛毕业生顺利毕业。

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.我清楚记得自己的毕业典礼，因为它发生在14年前。你们有多少人花了37年毕业的？像你们大多数一样，我也是十几岁时开始上大学，但是我大二时获得了好莱坞环球影城的理想工作机会，所以我辍学了。我告诉我父母，如果我的电影事业发展的不顺利，我会重新入学。

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.但我的电影事业一切进展顺利。It went all right.最后，我因为很重要的原因重新回到学校。不同的人因为不同的理由回到大学里读完学业，有人为了教育，有人为了父母，我是为了我的孩子。我是七个孩子的父亲，一直强调上大学的重要性，但是我却没有上完大学。所以，在我50岁时，我重新回到加州州立大学长滩分校就读，并且获得学位。另外补充一点：因为我拍摄的三部《侏罗纪公园》，古生物学课给了我学分，非常感谢。

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.当然，我选择辍学是因为我清楚地知道我想做什么。你们当中有些人或许清楚地知道自己想做什么，有些人却并不知道。也许你曾经认为知道了自己想做什么，但现在却在质疑自己的选择；也许你们正坐在这里，试图找到方法告诉自己的父母你想成为一名医生而不是喜剧作家。

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.你们接下来选择做的事情，在电影里我们称作为“角色定义时刻”（character defining moment)。有些时刻场景你们非常熟悉，比如《星球大战：原力觉醒》里，Rey意识到身体里的原力，或者是《夺宝奇兵》里印第安那·琼斯战胜恐惧自愿送入“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.一部两个小时的电影里，你会看到很多角色定义时刻，但是现实生活中，你每天都会遇到。人生如戏，人生是一系列强有力的“角色定义时刻”。我很幸运18岁的时候就清楚自己想要做什么，但是我却不清楚“我是谁”。怎么会呢？我们怎么会不知道自己是谁呢？因为我们25岁之前，我们一直都在听取别人的声音，家长、老师向我们灌输智慧和信息，领导、导师以他们的角度告诉我们世界如何运转。

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.通常这些“声音”有权威性而且奏效，但有时怀疑会涌进我们的内心，尤其是当我们独立思考、发现这与我们的世界观并不一致时。一段时间内我们是可以允许自己压抑自己的想法、与这些矛盾共存的，允许它们定义我们自己的性格，就像哈利·尼尔森唱的“每个人都在议论我，所以我听不到自己内心”。

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，我需要听取的内心声音几乎不可闻，很难被注意到，就像我高中时期。但是一旦我开始留意内心所想，直觉就会降临。

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.我想大家需要明确一点：直觉并不同于意识。它们通常同时运作，但是有一点不同的是：你的意识会告诉你这是你应该做的，然而直觉会悄悄说这是你能做的，听从那个告诉你能做什么的声音，没有什么比它更能定义你的角色。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.当我选择项目时，我会听从我的直觉，全力投入到一些项目中去，而放弃其他。

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世纪80年代时，我的电影中的大多数，我猜你们可以称之为“逃避现实”。我不会拒绝任何这些电影的邀约，不只是《1941》。不止那一部，很多早期电影反映了我当时内心的价值观，如今我仍然在这样做。但是我当时处于自己的电影泡沫中，因为我的辍学，我受限的世界观部分来自于我的想象，而不是外界教会我的。

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.但是当我执导电影《紫色》时，这部电影开拓了我的眼界，印象颇为深刻。这个故事充满了深刻的痛苦和真理，就像当时Shug Avery说的，“一切都需要被爱”。我的本能直觉告诉我这些富有灵感的电影人物应当被更多人所知道。通过制作那个电影，我认识到了制作电影可以是一个使命。

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.我希望你们每个人都要有使命感。不要等待，不要害怕，直接面对使命感所带来的一切风险和挑战。

I hope all of you find that sense of mission.Don’t turn away from what’s painful.Examine it.Challenge it.我的任务是制作时长两个小时却能改变世界的电影。你们的任务是改变世界，你们是未来的希望，勇敢的创新者、开拓者、领导者和执行者。

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.你们开启光明未来的方法是学习历史。《侏罗纪公园》的编剧Michael Crichton，毕业于哈佛医学院，经常引用他最喜欢的一位教授说过的话“如果你不懂历史，你就一无所知。”就如同你是一片树叶却不自知作为树木一部分的角色。所以历史专业的学生们，从历史和文化的角度来讲，你们做了很棒的选择，虽然工作上并没有明显优势。

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.我们剩下的人就需要多做出些努力。社会化媒介的使命是是诠释现在和未来，但是我不断在挑战让我的孩子们能够多花一些时间了解背后的故事，去探究真正发生了什么。因为弄懂自己是谁就是探究父母是谁，了解他们祖父母是谁。美国是一个移民国家，过去和现在都是，所以透过祖父母就知道他们移民过来时这个国家是什么样子。

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.对我来说，这意味着我们每个人都有自己的故事可讲，都有很多故事可讲。如果可以的话，和你的父母、祖父母聊聊天，听听他们的故事，我保证，就像我向我的孩子保证的一样，一定收获颇丰，绝对不会无聊。

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.这是我为什么总是基于现实生活制作电影。我阅读历史，并不是为了说教——这只是额外好处——而是因为历史充斥着最伟大的故事。英雄与恶棍都不是文学中的构想，他们是所有历史的核心。

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.这也是为什么听从内心如此重要的原因。这也是迫使林肯和辛德勒做出正确的道德选择的原因。在你的定义时刻里，不要让道德心因为利己左右摇摆。坚持自我需要勇气，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.如果你足够幸运，你会有父母的支持，像我一样。我把母亲看做我的幸运女神。12岁时，我父亲给了我一个电影摄像机，也是因为有了这个，我可以更好的去感知这个世界，我很感谢我的父亲。现在我很感激父亲也来到哈佛坐在这里。

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.我父亲今年99岁了，只比怀德纳图书馆（哈佛最大的图书馆今年100年）年轻1岁，但是不像这个图书馆可以翻新，父亲已容颜苍老。另外，父亲，在你身后有一位99岁的女士，这个之后我会介绍她，好吗？

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? 虽然你的家人并不能到场，但他们始终在背后支持你。《美好人生》结尾时，Clarence在书上写下了这样的话：只要你还拥有朋友，你的人生就不是失败的。希望你们毕业之后能继续保持在哈佛结下的友谊，并从中收获能与之分享生活的人。我一直在强调直觉的重要性，而它也应当成为你生活中最重要的声音，直到你遇见一生挚爱。当我遇见Kate和她结婚时，我体会到了这一点，这也成为我生命中最重要的“角色定义时刻”。

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.爱、支持、勇气、直觉，所有这些东西都是成为英雄需要的，但是成为英雄还需要一样东西：战胜恶棍。你们都是幸运的，这个世界有很多“怪兽”，比如种族歧视、对同性恋的歧视、种族仇恨、阶级仇恨、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.当我还是孩子时，因为犹太血统我曾经被欺凌。这很令人苦恼，但是比起我父母和祖父母面对的局面，这个轻多了。我们真的相信反犹太主义正在消逝，但是我们错了。过去两年间，将近20000犹太人离开欧洲寻找更好的生存之地。今年早期时候，奥巴马总统讲述这个可悲的事实时我身在以色列大使馆。他说：“我们必须直面这个事实，反犹太主义再度高涨，我们不能否认这个事实”。

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.’

面对这个事实，我遵从内心，1994年创立了纳粹屠犹研究基金会USC Shoah Foundation。自从那时候，我们和63个国家53000位大屠杀幸存者和经历者交谈，制作视频证据材料。现在我们在收集来自卢旺达、柬埔寨、亚美尼亚、南京种族灭绝中的证据材料。因为我们永远不会忘记这场难以置信的屠杀行动，但它却频繁发生。这些暴行现在仍然在发生。我们不禁疑问“这样的仇恨什么时候停止？”更会好奇“它到底是怎么发生的？”

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?’

现在，我不得不告诉Red Sox的粉丝，我们厌烦部落主义。除了为主队加油外，部落主义也有其黑暗的一面。由于基因，我们把世界分为“我们”和“他们”。因此。目前亟待解决的问题是：我们如何团结起来寻找所谓的“我们”？我们如何做这件事？这仍需要我们做更多努力做更多工作，有时我感觉这项工作甚至从未开始。不仅是反犹太主义正在高涨，伊斯兰恐惧也正在高涨。被歧视的任何人没有区别，都是因为“仇恨”，无论是穆斯林、犹太人、边境的少数民族还是同性恋群体。

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，对你们而言，摆脱更多仇恨的唯一答案就是更多人性。我们必须用好奇心代替恐惧。“我们”和“他们”——我们要通过与每个人建立联系，来找到“我们”。相信我们是同一部落的成员，与每一个灵魂感同身受，即便是隔壁耶鲁大学的学生。（我的儿子毕业于耶鲁大学，谢谢。）

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 …

同情心不只是应该停留在感性层面，而应将其付诸实践，比如选举、和平的抗议，为那些不能畅所欲言或者有困难的人辩护与高呼。如果你热衷帮助他人，请遵从你的内心，竭尽所能。

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.如果说到帮助他人的行为，你不妨看看好莱坞那个有价值的纪念教堂。它的南墙以哈佛校友会命名，以二战牺牲生命的学生、校职员工们，总共697条生命。他们曾经行走于你们现在站立的地方，却已经离我们而去。1945年，这个教堂开始使用时，哈佛的James Conant校长赋予这些勇敢的人们以荣誉，呼吁大家学习他们这种事迹，学会反省。

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，这些话仍然适用。因为他们的牺牲并不是一代人能偿还的简单债务。每一代人都必须学会感激。就像我们不能忘记那些暴行一样，我们也不能忘记那些为自由抗争的人士。因此当你离开校园进入社会时，请继续保持反省的精神，向他们学习，就像《拯救大兵瑞恩》里说的，“不要辜负你的生命”。

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.”

请保持联系，不要忽视眼神交流。可能这并不是你希望从创造了媒体的人身上听到的道理，但是现在我们花费大量时间在手机上，而不是看身边的人。所以，从现在开始，在座的各位，请与你周边的人身边任何人对视几秒钟。他们也许站在你身后，也许隔着几排人，眼神交流即可。你现在感受到的就是我们要分享的博爱精神，即便混合着一点点社会不安。

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.即便你不记得今天的任何东西，我希望你能记住此刻的交流。你们所有人过去四年发生了很多故事，即将开启新的人生，你们今天站立的地方，下一代人也会站立在这。我在我的电影里想象过很多种未来的可能性，但你们将决定真正的未来，我希望那将是正义和和平。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，我希望你们都能有一个“真正的，好莱坞式的欢乐大结局”。我希望你们能跑赢T.rex恐龙，能抓到罪犯，另外，考虑到你们的父母，时不时地象E.T.一样，回家看看！谢谢大家！

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：哈佛校长2016毕业演讲

哈佛校长2016毕业演讲：谁来讲述你的故事? 只有你自己

当你告诉别人你的故事，是为了发现真正的你，而不是那个别人认为你应该成为的那个你!听别人的建议，但是做你自己的决定!——哈佛校长 Drew Gilpin Faust 去从事你真正关心的事业吧，无论是物理还是神经科学，无论是金融还是电影制片。如果你想好了目的地，就直接往那里去吧。这就是我的“停车位理论”：不要因为觉得肯定没有停车位了，就把车停在距离目的地10个街区远的地方。直接去你想去的地方，如果车位已满，你总可以再绕回来。

哈佛校长2016毕业演讲：谁来讲述你的故事? 只有你自己 人们也许会说哈佛是天堂，充满了各种难以想象的机遇和好运——确实，我们每个人都有幸在她漫长而成功的历史中占有一席之地。但这也对我们提出了要求：我们有责任走出自己的舒适区，寻找属于我们的挑战，践行哈佛奋斗不息的精神。

在我准备今天演讲的时候，我想到了音乐剧《汉密尔顿》中最后那首歌里的问题： 谁来讲述你的故事? 我想这个问题奠定了你们过去四年大学生活的基调，也将对你们未来作为哈佛毕业生和校友的生活产生深远的影响，无论是作为公民或是领袖—— 谁，来讲述你的故事? 是你，你要来讲述你的故事!这就是今天我要对你们说的话：讲你自己的故事，一个充满了无限可能性和新秩序的崭新故事，这是每一代人的任务，也是现在摆在你面前的任务。你在哈佛所接受的文理博雅教育，将会用以下三种重要方式，帮助你去完成这项任务。听别人的建议，做你自己的决定

讲述你的故事意味着发现你自己是谁——而不是成为别人认为你的谁。你要参考别人的意见，但要做出自己的决定。讲述一个别人定义好的或别人希望听到的故事，那太容易了。哈佛的传奇人物之

一、可敬的彼得·戈麦斯教授曾说：“不要让任何人替你把话说完。”戈麦斯教授自己经常“自相矛盾”，令人难以捉摸，但永远忠于他自己：他是一位剑桥市的共和党人(注：在哈佛所在的剑桥市，共和党是少数派);他是一位浸礼会的牧师，但同时是个同性恋(注：基督教大多不支持同性恋);他是朝圣者协会的会长，同时又是一位黑人(注：朝圣者协会白人居多)。

他对自己的信仰坚定不移，他不为外人的期望牵挂束缚。他说：“我的不同寻常，让开启新的对话变为可能。”

开启与他人的对话，倾听他人的故事

开启新的对话，这是我的下一个重点。讲述我们自己的故事并不意味着只关注我们自己。讲故事是与他人对话，借此探寻更远大的目标、探索其他的世界、探究不同的思维方式——你所受的教育不是一个真空的大泡沫。

如果我们只讲述单一的故事，那将是危险的，就像诺大的场地只有一个逃生口，令所有人变得异常脆弱。单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，不能把单一角度的故事变成唯一的故事。

过去四年，你们感受到了倾听他人故事的益处，也体验到了忽略他人故事所带来的危险。只有意识到，世界上充满了各种各样的故事，我们才能想象一个不一样的未来。21世纪的医疗是什么样?能源是什么样?移民是什么样?城市将如何设计?面对这些问题，你要问的不是“我会成为什么样的人”，而是 我能解决什么问题? “在不安和不确定中，不断修正你的故事” 这也引出了最后一个重点：不断修正。每个故事其实都只是一个草稿，我们连最古老的传说都会不断拿来重提——不管是汉密尔顿将军的故事、美国独立战争的史诗、亦或是哈佛自己的历史。

好的教育之所以好，是因为它让你坐立不安，它强迫你不断重新认识我们自己和我们周遭的世界，并不断去改变。

斯蒂芬·斯皮尔伯格将在毕业典礼上为我们演讲，他就曾经这样解释他创作的基石：“恐惧是我的动力。当我濒临走投无路的时候，那也是我遇见最好的想法的时候。”

大学，不正是这样一个让每一个人都接受挑战、让每一个人都产生不确定性的地方吗? 就这样，大学四年间，你都一直在学习重新讲述你的故事：寻找你自己的声音，将自己放入一个故事中——无论是对气候变化采取反抗行动，发现你对统计学的热衷，还是发起了一项有意义的运动，你亲眼目睹故事不断被重新讲述。不要妥协，直奔你的目标

这些年，我一直在告诉大家：追随你所爱!去从事你真正关心的事业吧，无论是物理还是神经科学，无论是金融还是电影制片。如果你想好了目的地，就直接往那里去吧。这就是我的“停车位理论”：不要因为觉得肯定没有停车位了，就把车停在距离目的地10个街区远的地方。直接去你想去的地方，如果车位已满，你总可以再绕回来。

所以在这里，我想祝贺你们，2016届的哈佛毕业生们。别忘了你们来自何处，不断改变你的故事，不断重写你的故事。我相信这项任务除了你们自己，谁也无法替你们完成!

第四篇：比尔盖茨哈佛毕业演讲

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：奥普拉2016哈佛毕业励志演讲

奥普拉哈佛毕业典礼演讲：人生唯一目标就是做真实的自己 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.温弗瑞演讲中4条最励志的语录

谈失败的好处 there is no such thing as failure.failure is just life trying to move us in another direction.世间并不存在“失败”，那不过是生活想让我们换个方向走走罢了。learn from every mistake, because every experience, particularly your mistakes, are there to teach you and force you into being more who you are.要从错误中吸取教训，因为你的每一次经历、尤其是你犯下的错误，都将帮助你、推动你更好地做自己。

2.on her own biggest personal failure.谈自身最大的失败

我突然想到某首古老赞美诗中的一句话：“困难只是暂时的”，我遇到的麻烦同样会有结束的一天。然后我想，我会将这一页翻过去，我会好起来的。

谈职业生涯所做访谈的共同性 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? 我发现，我所有的访谈有一个共同性，那就是人人都希望自己被认可、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? 我的采访对象都想知道：“我的表现ok吗？你听到我看到我吗？我说的话对你有价值吗？”

4.on the key to success and happiness.谈成功和快乐的关键 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.如果你只认准一个目标，那你就能获得真正的成功和快乐。人生确实只有一个目标，那就是：最大程度地、最真实地展现自己。

“不要问自己世界需要什么，问问是什么让你精神抖擞地活着，然后就去做，因为世界所需要的就是一个个朝气蓬勃的人。”篇二：奥普拉哈佛毕业典礼演讲

奥普拉哈佛毕业典礼演讲：人生唯一目标就是做真实的自己 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：奥普拉2013哈佛毕业演讲(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 童鞋们直接点击下面的视频观看就可以了，有中文字幕。如果看不了视频，可以看后面附加的文字版。

附文字版：

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所有2013届的毕业生们！大家好！

感谢你们让我成为你们人生这一篇章的结束与下一篇章开始的纽带。对我而言，荣幸根本无法表达我内心深处对哈佛授予我荣誉学位的感激之情。不是每个来自密西西比州的农村小姑娘都能来到剑桥城的。我希望今天我能为你们带来一些启发。我的演讲是为那些曾在人生中感到自卑

或觉得自己没有优点，甚至觉得生活一团糟的人。

大家都知道，我的电视事业生涯开始的出乎意料，我当时在参加“防火小姐”比赛。那年我16岁，在田纳西州的纳什维尔。问答环节问道：“年轻的女士，你长大后想做什么？为什么？”因为那天早上我正好在“今日秀”中看到了芭芭拉·沃尔特斯（barbara walters）女士，所以我说：“我想成为一名记者，我想成为为人们带来一些在某种程度上能改变人们生活和世界的故事。”当我说出这些话时，我觉得：“哇！还挺不错的！我想做个记者，我要做出一番事业。”后来，19岁时我上了电视。在1986年，我推出了我自己的电视节目，一开始就下定决心要成功。我以前对竞争很紧张，后来我和自己竞争，每年设立一个更高的目标，一步一步地推到极限。对大家来说听着挺熟悉吧？最终，我们成功达到巅峰，并保持了25年。

“奥普拉·温弗瑞秀”在同一时间段的电视节目中连续21年排名第一，我必须说我对于这个成绩非常的满足。但是几年前，我觉得，在人生的某一时刻，你必须重新来过，找到新的领域，实现新的突破。所以我离开了“奥普拉·温弗瑞秀”，以我的名字命名推出了我自己的电视网络“奥普拉·温福瑞电视网”，缩写正好是“own（自己的）”。在奥普拉·温弗瑞电视网推出一年后，几乎所有的媒体都认为我的新项目是失败的。不仅仅是失败，他们称之为一个大写的失败。我还记得有一天我打开《今日美国报》时看到头条新闻说“奥普拉搞不定‘自己的’电视网”。这正是我职业生涯最低谷的时刻。我压力超大，近乎崩溃。老

实说，我感到羞愧。就在那个时候，福斯特（faust）校长打电话邀请我到哈佛做毕业演讲。我心想：“你让我给哈佛的毕业生演讲？我能跟这些世界上最成功的毕业生说什么？而我已经不再成功。”我挂了福斯特校长的电话后去洗了个澡。我洗了很长时间，在洗澡的时候我突然想到某首古老赞美诗中的一句话，你可能没听过“终于，清晨来临。”之后我就想，我的黎明也许要来了。因为那时我觉得我被困在一个洞里了。我又想到那首古老赞美诗中的另一句话：“困难只是暂时的，都会过去。”当我走出浴室时，我想：我遇到的麻烦同样会有结束的一天，我会将这一页翻过去，我会好起来的，等我做到了，我就去哈佛，把这个真实的故事告诉大家！今天我来了并且想告诉你们，我已经把“奥普拉·温弗瑞电视网”带上正轨了！

在今天早上来的路上，纳吉（nagy）教授说：“温弗瑞女士，请坚决地向前走。” 我应该坚决地向前走。这就是我想分享的。无论你已经达到怎样的成就，在某个节点，你会发现你会跌倒，因为如果你一直不断的在做我们每个人做的事：不断设定更高的目标。如果你一直不断把你自己推向更高的目标，你将在某一点上落下，更不必说伊卡洛斯能预测你会跌倒的神话。当你真的跌倒时我想让你知道，并请记住：“世间并不存在失败，那不过是生活想让我们换个方向走走罢了。”现在当你在人生谷底，那看起来像是失败。在过去的一年里，这些话支撑着我自己。当你到了人生谷底，到那时候，你可以难过一段时间，给自己时间去哀悼你认为你可能失去的一切，但关键在于：从每个失败和遭遇中学习，特别是你的每个错误，都会迫使你成为真正的自己，然后想想接下 来怎么做。

生活的重点在于建立内在道德和情感上的定位系统，它能为你指路，因为现在或将来当你在谷歌上搜索你自己，结果会是“哈佛2013毕业生”。在这个竞争激烈的世界，那的确是块敲门砖。我作为一个雇佣过很多人的人，可以说当我听到哈佛的毕业生，我都会坐直一点，然后说“他或她在哪，带来见我”。这是一个令人印象深刻的敲门砖，在未来的日子里那的确是颗有力的子弹：成为律师、议员、老板、科学家、物理学家，诺贝尔奖普利策奖获得者或者晚间脱口秀主持人。然而来自生活的挑战并不是做个履历简单地告诉大家你想做什么，而是你想成为什么样的人。这份履历不只是告诉大家你完成了什么，而是你为什么做这些？这份履历不仅仅是一个头衔和职位的罗列，而是告诉大家你究竟想做什么？因为当你不可避免地跌倒或陷入困境时，它可以帮你走出困境，人生真正的意义是什么？你的人生哲学是什么？你的目标是什么？ 对我来说，我真正发现自己的目标与价值是在1994年，当时我采访了一位决定攒零花钱来帮助他人的小女孩，她筹集了一千美金。我想：“嗯，如果一个9岁的小姑娘，用一个筐和热忱的心就能做到，我能做到什么？”所以我请我们的观众们拿出自己的零钱，在一个月内我从一分一毫筹集到超过300万美金，我们用这笔钱从每个州选出一个学生供他们上大学。这就是“天使网络”的开始。

其实我做的只是简单地请求我们的观众：“无论你在哪里、处于人生的哪个阶段，如果可以，请拿出你的时间、天赋以及金钱，做你力所能及 的事。”他们这样做了。无论你在哪里，将你的仁慈带给他人。众人拾柴火焰高，我们一起在12个国家建了55所学校，重建了近300个被丽塔和卡特里娜飓风摧毁的家园。所以“天使网络”聚集了我内在的定位系统。它能帮助我知道，我不是仅仅每天在电视上出现，还有我的采访目标，我的生意，我的慈善事业，所有的一切。无论我追求怎样的事业，我更清楚把我们凝聚在一起的力量比分离我们的力量更令人满足和不可抗拒。但我想让你们知道，任何事情的一开始对于我们未必明朗，正如我所说我19岁就开始上电视，然而到了94年我才渐渐清楚，所以不要期待一下子就想清楚、并马上明白自己的使命。对我来说，我最终清楚，我要利用电视而不是被电视利用，利用电视来照亮我们内在天使的一面。这个“天使网络”，它不只是改变那些我们帮助过的人们的生活，同时也改变那些提供帮助的人们的生活。它提醒我们，无论是谁，看上去如何，或者我们相信什么，更重要的是它成为了我们为共同目标走到一起的驱动力。

正如我们了解的那样，你们能理解，因为你们上了哈佛。来自两党派和无党派的人同样坚信：贫困的母亲和家庭都理应获得使其儿女健康成长的食物、住所以及强有力的教育支持。因为我们现在正生活在全世界最为富有的国家中，我们有能力去提供确保人们得到安全与机遇所需的最基础的社会保障。于是问题便随之而来：我们将对此有何打算呢？说真的，我们将要对此做些什么呢？也许你是赞同这些理念的，也有可能你会持反对意见。关键是你们这一代人肩负着突破国家积年累月无法突破的重重围嶂的使命。