美国国务卿克里在耶鲁大学毕业活动日上英语演讲稿
汤姆_汉克斯2011年耶鲁大学演讲_（中英文）
中文翻译在后面也贴出了，但不太精确。
Speech at Y ale Graduation presented by Tom HanksMay 10, 2011I now many of you were convinced that last night about 6 o'clock local time, the world was going to come to an end. Just because it hasn't doesn't mean that it's not nearby, because my appearing today at Y ale University is surely one of the four horseman of the apocalypse. But listen, today is your day. Please do not turn off your electronic devices, leave your IPhones, your Ipads, your sidekicks, your Droids, your blackberries powered up, recording, photographing, texting out all that emerges from this stage over the next few minute. By the way I'm supporting the hat, it ain't coming off. Y ou know later on today you can compare your tweets, and Facebook comments with those of others to figure out if anything memorable went down, hey you know what tweet that last sentence I just said. It will give you something to do, let your friends know where you are today. Okay take this speech set it to music, then maybe insert some crazy kooky graphics. Star in that video yourself, post it on the web, then if it becomes a viral sensation, you will be equal to any cat playing with a paper bag, any set of twin toddlers talking gibberish to each other, as popular as a cute girl that sings about Fridays, hey you could be the next Sam Tsui. Such are just one of the possibilities in our grave new world, the world you now inherit whether you like it or not, the jig is up, the clock is run out, and the future, with a capital F, now rest with all of you and your goofy hats, and all because you went to Y ale. Y ou are now the anointed, the charge holders, the best and the brightest; each of you is shining hope for our nation and the world. Y ou are the new wizards who can finally make since of all the delta vectors, and the square roots, and the divided byes in the theorem, we call the human race. The generations before you came of age, took on the job, now it's your turn, welcome.Y ou know I once had a friend, who had a rich uncle, who promised to pay for his college, as long as my friend wished to stay in school. "Y ou should stay in school, as long as you can," the rich uncle said "Because when you get out of college, you got to work for every day for the rest of you life". And you all will come to understand, what that rich uncle meant, just as surely you will someday wonder where the hell you put your reading glasses, and to yell at your own kids to turn the damn music down. On spring days, like today, it's traditional for us to ponder the state of the world and implore you all to help make it a better place, which implies that things are somehow worse today than when we up here are where you are sitting right now. I'm not so sure that planet earth is in worse shape than it was 30, no 18, no 4 years ago. But that's not to say it's in better shape either, refraining from waxing nostalgic and comparing our then to your now, and avoiding the any talk of you kids these days with your rap and your hip hop and your snoopy dog daddy with the ditty pops, with your fifty cents, and quarter cents. A sober looks shows that just have the world gotten to be a better place after all; it is also grown a bit worse at the exact same rate.; a one step up, a one step back sort of cosmic balance between forward progress, and cultural retreat, that puts man kind on a bell curve of existence, that shows a small segment of joy, ease, and comfort, while equal proportions struggle on, while with little hope in the fortunes with the remainder either on the rise or on the wane that this confounding tide of so many damn things that we grow oblivious the shifts in the quality of our lives. Graduation day is a proper occasion to put a toe inthe global waters and I think the mercury shows that things are much as they always have been.Ten years ago, we busied ourselves with trivial stuff imbued with the importance of in came, 911, in 1991 riches were created in new businesses that never existed, then that economic balloon burst. In 81, I had a great job on TV, and in 82, Bosom Buddies was canceled. In 71, color TV in more living rooms that ever showed young Americans still fighting in combat in Vietnam. In 61, satellites beamed live images around the world for the very first time, but those images were of the building of the Berlin Wall. Now this ten year grid shows this same "yin-yang thang", and I'm trying to copyright that; yin-yang thang- copyright Tom Hanks. This shows this same yin-yang thang on graduation day 2011. Y ou know we all have these devices that can make a permanent record of revolutionary change on the other side of the globe, as well as hate filled diet tribes from across town. Fewer and fewer in our country go to bed hungry but did you know see how obesity now affects about half our population. No matter how many bargains we find at the local U-Mart, many of us still struggle to pay the rent and the utilities. Our country is no longer at physical or even ideological war with our enemies for most of the last century, but in the eleven and a half years of the third millennium, our armed forces have been fighting in the field for nine of them. Purchasing intellectual property and the work of artists we admire is as simple as clicking a mouse and paying less than a few bucks, which means you may find that there's no guarantee in making a living at your chosen discipline. Now some advantages particular to this age, are not to be denied; boredom has seemed to have been vanquished, there is always something to do, but hasn't this translated into a perpetual distraction in our lives. In the bathroom, at the dinner table, in the backseat, at a wedding, at a brisk, at a graduation day; there's always something to check, something to tweet, something to watch, something to download, something to play, something to share, something to buy, someone on a voicemail, something to yank at our attention span and it's all in the palm of our hand for a small monthly service fee. That same technology, has allowed for a surplus of celebrities, and that is nothing to cheer about. Anyone, although that Sam Tsui he rocks, anyone can enjoy the perks of notoriety now and the duration of fame has been lengthened from Andy Warhal's brief 15 minutes, to a good 15 months, if you're willing to do certain things on camera. Though our Willian language is often the vocabulary of official news speak is boogeyman that is the all seen "big brother", has never emerged, unless you live in North Korea, or run a red light in Beverly Hills, or shop online, or have done something stupid in the wrong place or the wrong time in front of someone with a camera in their cell phone, and that is everybody. So pardon my junior college Latin, the vulgestpopuli has become the all seeing state and if you cross it Google Search will forever display you screw up, so actually there is a big brother, but he's not in the level of fiction, he's actually all of us, but he lives in our search engines. So no matter how many times I do the calculations, I come up with a social draw, the positives balance the negatives, the x's equal the y's, and our hopes weigh as much as our fears, but I hesitate on that last one because, fear, good lord, fear is a powerful physiological force in 2011. We here up in the stands, and surrounding you of this graduating class look to you as we do every year, hoping you will now somehow through your labors, free us from what we have come to fear, and we have come to fear many things, fear has become the commodity that sell as certainly as sex. Fear is cheap, fear is easy, fear gets attention, fear is spread as fast as gossip and just as glamorous, juicy, and profitable. Fear twists facts into fiction that becomes indistinguishable from ignorance. Fear is a profit churning go to with a home market being your whole family.Y ou know sitting in the house one day, watching the game on TV not long ago, along came this promo for the local nightly news "Are our schools poisoning our children? That story and our summers hottest bikinis tonight at 11" In that I had that school age kids at the time, I fear that they might be being poisoned, and summer was still a few weeks away. I tooned in to get the scoop, and the actual news stories of that news broadcast was this, a certain supply of hamburger was found to have a bit to much of a particular bacteria in it and for safeties sake, was being taken off the market. That same hamburger was slated for sale to an out of state school system for its cafeterias, but it was recalled in time. So answering that news program's own question then, no, our schools were not poisoning our children, but yes, that summer there would be some very hot bikinis at the beach.Now the early American naval commander, John Paul Jones said "If fear is cultivated, it will become stronger, if faith is cultivated it will achieve mastery" and this is why I am a big fan of history, because observations of the American colonies over 200 years ago by a compatriot of Nathan Hale, who lived in that building right over there, translates word for word of the United States in 2011 For I take that fear to be fear in a large scale, fear itself intimidating and constant. And I take faith to be, what we hold in ourselves, our American ideal of self-determination. Fear is whispered in our ears and shouted in our faces. Faith must be fostered by the man or woman you see every day in the mirror. The former forever snaps at our heels and our synapsis and delays our course, the later could spur our boot heels to be wonderment, stimulate our creativity, and continue to drive us forward. Fear or faith, which will be our master?Three men found that they could no longer sleep because of their deep seeded fears, this is a story I'm telling. Their lives were in the state of stasis because of their constant worries. So they set out on a pilgrimage to find a wise man, who lived high in the mountains, so high above the tree line, that no vegetation grew, no animals lived, not even insects could be found so high up in the mountains in that thin air. When they reached his cave, the first of the three said "help me wise man, for my fear has crippled me""What is your fear?" asked the wise man"I fear death" said the pilgrim "I wonder when it is going to come for me""Ah, death" said the wise man "Let me take away this fear my friend. Death will not come to call until you are ready for its embrace. Know that and your fear will go away"Well this calmed that pilgrim's mind and he feared death no longer.The wise man turned to the second pilgrim and said "What is it you fear my friend?""I fear my new neighbors" said the second pilgrim "They are strangers, who observe holy days different than mine. They have way to many kids. They play music that sounds like noise""Ah strangers" said the wise man "I will take away this fear my friend. Return to your home and make a cake for your new neighbors. Bring toys to their children. Join them in their songs, and learn their ways, and you will become familiar with these neighbors, and your fear will go away."The second man saw the wisdom in these simple instructions, and knew he would no longer fear the family who were his neighbors. There in the cave so high in the mountains that nothing could live, the wise man turned to the last pilgrim and asked of his fear."Oh wise man, I fear spiders. When I try to sleep at night, I imagine spiders dropping from the ceiling, and crawling upon my flesh, and I cannot rest""Ah, spiders" said the wise man "No shit, why do you think I live way up here?"Fear will get the worst of the best of us, and peddlers of influence count on that. Throughout our nation's constant struggle to create a more perfect union, establish justice, and ensure our domestic tranquility, we battle fear from outside our borders to within our own hearts every day of our history. Our nation came to be despite fear of retribution for treason from a kingdom across the sea. America was made strong and diverse because here people could live free from the fears that made us their daily lives in whatever land they called the old country. Our history books tell of conflicts taken up to free people from fear. Those kept in slavery in our own states, and deliberate home nation from the rule of tyrants and theologies rooted in fear. The American cause at its best has been the cultivation of the faith that declares we will all live in peace, when we are all free to worship as we choose, when we are free to express our hearts, and when we all seek a place free from fear, but we live in a world where to many of us are to ready to believe and fear things that do not exist, conspiracies abound, divisions are constructed, and the differences between us are not celebrated for making us stronger but calculated and programed to set us against each other. Our faith is tested by unpredictable providence, and threatened when common sense in corrupted by specific interests.Speaking from 54 years of experience, the work towards a more perfect union is a never ending concern that involves each and every one of us. Evidence that our nation is becoming a better place is everywhere, but each new day, fear is as the Jersey poet says "lurking in the darkness on the edge of town".Y our rising from bed every morning will give fear its chance to grow stronger just as it will afford faith its chance to blossom. Y ou will make the choice to react to one or create the other, and because you are smart enough to earn you place on this college day at Y ale University, you will sense the moment, and you will know what to do.In the meantime ponder this front in the struggle against ceaseless fear and its ceaseless flow. In the coming months and years veterans of war in Iraq and Afghanistan will finally come home for good. After so many tours, and we know this, some after many tours on the body and soul have spilled a great portion of their lives. For all of them after a long time has spent far away in the harsh realm of war, and they return different from what they were when they left. Surely their faithin themselves is shadowed by a fear of not knowing what is expected of them next. Now no matter what your view of those wars over there, you can affect the future of our nation right here by taking their fears head on. Y ou can imprint the very next pages of the history of our troubled world by reinforcing the faith of those returning veterans, allowing them to rest, aiding in their recovery, if possible their complete recovery. So let those of us who watch the debate of their long deployments serve them now as they served as they were asked and as they were ordered. Let's provide them a place free of fear, by educating them if they can learn, by employing them as they transition from soldier back to citizen, and by empathizing with the new journey they are starting even though we will never fully understand the journey they just completed. We all will define the true nature of our American identity, not by the parades and the welcome home parties, but now we match their time in the service with service of our own. Give it four years, as many years as you just spent here at Y ale, in acts both proactive and spontaneous, and do the things that you can to free veterans of the new uncertainty that awaits them, from the mysterious fear they will face the day after they come home. Cultivate in them the faith to carry on and they will do the rest.So commencements day arrives, your work begins, work that will not always be joyful to you, labor that might not always fulfill you, and days that will seem like one damn thing after the other. It's true, you will now work every day for the rest of your lives. That full time job, your career as human beings, and as Americans, and as graduates of Y ale, is to stand on the fulcrum of fear and faith. Fear at your back, faith in front of you. Which way will you lead? Which way will you move? Move forward, move ever forward, and tweet out the picture of your results. It may make you as famous as Sam Tsui.Transcription on Chinese汤姆·汉克斯2011年耶鲁大学毕业生演讲我知道，在座很多人相信昨晚（2011年5月21日）六点是世界末日（笑声）（掌声）。
希拉里耶鲁演讲
名人名校励志英语演讲稿：Dare to Compete, Dare to Care 敢于竞争，勇于关爱---美国国务卿希拉里·克林名人名校励志英语演讲稿：Dare to Compete, Dare to Care 敢于竞争，勇于关爱---美国国务卿希拉里·克林顿耶鲁大学演讲Dare to compete. Dare to care. Dare to dream. Dare to love. Practice the art of making possible. And no matter what happens, even if you hear shouts behind, keep going. 要敢于竞争，敢于关爱，敢于憧憬，大胆去爱！要努力创造奇迹！无论发生什么，即使有人在你背后大声喊叫，也要勇往直前。
It is such an honor and pleasure for me to be back at Yale, especially on the occasion of the 300th anniversary. I have had so many memories of my time here, and as Nick was speaking I thought about how I ended up at Yale Law School. And it tells a little bit about how much progress we’ve made.What I think most about when I think of Yale is not just the politically charged atmosphere and not even just the superb legal education that I received. It was at Yale that I began work that has been at the core of what I have cared about ever since. I began working with New Haven legal services representing children. And I studied child development, abuse and neglect at the Yale New Haven Hospital and the Child Study Center. I was lucky enough to receive a civil rights internship with Marian Wright Edelman at the Children’s Defense Fund, where I went to work after I graduated. Those experiences fueled in me a passion to work for the benefit of children, particularly the most vulnerable.Now, looking back, there is no way that I could have predicted what path my life would have taken. I didn’t sit around the law school, saying, well, you know, I think I’ll graduate and then I’ll go to work at the Children’s Defense Fund, and then the impeachment inquiry, and Nixon retired or resigns, I’ll go to Arkansas. I didn’t think like that. I was taking each day at a time.But, I’ve been very fortunate because I’ve always had an idea in my mind about what I thought was important and what gave my life meaning and purpose. A set of values and beliefs that have helped me navigate the shoals, the sometimes very treacherous sea, to illuminate my own true desires, despite that others say about what l should care about and believe in. A passion to succeed at what l thought was important and children have always provided that lone star, that guiding light. Because l have that absolute conviction that every child, especially in this, the most blessed of nations that has ever existed on the face of earth, that every child deserves the opportunity to live up to his or her God-given potential.But you know that belief and conviction-it may make for a personal mission statement, butstanding alone, not translated into action, it means very little to anyone else, particularly to those for whom you have those concerns.When I was thinking about running for the United States Senate-which was such an enormous decision to make, one I never could have dreamed that I would have been making when I was here on campus-I visited a school in New York City and I met a young woman, who was a star athlete.I was there because of Billy Jean King promoting an HBO special about women in sports called “Dare to compete.” It was about Title IX and how we finally, thanks to government action, provided opportunities to girls and women in sports.And although I played not very well at intramural sports, I have always been a strong supporter of women in sports. And I was introduced by this young woman, and as I went to shake her hand she obviously had been reading the newspapers about people saying I should or shouldn’t run for the Senate. And I was congratulating her on the speech she had just m ade and she held onto my hand and she said, “Dare to compete, Mrs. Clinton. Dare to compete.”I took that to heart because it is hard to compete sometimes, especially in public ways, when your failures are there for everyone to see and you don’t know what is going to happen from one day to the next. And yet so much of life, whether we like to accept it or not, is competing with ourselves to be the best we can be, being involved in classes or professions or just life, where we know we are competing with others.I took her advice and I did compete because I chose to do so. And the biggest choices that you’ll face in your life will be yours alone to make. I’m sure you’ll receive good advice. You’re got a great education to go back and reflect about what is ri ght for you, but you eventually will have to choose and I hope that you will dare to compete. And by that I don’t mean the kind of cutthroat competition that is too often characterized by what is driving America today. I mean the small voice inside you that says to you, you can do it, you can take this risk, you can take this next step.And it doesn’t mean that once having made that choice you will always succeed. In fact, you won’t. There are setbacks and you will experience difficult disappointments. You will be slowed down and sometimes the breath will just be knocked out of you. But if you carry with you the values and beliefs that you can make a difference in your own life, first and foremost, and then in the lives of others. You can get back up, you can keep going.But it is also important, as I have found, not to take yourself too seriously, because after all, every one of us here today, none of us is deserving of full credit. I think every day of the blessings my birth gave me without any doing of my own. I chose neither my family nor my country, but they as much as anything I’ve ever done, determined my course.You compare my or your circumstances with those of the majority of people who’ve ever lived or who are living right now, they too often are born knowing too well what their futures will be. They lack the freedom to choose their life’s path. They’re imprisoned by circumstances of poverty and ignorance, bigotry, disease, hunger, oppression and war.So, dare to compete, yes, but maybe even more difficult, dare to care. Dare to care about people who need our help to succeed and fulfill their own lives. There are so many out there and sometimes all it takes is the simplest of gestures or helping hands and many of you understand that already. I know that the numbers of graduates in the last 20 years have worked in community organizations, have tutored, have committed themselves to religious activities.You have been there trying to serve because you have believed both that it was the right thing to do and because it gave something back to you. You have dared to care.Well, dare to care to fight for equal justice for all, for equal pay for women, against hate crimes and bigotry. Dare to care about public schools without qualified teachers or adequate resources. Dare to care about protecting our environment. Dare to care about the 10 million children in our country who lack health insurance. Dare to care about the one and a half million children who have a parent in jail. The seven million people who suffer from HIV/AIDS. And thank you for caring enough to demand that our nation do more to help those that are suffering throughout this world with HIV/AIDS, to prevent this pandemic from spreading even further.And I’ll also add, dare enough to care abou t our political process. You know, as I go and speak with students I’m impressed so much, not only in formal settings, on campuses, but with my daughter and her friends, about how much you care, about how willing you are to volunteer and serve. You may have missed the last wave of the revolution, but you’ve understood that the munity revolution is there for you every single day. And you’ve been willing to be part of remarking lives in our community.And yet, there is a real resistance, a turning away from the political process. I hope that some of you will be public servants and will even run for office yourself, not to win a position to make and impression on your friends at your 20th reunion, but because you understand how important it is for each of us as citizens to make a commitment to our democracy.Your generation, the first one born after the social upheavals of the 60’s and 70’s, in the midst of the technological advances of the 80’s and 90’s, are inheriting an economy, a society and a government that has yet to understand fully, or even come to grips with, our rapidly changing world.And so bring your values and experiences and insights into politics. Dare to help make, not just a difference in politics, but create a different politics. Some have called you thegeneration of choice. You’ve been raised with multiple choice tests, multiple channels, multiple websites and multiple lifestyles. You’ve grown up choosing among alternatives that were either not imagined, created or available to people in prior generations.You’ve been invested with far more personal power to customize your life, to make more free choices about how to live than was ever thought possible. And I think as I look at all the surveys and research that is done, your choices reflect not only freedom, but personal responsibility.The social indicators, not the headlines, the social indicators tell a positive story: drug use and cheating and arrests being down, been pregnancy and suicides, drunk driving deaths being down. Community service and religious involvement being up. But if you look at the area of voting among 18 to 29 year olds, the numbers tell a far more troubling tale. Many of you I know believe that service and community volunteerism is a better way of solving the issues facing our country than political engagement, because you believe-choose one of the following multiples or choose them all-government either can’t understand or won’t make the right choices because of political pressures, inefficiency, incompetence or big money influence.Well, I admit there is enough truth in that critique to justify feeling disconnected and alienated. But at bottom, that’s a personal cop-out and a national peril. Political conditions maximize the conditions for individual opportunity and responsibility as well as community. Americorps and the Peace Corps exist because of political decisions. Our air, water, land and food will be clean and safe because of political choices. Our ability to cure disease or log onto the Internet have been advanced because of politically determined investments. Ethnic cleansing in Kosovo ended because of political leadership. Your parents and grandparents traveled here by means of government built and subsidized transportation systems. Many used GI Bills or government loans, as I did, to attend college.Now, I could, as you might guess, go on and on, but the point is to remind us all that government is us and each generation has to stake its claim. And, as stakeholders, you will have to decide whether or not to make the choice to participate. It is hard and it is, bringing change in a democracy, particularly now. There’s so much about our modern times that conspire to lower our sights, to weaken our vision-as individuals and communities and even nations.It is not the vast conspiracy you may have heard about; rather it’s a silent conspiracy of cynicism and indifference and alienation that we see every day, in our popular culture and in our prodigious consumerism.But as many have said before and as Vaclav Havel has said to memorably, “It cannot suffice just to invent new machines, new regulations and new institutions. It is necessary to understand differently and more perfectly the true purpose of our existence on this Earth and of our deeds.” And I think we are called on to reject, in this time of blessings thatwe enjoy, those who will tear us apart and tear us down and instead to liberate our God-given spirit, by being willing to dare to dream of a better world.During my campaign, when times were tough and days were long I used to think about the example of Harriet Tubman, a heroic New Yorker, a 19th century Moses, who risked her life to bring hundreds of slaves to freedom. She would say to those who she gathered up in the South where she kept going back year after year from the safety of Auburn, New York, that no matter what happens, they had to keep going. If they heard shouts behind them, they had to keep going. If they heard gunfire or dogs, they had to keep going to freedom. Well, those are n’t the risks we face. It is more the silence and apathy and indifference that dogs our heels.Thirty-two years ago, I spoke at my own graduation from Wellesley, where I did call on my fellow classmates to reject the notion of limitations on our ability to effect change and instead to embrace the idea that the goal of education should be human liberation and the freedom to practice with all the skill of our being the art of making possible.For after all, our fate is to be free. To choose competition over apathy, caring over indifference, vision over myopia, and love over hate.Just as this is a special time in your lives, it is for me as well because my daughter will be graduating in four weeks, graduating also from a wonderful place with a great education and beginning a new life. And as I think about all the parents and grandparents who are out there, I have a sense of what their feeling. Their hearts are leaping with joy, but it’s hard to keep tears in check because the presence of our children at a time and place such as this is really a fulfillment of our own American dreams. Well, I applaud you and all of your love, commitment and hard work, just as I applaud your daughters and sons for theirs.And I leave these graduates with the same message I hope to leave with my graduate. Dare to compete. Dare to care. Dare to dream. Dare to love. Practice the art of making possible. And no matter what happens, even if you hear shouts behind, keep going.Thank you and God bless you all.。
希拉里在纽约大学的演讲(中英对照版)
Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. And does it get any better than this, a graduation ceremony for one of the great universities in the world in the home of New York Yankees? Nothing could be better. (Applause.) And thanks to all of you for cheering a visitor. I didn't realize that was permitted in Yankee Stadium.谢谢，谢谢，非常感谢。
还有比这更好的事吗——世界上最好的大学之一在纽约扬基队主场所在地举行毕业典礼？真是再好不过了。
（掌声）谢谢大家如此热烈地为一位来访的客人加油。
我原以为在扬基体育场不可以这样做。
I am honored to receive this degree. And on behalf of the other honorees, I say thank you. Thank you for giving us this singular privilege of being part of this commencement ceremony. As I look out at this huge crowd of graduates, family, and friends, I can only reflect on what an extraordinary moment in history you are receiving your degrees, a moment in time of our country and the world where your talents and your energy, your passion and commitment is more needed than ever. There is no doubt that you are well prepared for a world that seems somewhat uncertain but which will welcome the education that you have received on behalf of not only of yourselves and your families, but your communities and your country.能够获得这个学位，我感到十分荣幸。
耶鲁大学毕业典礼英语演讲稿
耶鲁大学毕业典礼英语演讲稿Graduates of Yale University, I apologize if you have endured this type of prologue before, but I want you to do something for me. Please, take a ood look around you. Look at the classmate on your left. Look at the classmate on your right. Now, consider this: five years from now, 10 years from now, even 30 years from now, odds are the person on your left is going to be a loser. The person on your right, meanwhile, will alsobe a loser. And you, in the middle? What can you expect? Loser. Loserhood. Loser Cum Laude. "In fact, as I look out before me today, I don't see a thousand hopes for a bright tomorrow. I don't see a thousand future leaders in a thousand industries. I see a thousand losers."You're upset. That's understandable. After all, how can I, Lawrence'Larry' Ellison, college dropout, have the audacity to out such heresyto the graduating class of one of the nation's most prestigious institutions? I'll tell you why. Because I, Lawrence "Larry" Ellison, second richest man on the planet, am a college dropout, and you are not."Because Bill Gates, richest man on the planet -- for now, anyway -- is a college dropout, and you are not. "Because Paul Allen, the third richest man on the planet, dropped out of college, and you did not. "And for good measure, because Michael Dell, No. 9 on the list and moving up fast, is a college dropout, and you, yet again, are not. "Hmm . . .you're very upset. That's understandable. So let me stroke your egos for a moment by pointing out, quite sincerely, that your diplomas were not attained in vain. Most of you, I imagine, have ent four to five years here, and in many ways what you've learned and endured will serve you well in the years ahead. You've established good work habits. You've established a network of people that will help you down the road. Andyou've established what will be lifelong relationships with the word'therapy.' All that of is good. For in truth, you will need that network. You will need those strong work habits. You will need that therapy.。
2018耶鲁大学校长毕业演讲
• After his death in 2014 at the age of 98, tributes（称赞；敬意） from his former students poured in. One of his graduate students, Jeffrey Isaac, recalled how he vehemently（激烈地） disagreed with some of Dahl’s arguments, even though he loved taking his classes. For his dissertation（论文）, Isaac proposed（提议；计划） writing a critique（评论文章） of Dahl’s theories. Much to his surprise, the most enthusiastic and supportive faculty member（教职工） in the department was Dahl himself! He agreed to supervise（指导；监督） the dissertation.
• We know one of the keys to happiness is developing a passion—even an expertise（专 业知识）—outside of work. Sharing that passion with others gives us great joy, and it connects us to other circles of friends and associates who might be very different from the ones we would meet otherwise.
【2018-2019】美国总统毕业典礼讲话稿中英文-word范文 (5页)
本文部分内容来自网络整理，本司不为其真实性负责，如有异议或侵权请及时联系，本司将立即删除！== 本文为word格式，下载后可方便编辑和修改！ ==美国总统毕业典礼讲话稿中英文Thank you so much. (Applause.) Thank you. Please, please have a seat. Thank you. (Applause.)非常感谢大家。
（掌声）谢谢大家，请入座。
谢谢大家。
（掌声）Thank you, President Spar, trustees, President Bollinger. Hello, Class of 201X! (Applause.) Congratulations on reaching this day. Thank you for the honor of being able to be a part of it.谢谢你们，斯巴院长[译者注：中文名石德葆]、各位校董、伯林格校长。
201X届毕业生，你们好！（掌声）祝贺你们迎来了这一天。
感谢你们让我有幸来参加这个活动。
There are so many people who are proud of you -- your parents, family, faculty, friends -- all who share in this achievement. So please give them a big round of applause. (Applause.) To all the moms who are h ere today, you could not ask for a better Mother’s Day gift than to see all of these folks graduate. (Applause.)有很多人为你们感到骄傲——你们的父母、家人、师长和朋友——都为取得这一成就出了力。
美国国务卿克里2014年在耶鲁大学的毕业演讲
美国国务卿克里2014年在耶鲁大学的毕业演讲Secretary of State John Kerry returned to his alma mater of Yale University on Sunday to take a swipe at disgraced Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling."You are graduating today as the most diverse class in Yale's long history, " Kerry said. "Or, as it's called in the NBA, Donald Sterling's worst nightmare." According to the Associated Press, the comment drew laughs from the crowd, which included graduates from 61 countries.Kerry's zinger was one many memorable moments from the 2014 crop of commencement speeches.Puff Daddy was among several unconventional choices for commencement speakers.At Howard University earlier this month, music mogul Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs quoted the late rapper Biggie Smalls in his speech to graduates.“It was all a dream, " Combs said in his speech on May 10. "I used to read Word Up magazine.”Combs, who left Howard before earning his bachelor’s degree, recalled his time at the historically black college.“My mind was blown when I saw so many beauti ful shades of brown, " Combs said. "I never heard so many accents, never seen so many beautiful women —and we all know Howard has the most beautiful, intelligent women in the world.”On Friday, first lady Michelle Obama gave an impassioned speech on diversity to high school graduates in Topeka, Kansas, where the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case started.“You all are the living, breathing legacy of this case, ” Obama said. “Many districts in this country have pulled back on efforts to integrate their schools. Many communities have become less diverse."Obama also delivered the commencement address to graduates of Dillard University in New Orleans.“No dream is too big, no vision is too bold, " she said on May 10. "As long as we stay hungry for education and let that hunger be our North Star, there is nothing, graduates, nothing, that we cannot achieve.”At the University of Massachusetts Lowell on Sunday, Bill Nye had a similar message for graduates: "Change the world.""I'm not kidding. Change the world in new, exciting and big ways, " Nye, better known as "The Science Guy, " said. "Keep reaching. Keep seeking. Keep using your abilities to bring out the best in those around you, and let them bring out the best in you."Nye also railed against climate-change deniers. "Conspiracy theories are for lazy people, " he said. "People that don't want to get down to the business at hand. ... Instead of just doing less, we have to find ways of doing more with less. That's the key to the future." Also, he added, "if you smell fresh paint, don't walk under the ladder."Attorney General Eric Holder also brought up the Sterling scandal in a speech to graduates at Morgan State University in Baltimore on Saturday, saying "subtle racism" still exists in the United States.“Over the last few weeks and months, we’ve seen occasional, jarring reminders of the discrimination and the isolated, repugnant, racist views, ” Holder said. “These outbursts of bigotry, while deplorable, are not the true markers of the struggle that still must be waged. ... The greatest threats do not announce themselves in screaming headlines. They are more subtle. They cut deeper.”On May 3, Vice President Joe Biden delivered the commencement speech at Miami Dade College in Florida, the nation's largest community college.“My name is Joe Biden, I am Jill Biden’s husband, " Biden joked. "On every community college campus, that’s how I’m known.” (In her own commencement speech at Villanova, Jill Biden told the graduating class, "Show your heart to the world.")The vice president then urged Congress to act on immigration reform. “It’s time to get done what an overwhelming number of Americans want to do, " Biden said. “Act now and take these people out of the shadows.”Jill Abramson, who was fired as executive editor of the New York Times last week, honored her commitment to speak at Wake Forest's graduation on Monday."What's next for me? I don't know, " Abramson said. "So I'm in the same boat as many of you!"On May 10, Tiger Woods’s ex-wife, Elin Nordegren, received a roar of applause from Rollins College graduates when she mentioned her divorce.“When I entered my student adviser's office in the fall of 2005, I was 25 years old. I had just recently moved to America. I was married without children, ” Nordegren said, according to ABC News.“Today, nine years later, I’m a proud American, and I have two beautiful children —but I’m no longer married."It was right after I had taken Communication and the Media" class, she said, "I was unexpectedly thrust into the media limelight. And I probably should have taken more notes in that class."At the University of Colorado Boulder, the May 9 commencement speech was delivered by Eric Stough, animation director for Comedy Central's "South Park" and a CU grad."Good morning, class of 2014, " Stough, better known as the voice of several characters on the show, said. "As Mr. Hankey, the Christmas poo, would say, 'Howdy ho!'"Stough, the voice of "Butters, " also had a serious message for graduates about to enter the real world: "We need you. Your diploma is an inanimate object, so be the animator, and bring it to life."。
dare to compete,dare to care希拉里耶鲁大学演讲稿
Dare to Compete, Dare to Care敢于竞争，勇于关爱---美国国务卿希拉里·克林顿耶鲁大学演讲Dare to compete. Dare to care. Dare to dream. Dare to love. Practice the art of making possible. And no matter what happens, even if you hear shouts behind, keep going. 要敢于竞争，敢于关爱，敢于憧憬，大胆去爱！要努力创造奇迹！无论发生什么，即使有人在你背后大声喊叫，也要勇往直前。
------------------------------------It is such an honor and pleasure for me to be back at Yale, especially on the occasion of the 300th anniversary. I have had so many memories of my time here, and as Nick was speaking I thought about how I ended up at Yale Law School. And it tells a little bit about how much progress we’ve made.What I think most about when I think of Yale is not just the politically charged atmosphere and not even just the superb legal education that I received. It was at Yale that I began work that has been at the core of what I have cared about ever since. I began working with New Haven legal services representing children. And I studied child development, abuse and neglect at the Yale New Haven Hospital and the Child Study Center. I was lucky enough to receive a civil rights internship with Marian Wright Edelman at the Children’s Defense Fund, where I went to work after I graduated. Those experiences fueled in me a passion to work for the benefit of children, particularly the most vulnerable.Now, looking back, there is no way that I could have predicted what path my life would have taken. I didn’t sit around the law school, saying, well, you know, I think I’ll graduate and then I’ll go to work at the Children’s Defense Fund, and then the impeachment inquiry, and Nixon retired or resigns, I’ll go to Arkansas. I didn’t think like that. I was taking each day at a time. But, I’ve been very fortunate because I’ve always had an idea in my mind about what I thought was important and what gave my life meaning and purpose. A set of values and beliefs that have helped me navigate the shoals, the sometimes very treacherous sea, to illuminate my own true desires, despite that others say about what l should care about and believe in. A passion to succeed at what l thought was important and children have always provided that lone star, that guiding light. Because l have that absolute conviction that every child, especially in this, the most blessed of nations that has ever existed on the face of earth, that every child deserves the opportunity to live up to his or her God-given potential.But you know that belief and conviction-it may make for a personal mission statement, but standing alone, not translated into action, it means very little to anyone else, particularly to those for whom you have those concerns.When I was thinking about running for the United States Senate-which was such an enormous decision to make, one I never could have dreamed that I would have been makingwhen I was here on campus-I visited a school in New York City and I met a young woman, who was a star athlete.I was there because of Billy Jean King promoting an HBO special about women in sports called “Dare to compete.” It was about Title IX and how we finally, thanks to government action, provided opportunities to girls and women in sports.And although I played not very well at intramural sports, I have always been a strong supporter of women in sports. And I was introduced by this young woman, and as I went to shake her hand she obviously had been reading the newspapers about people saying I should or shouldn’t run for the Senate. And I was congratulating her on the speech she had just made and she held onto my hand and she said, “Dare t o compete, Mrs. Clinton. Dare to compete.”I took that to heart because it is hard to compete sometimes, especially in public ways, when your failures are there for everyone to see and you don’t know what is going to happen from one day to the next. And yet so much of life, whether we like to accept it or not, is competing with ourselves to be the best we can be, being involved in classes or professions or just life, where we know we are competing with others.I took her advice and I did compete because I chose to do so. And the biggest choices that you’ll face in your life will be yours alone to make. I’m sure you’ll receive good advice. You’re got a great education to go back and reflect about what is right for you, but you eventually will have to choose and I hope that you will dare to compete. And by that I don’t mean the kind of cutthroat competition that is too often characterized by what is driving America today.I mean the small voice inside you that says to you, you can do it, you can take this risk, you can take this next step.And it doesn’t mean that once having made that choice you will always succeed. In fact, you won’t. There are setbacks and you will experience difficult disappointments. You will be slowed down and sometimes the breath will just be knocked out of you. But if you carry with you the values and beliefs that you can make a difference in your own life, first and foremost, and then in the lives of others. You can get back up, you can keep going.But it is also important, as I have found, not to take yourself too seriously, because after all, every one of us here today, none of us is deserving of full credit. I think every day of the blessings my birth gave me without any doing of my own. I chose neither my family nor my country, bu t they as much as anything I’ve ever done, determined my course.You compare my or your circumstances with those of the majority of people who’ve ever lived or who are living right now, they too often are born knowing too well what their futures will be. They lack the freedom to choose their life’s path. They’re imprisoned by circumstances of poverty and ignorance, bigotry, disease, hunger, oppression and war.So, dare to compete, yes, but maybe even more difficult, dare to care. Dare to care about people who need our help to succeed and fulfill their own lives. There are so many out there and sometimes all it takes is the simplest of gestures or helping hands and many of you understand that already. I know that the numbers of graduates in the last 20 years have worked in community organizations, have tutored, have committed themselves to religious activities.You have been there trying to serve because you have believed both that it was the right thing to do and because it gave something back to you. You have dared to care.Well, dare to care to fight for equal justice for all, for equal pay for women, against hate crimes and bigotry. Dare to care about public schools without qualified teachers or adequate resources. Dare to care about protecting our environment. Dare to care about the 10 million children in our country who lack health insurance. Dare to care about the one and a half million children who have a parent in jail. The seven million people who suffer from HIV/AIDS. And thank you for caring enough to demand that our nation do more to help those that are suffering throughout this world with HIV/AIDS, to prevent this pandemic from spreading even further.And I’ll also add, dare enough to care about our political process. You know, as I go and spea k with students I’m impressed so much, not only in formal settings, on campuses, but with my daughter and her friends, about how much you care, about how willing you are to volunteer and serve. You may have missed the last wave of the revolution, but you’ve understood that the munity revolution is there for you every single day. And you’ve been willing to be part of remarking lives in our community.And yet, there is a real resistance, a turning away from the political process. I hope that some of you will be public servants and will even run for office yourself, not to win a position to make and impression on your friends at your 20th reunion, but because you understand how important it is for each of us as citizens to make a commitment to our democracy.Your generation, the first one born after the social upheavals of the 60’s and 70’s, in the midst of the technological advances of the 80’s and 90’s, are inheriting an economy, a society and a government that has yet to understand fully, or even come to grips with, our rapidly changing world.And so bring your values and experiences and insights into politics. Dare to help make, not just a difference in politics, but create a different politics. Some have called you the generation of choice. You’ve been raised with multiple choice tests, multiple channels, multiple websites and multiple lifestyles. You’ve grown up choosing among alternatives that were either not imagined, created or available to people in prior generations.You’ve been inves ted with far more personal power to customize your life, to make more free choices about how to live than was ever thought possible. And I think as I look at all thesurveys and research that is done, your choices reflect not only freedom, but personal responsibility.The social indicators, not the headlines, the social indicators tell a positive story: drug use and cheating and arrests being down, been pregnancy and suicides, drunk driving deaths being down. Community service and religious involvement being up. But if you look at the area of voting among 18 to 29 year olds, the numbers tell a far more troubling tale. Many of you I know believe that service and community volunteerism is a better way of solving the issues facing our country than political engagement, because you believe-choose one of the following multiples or choose them all-government either can’t understand or won’t make the right choices because of political pressures, inefficiency, incompetence or big money influence.Well, I admit there is enough truth in that critique to justify feeling disconnected and alienated. But at bottom, that’s a personal cop-out and a national peril. Political conditions maximize the conditions for individual opportunity and responsibility as well as community. Americorps and the Peace Corps exist because of political decisions. Our air, water, land and food will be clean and safe because of political choices. Our ability to cure disease or log onto the Internet have been advanced because of politically determined investments. Ethnic cleansing in Kosovo ended because of political leadership. Your parents and grandparents traveled here by means of government built and subsidized transportation systems. Many used GI Bills or government loans, as I did, to attend college.Now, I could, as you might guess, go on and on, but the point is to remind us all that government is us and each generation has to stake its claim. And, as stakeholders, you will have to decide whether or not to make the choice to participate. It is hard and it is, bringing change in a democracy, particularly now. There’s so much about our modern times that conspire to lower our sights, to weaken our vision-as individuals and communities and even nations.It is not the vast conspiracy you may have heard about; rather it’s a silent conspiracy of cynicism and indifference and alienation that we see every day, in our popular culture and in our prodigious consumerism.But as many have said before and as Vaclav Havel has said to memorably, “It cannot s uffice just to invent new machines, new regulations and new institutions. It is necessary to understand differently and more perfectly the true purpose of our existence on this Earth and of our deeds.” And I think we are called on to reject, in this time o f blessings that we enjoy, those who will tear us apart and tear us down and instead to liberate our God-given spirit, by being willing to dare to dream of a better world.During my campaign, when times were tough and days were long I used to think about the example of Harriet Tubman, a heroic New Yorker, a 19th century Moses, who risked her life to bring hundreds of slaves to freedom. She would say to those who she gathered up in theSouth where she kept going back year after year from the safety of Auburn, New York, that no matter what happens, they had to keep going. If they heard shouts behind them, they had to keep going. If they heard gunfire or dogs, they had to keep going to freedom. Well, those aren’t the risks we face. It is more the silence and a pathy and indifference that dogs our heels.Thirty-two years ago, I spoke at my own graduation from Wellesley, where I did call on my fellow classmates to reject the notion of limitations on our ability to effect change and instead to embrace the idea that the goal of education should be human liberation and the freedom to practice with all the skill of our being the art of making possible.For after all, our fate is to be free. To choose competition over apathy, caring over indifference, vision over myopia, and love over hate.Just as this is a special time in your lives, it is for me as well because my daughter will be graduating in four weeks, graduating also from a wonderful place with a great education and beginning a new life. And as I think about all the parents and grandparents who are out there, I have a sense of what their feeling. Their hearts are leaping with joy, but it’s hard to keep tears in check because the presence of our children at a time and place such as this is really a fulfillment of our own American dreams. Well, I applaud you and all of your love, commitment and hard work, just as I applaud your daughters and sons for theirs.And I leave these graduates with the same message I hope to leave with my graduate. Dare to compete. Dare to care. Dare to dream. Dare to love. Practice the art of making possible. And no matter what happens, even if you hear shouts behind, keep going.Thank you and God bless you all.。
美国国务卿克里在波士顿学院2019年毕业典礼上英语演讲稿
美国国务卿克里在波士顿学院2019年毕业典礼上英语演讲稿Your Eminence Cardinal O’Malley, Father President Leahy, Father Monan, Father Devino, members of the faculty, my fellow recipients of honorary degrees, parents, siblings, and the distinguished class of 2019: Congratulations to everybody here today.You know I thought I had a lot to worry about as I was listening to the introduction, betweenAfghanistan and Iran and so forth. But now I’m worried about where Challenger is. (Laughter.)I will leave here knowing that Boston College liberates eagles. (Laughter.)It’s a great honor to be with you. You all might remember from English class that the greatAmerican novelist Thomas Wolfe wrote that you can’t go home ag ain. Or maybe you know thatquote because it’s the same thing that your parents are telling you now. (Laughter.)Well, Wolfe had obviously never been to Boston College. It is nice to be off an airplane, but myfriends, it is great to be home. I am really happy to be here. (Applause and cheers.)I know that many of you stayed up all night so you could see your last sunrise at BC. (Cheers.)Some of you thought it would never come, graduation that is. I’ve got news for you: Some ofyour parents and professors didn’t think so either. (Laughter.) Now, I notice a lot of you are wearing shades. It won’t work, folks. I’ll still hear you snoring. (Laughter.)I was on the campus of one of your rivals yesterday in New Haven. And while I let them knowthat they could be proud of their title in men’s hockey last year, I also had to put it inperspective: Yale is still four titles behind BC. (Cheers andapplause.)There are many things actually that Yale and Boston College have in common, but one isprobably the most powerful: mutual dislike of Harvard. (Laughter.) Although to be fair,hundreds of schools don’t like Harvard very much.As Secretary of State, I track many factions and rivalries around the world. BC versus NotreDame is at the top of my list. Of course, there’s also Al ec Baldwin versus the NYPD. (Laughter.)Beyonce’s sister versus Jay Z. (Laughter and cheers.) And then there’s the rivalry: Red Soxand Yankees. (Cheering and applause.) We absolutely loved the last ten years: Yankees –oneWorld Series, and Red Sox – three. That’s my kind of rivalry, folks. (Cheers.)Now BC reminds us today that though rivalries can be overcome, here today you have honoreda Holy Cross alumnus, the great Bob Cousy, who, as you heard earlier in his degreepresentation, won 117 games at Boston when he was coaching here. Eighty-five years old andthe Celtics could have used him this year. (Laughter.)So we have with us today a great legend, but most importantly an amazing person, anamazing player, and three other extraordinary builders of community, all of whom I am veryhonored to share degrees with today. Their lives and their selfless service are testimony to thefact that Boston College is an amazing place.Over the past years, you have all been blessed to experience a special quality that has alwaysdefined BC: the welcoming spirit of this community. That has been a distinguishingcharacteristic of Boston College since its first days, when it opened its doors to Irishimmigrants and Catholics who were barred from otherschools.When I came here more than 40 years ago, I want you to know that I felt that welcomefirsthand. I had, as you heard, served in war, and when I came home, I worked to end it. It wasa turbulent time – for our country, for me personally. It was a time of division anddisillusionment.But because of one thoughtful man of conscience, one member of the Boston Collegecommunity, I found a home right here.Many of you today might not even recognize the name of Father Robert Drinan. He was thedean of the Law School and he was running for Congress when I first visited him on thecampus.And what impressed me most about Father Drinan – whether on Chestnut Hill or Capitol Hill –was that he made no apologies for his deep and abiding Catholic commitment to the weak, thehelpless, the downtrodden.“If a person is really a Christian,” Father Drinan would say, “they will be in anguish over globalhunger, injustice, over the denial of educational opportunity.”In fact, it was Father Drinan who encouraged me to study law at BC, even when it wasn’t theobv ious path. I had come to law school from a different background than my classmates. I’dserved in the Navy, just turned 30, and had a young family.And because of where I’d been and what I’d seen, I came to Boston College with a set ofnagging questions. I had confronted my own mortality head-on during the war, where faithwas as much a part of my daily life as the battle itself. In fact, I wore my rosary around myneck hoping for protection.But on closer examination, I realized my wartime relationship with God was really a dependentone –a “God, get me throughthis and I’ll be good” kind of relationship. And as I becamedisillusioned with the war, my faith also was put to test.There’s something theologians call “the problem of evil.” It’s the difficulty of exp laining howterrible and senseless events are, in fact, part of God’s plan. That was a very real test for me.Some of my closest friends were killed. You see things in war that haunt you for the rest ofyour life.So coming here to BC Law, reading St. Augustine on the problem of evil, or St. ThomasAquinas on just war, the letters of St. Paul and thoughts about suffering – this was not anabstract or academic exercise. It was a chance to dig in and really try to understand whereand how everything fit, including trying to understand where I fit in. I’m sure a lot of you askthose questions.It was the compassion, listening, and understanding that I experienced at BC that made mefeel welcome, taught me literally how to think critically, how to ask the right questions, andreinforced in me a personal sense of direction.It would be years before Pope Francis would talk about the responsibility we all have to reachout to those who “stand at the crossroads.” I might not have connected the dots at the time,but that is exactly what BC was doing for me and I hope has done for you.The people I met here were putting into action the words of the Jesuit motto that you’ve heardalready today: “Men and women for others.”Every institution has a mission or a motto –that’s the easy part. The hard part is ensuringthat they’re not just words. We have to make sure that even as our world changes rapidly andin so many ways, we can still, each of us, give new meaning to ourvalues.Today, I promise you that is one of the greatest challenges of America’s foreign policy: ensuringthat even when it’s not popular, even when it’s not easy, America still lives up to our idealsand our responsibilities to lead.Never forget that what makes America different from other nations is not a common religion ora common bloodline or a common ideology or a common heritage. What makes us different isthat we are united by an uncommon idea: that we’re all created equal and all endowed withunalienable rights. America is –and I say this without chauvinism or any arrogancewhatsoever, but America is not just a country like other countries. America is an idea, and we –all of us, you – get to fill it out over time. (Applause.) So our citizenship is not just a privilege– it is a profound responsibility.And in a shrinki ng world, we can’t measure our success just by what we achieve as Americansfor Americans, but also by the security and shared prosperity that we build with our partnersall over world.In times of crisis, violence, strife, epidemic, and instability –believe me – the world stilllooks to the United States of America as a partner of first resort. People aren’t worried aboutour presence; they’re worried about our leaving. One of the great privileges of being Secretaryof State is getting to see that firsthand.In December, I walked through the devastation left behind by the typhoon in the Philippines.The U.S. military and USAID had arrived on the scene before countries that are much closerthan we are.This month in the Democratic Republic of Congo, I saw howthe United States is supportingsurgeons and Catholic nuns helping victims of violence and abuse.And just a few weeks ago in Ethiopia, I saw what our sustained commitment to combattingAIDS is achieving. Local doctors and nurses are making possible the dream of an AIDS-freegeneration. We’re on the cusp of achieving that.And what we have done to turn back the armies of defeatism and indifference in the fightagainst AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and even polio –this work should give every one of youconfidence to confront another cross-border, cross-generational challenge, the challengeof a changing climate. If we’re going to live up to our values, this is a test that we have tomeet.Now look, I know this is hard, because I spent almost 30 years in the United States Senatepushing this issue, trying to get colleagues to move. We got up to maybe 55 votes, couldn’tquite get to 60. And I know it’s hard to feel the urgency. As we sit here on an absolutelybeautiful morning in Boston, you might not see climate change as an immediate threat toyour job, your community, or your families. But let me tell you, it is.Two major recent reports, one from the UN and one from retired U.S. military leaders, warn usnot just of the crippling consequences to come, but that some of them are already here. Ninety-seven percent of the world’s scientists tell us this is urgent. Why? Because if crops can’t grow,there’ll be food insecurity. If there’s less water because of longer droughts, if there arestronger and more powerful storms, things will change in a hurry and they will change for theworse.Climate change is directly related to the potential of greaterconflict and greater stability –instability. I’m telling you that there are people in parts of the world – in Africa today, theyfight each other over water. They kill each over it. And if glaciers are melting and there’s lesswater available and more people, that is a challenge we have to face. And guess what? It isthe poorest and the weakest who face the greatest risk. As Father Drinan would say, we shouldbe in anguish over this. (Applause.)What’s frustrating is that this challenge is not without a solution. In fact, not one problem Ican think of today that we face in this country is without a solution. It’s a question ofcapacity, willpower. The solution is actually staring us in the face. It is energy policy. Makethe right energy policy choices and America can lead a $6 trillion market with 4 billion userstoday and growing to 9 billion users in the next 50 years.If we make the necessary efforts to address this challenge –and supposing I’m wrong orscientists are wrong, 97 percent of them all wrong –supposing they are, what’s the worst thatcan happen? We put millions of people to work transitioning our energy, creating new andrenewable and alternative; we make life healthier because we have less particulates in the airand cleaner air and more health; we give ourselves greater security through greater energyindependence –that’s the downside. This is not a matter of politics or partisanship; it’s amatter of science and stewardship. And it’s not a matter of capacity; it’s a matter of willpower. (Applause.)But if we do nothing, and it turns out that the critics and the naysayers and the members ofthe Flat Earth Society, if it turns out that the y’re wrong, then we are risking nothing less thanthe future of the entire planet. This is not a hard choice, frankly. But still, let me tell you weneed the help of every single one of youto make it.In the end, all of these global challenges – how to defend against extremism, how toeradicate disease, how to provide young people with opportunity, how to protect our planet– all of these questions of whether men and women can live in dignity. What do I mean bydignity? I mean exactly the same thing that Father David Hollenbach taught on this campusand brought to the forefront of Catholic social teaching: That when families have access toclean water and clean power, they can live in dignity. When people have the freedom to choosetheir government on election day and to engage their fellow citizens every day, they can livein dignity. When all citizens can make their full contribution no matter their ethnicity; nomatter who they love or what name they give to God, they can live in dignity.And this is where you come in: the struggle for dignity. Whether across town or across theworld, it makes demands on your own lives. The diploma that you will receive today isn’t just acertificate of accomplishment. It’s a charge to keep. It’s a powerful challenge to every singleone of you, because you have already been blessed with a world-class education, and with itcomes responsibility. Part of that responsibility is taking to heart the values that you’ve learnedhere and sharing them with the world beyond BC. That spirit of service is part of the fabric ofthis school, just as it is part of the fabric of our nation.I often think of the words of our first Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson, someone who alsofounded a prestigious university like yours. Jefferson spoke about the beauty of a simpleimage: using one candle to light another. And he said that when that happens, both candlesgain light and neither candle loses any. He was talking about the contagious quality ofsharedknowledge. As heirs to the Jesuit tradition, this is an idea that you know well. Twocenturies before Jefferson, St. Ignatius Loyola always closed his letters with a simple charge,and it’s one I pass on to you today. St. Ignatius wrote simply, “Set the world aflame.”So graduates of 2019, pass on your light to others. Set the world aflame with your service.Welcome those who are lost; seek out those at the crossroads. That is how you can fulfill yourresponsibility as a graduate of this great institution. That is how you can answer the call to bea servant, leader, and that is how you can keep faith with and renew the idea of America, andthat is how we all live up to our duty as citizens.Congratulations to all of you. Good luck and God bless.。
拜登副总统在耶鲁大学2015毕业纪念日上的英语演讲全文 附2015年美国大学毕业典礼演讲名单
拜登副总统在耶鲁大学2015毕业纪念日上的英语演讲全文——附2015年美国大学毕业典礼演讲名单他30岁成为全美第二年轻的参议员，6周后家人遭遇致命车祸，妻女死亡，两个儿子身受重伤。
他，是美国副总统拜登。
5月在耶鲁，他向毕业生们讲述如何在苦难中寻找救赎，实现抱负。
2015年他来到世界著名学府耶鲁大学为2015年的毕业生发表演讲，以下为演讲内容全版。
Remarks by the Vice President at Yale University Class DayYale UniversityNew Haven, ConnecticutTHE VICE PRESIDENT: Hello, Yale!(Applause.)Great to see you all.(Applause.)Thank you very, very much.Jeremy and Kiki, the entire Class of 2015, congratulations and thank you for inviting me to be part of this special day.You’re talented.You’ve worked hard, and you’ve earned this day.Mr. President, faculty, staff, it’s an honor to be here with all of you.My wife teaches full-time.I want you to know that -- at a community college, and has attended 8,640 commencements and/or the similar versions of Class Day, and I know they can hardly wait for the speaker to finish.(Laughter.)But I’ll do my best as quickly as I can.To the parents, grandparents, siblings, family members, the Class of 2015 —- congratulations.I know how proud you must be. But, the Class of 2015, before I speak to you —- please stand and applaud the ones who loved you no matter what you’re wearing on your head and who really made this day happen.(Laughter and applause.) I promise you all this is a bigger day for them than it is for you.(Laughter.)When President Obama asked me to be his Vice President, I said I only had two conditions:One, I wouldn’t wear any funny hats, even on Class Day.(Laughter.)And two, Iwouldn’t change my brand.(Applause.)Now, look, I realize no one ever doubts I mean what I say, the problem occasionally is I say all that I mean.(Laughter.)I have a bad reputation for being straight.Sometimes an inappropriate times.(Laughter.)So here it goes.Let’s get a couple things straight right off the bat:Corvettes are better than Porsches; they're quicker and they corner as well.(Laughter and applause.)And sorry, guys, a cappella is not better than rock and roll.(Laughter and applause.)And your pundits are better than Washington pundits, although I’ve noticed neithe r has any shame at all.(Laughter and applause.)And all roads lead to Toads?Give me a break.(Laughter and applause.)You ever tried it on Monday night?(Laughter.)Look, it’s tough to end a great men’s basketball and football season.One touchdown away from beating Harvard this year for the first time since 2006 -— so close to something you’ve wanted for eight years.I can only imagine how you feel.(Laughter.)I can only imagine.(Applause.)So close.So close.But I got to be honest with you, when the invitation came, I was flattered, but it caused a little bit of a problem in my extended family.It forced me to face some hard truths.My son, Beau, the attorney general of Delaware, my daughter, Ashley Biden, runs a nonprofit for criminal justice in the state, they both went to Penn.My two nieces graduated from Harvard, one an all-American.All of them think my being here was a very bad idea.(Laughter.)On the other hand, my other son, Hunter, who heads the World Food Program USA, graduated from Yale Law School.(Applause.)Now, he thought it’s a great idea.But then again, law graduates always think all of their ideas are great ideas.(Laughter.)By the way, I’ve had a lot of law graduates from Yale work for me.That's not too far from the truth.But anyway, look, the truth of the matter is that I have a lot of staff that are Yale graduates, several are with me today.They thought it was a great idea that I speak here.As a matter of fact, my former national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, who is teaching here at Yale Law School, trained in international relations at Yale College, edited the Yale Daily News, and graduated from Harvard -- excuse me, Freudian slip -- Yale LawSchool.(Laughter.) You’re lucky to have him.He’s a brilliant and decent and honorable man.And I miss him.And we miss him as my national security advisor.But he’s not the only one.My deputy national security advisor, Jeff Prescott, started and ran the China Law Center at Yale Law School.My Middle East policy advisor and foreign policy speechwriter, Dan Benaim, who is with me, took Daily Themes -—got a B.(Laughter.)Now you know why I go off script so much.(Laughter and applause.)Look, at a Gridiron Dinner not long ago, the President said, I -- the President -- “I am learning to speak without a teleprompter, Joe is learning to speak with one.”(Laughter.)But if you looked at my speechwriters, you know why.And the granddaughter of one of my dearest friends in life -— a former Holocaust survivor, a former foreign policy advisor, a former Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Congressman Tom Lantos -—is graduating today.Mercina, congratulations, kiddo.(Applause.)Where are you?You are the sixth -- she’s the sixth sibling in her immediate family to graduate from Yale.Six out of 11, that's not a bad batti ng average.(Laughter.)I believe it’s a modern day record for the number of kids who went to Yale from a single family.And, Mercina, I know that your mom, Little Annette is here.I don't know where you are, Annette.But Annette was part of the first class of freshman women admitted to Yale University.(Applause.)And her grandmother, Annette, is also a Holocaust survivor, an amazing woman; and both I’m sure wherever they are, beaming today.And I know one more thing, Mercina, your father and grandfather are looking down, cheering you on.I’m so happy to be here on your day and all of your day.It’s good to know there’s one Yalie who is happy I’m being here -- be here, at least one.(Laughter.)On “Overheard at Yale,” on the Facebook page, one student reported anoth er student saying:I had a dream that I was Vice President and was with the President, and we did the disco funk dance to convince the Congress to restart the government.(Laughter.)Another student commented, Y’all know Biden would be hilarious, getfunky.(Laughter.)Well, my granddaughter, Finnegan Biden, whose dad went here, is with me today.When she saw that on the speech, I was on the plane, Air Force Two coming up, she said, Pop, it would take a lot more than you and the President doing the disco funk dance. The Tea Party doesn't even know what it is.(Laughter.)Look, I don't know about that.But I’m just glad there’s someone -- just someone -- who dreams of being Vice President.(Laughter and applause.)Just somebody.I never had that dream.(Laughter.)For the press out there, that's a joke.Actually, being Vice President to Barack Obama has been truly a great honor.We both enjoy getting out of the White House to talk to folks in the real America -— the kind who know what it means to struggle, to work hard, to shop at Kiko Milano.(Laughter and applause.)Great choice.(Laughter.)I just hope to hell the same people responsible for Kiko’s aren’t in charge of naming the two new residential colleges.(Laughter and applause.)Now, look, folks, I spent a lot of time thinking about what I should day to you today, but the more I thought about it, I thought that any Class Day speech is likely to be redundant.You already heard from Jessie J at Spring Fling.(Laughter.)So what in the hell could I possibly say.(Laughter.)Loo k, I’m deeply honored that Jeremy and Kiki selected me.I don't know how the hell you trusted them to do that.(Laughter.)I hope you agree with their choice.Actually I hope by the end of this speech, they agree with their choice.(Laughter.)In their flattering invitation letter, they asked me to bring along a sense of humor, speak about my commitment to public service and family, talk about resiliency, compassion, and leadership in a changing world.Petty tall order.(Laughter.)I probably already flunked the first part of the test.But with the rest let me say upfront, and I mean this sincerely, there’s nothing particularly unique about me.With regard to resilience and compassion, there are countless thousands of people, maybe some in the audience, who’ve suffer ed throughpersonal losses similar to mine or much worse with much less support to help them get through it and much less reason to want to get through it.It’s not that all that difficult, folks, to be compassionate when you’ve been the beneficiary of compassion in your lowest moments not only from your family, but from your friends and total strangers.Because when you know how much it meant to you, you know how much it mattered.It’s not hard to be compassionate.I was raised by a tough, compassionate Irish lady named Catherine Eugenia Finnegan Biden.And she taught all of her children that, but for the grace of God, there go you -- but for the grace of God, there go you.And a father who lived his motto that, family was the beginning, the middle, and the end.And like many of you and your parents, I was fortunate.I learned early on what I wanted to do, what fulfilled me the most, what made me happy -— my family, my faith, and being engaged in the public affairs that gripped my generation and being inspired by a young President named Kennedy-- civil rights, the environment, trying to end an incredibly useless and divisive war, Vietnam.The truth is, though, that neither I, nor anyone else, can tell you what will make you happy, help you find success.You each have different comfort levels.Everyone has different goals and aspirations.But one thing I’ve observed, one thing I know, an expression my dad would use often, is real.He used to say, it’s a lucky man or woman gets up in the morning -- and I mean this since rely.It was one of his expressions.It’s a lucky man or woman gets up in the morning, puts both feet on the floor, knows what they’re about to do, and thinks it still matters.I’ve been lucky.And my wish for all of you is that not only tomorrow, but 20 and 40 and 50 years from now, you’ve found that sweet spot, that thing that allows you to get up in the morning, put both feet on the floor, go out and pursue what you love, and think it still matters.Some of you will go to Silicon Valley and make great contributions to empowerindividuals and societies and maybe even design a life-changing app, like how to unsubscribe to Obama for America email list -- (laughter) -- the biggest “pan-list” of all times.Some of you will go to Wall Street and big Wall Street law firms, government and activism, Peace Corps, Teach for America.You’ll become doctors, researchers, journalists, artists, actors, musicians.Two of you -— one of whom was one of my former interns in the White House, Sam Cohen, and Andrew Heymann —- will be commissioned in the United States Navy.Congratulations, gentlemen.We're proud of you.(Applause.)But all of you have one thing in common you will all seek to find that sweet spot that satisfies your ambition and success and happiness.I’ve met an awful lot of people in my career.And I’ve noticed one thing, those who are the most successful and the happiest -- whether they’re working on Wall Street or Main Street, as a doctor or nurse, or as a lawyer, or a social worker, I’ve made certain basic observation about the ones who from my observation wherever they were in the world were able to find that sweet spot between success and happiness.Those who balance life and career, who find purpose and fulfillment, and where ambition leads them.There’s no silver bul let, no single formula, no reductive list.But they all seem to understand that happiness and success result from an accumulation of thousands of little things built on character, all of which have certain common features in my observation.First, the most successful and happiest people I’ve known understand that a good life at its core is about being personal.It’s about being engaged.It’s about being there for a friend or a colleague when they're injured or in an accident, remembering the birthdays, congrat ulating them on their marriage, celebrating the birth of their child.It’s about being available to them when they're going through personal loss.It’s about loving someone more than yourself, as one of your speakers have already mentioned.It all seems to get down to being personal.That's the stuff that fosters relationships.It’s the only way to breed trust in everything you do in your life.Let me give you an example.After only four months in the United States Senate, as a 30-year-old kid, I was walking through the Senate floor to go to a meeting with Majority Leader Mike Mansfield.And I witnessed another newly elected senator, the extremely conservative Jesse Helms, excoriating Ted Kennedy and Bob Dole for promoting the precursor of the Americans with Disabilities Act.But I had to see the Leader, so I kept walking.When I walked into Mansfield’s office, I must have looked as angry as I was.He was in his late ‘70s, lived to be 100.And he looked at me, he said, what’s bothering you, Joe?I said, that guy, Helms, he has no social redeeming value.He doesn't care -- I really mean it -- I was angry.He doesn't care about people in need.He has a disregard for the disabled.Majority Leader Mansfield then proceeded to tell me that three years earlier, Jesse and Dot Helms, sitting in their living room in early December before Christmas, reading an ad in the Raleigh Observer, the picture of a young man, 14-years-old with braces on his legs up to both hips, saying, all I want is someone to love me and adopt me.He looked at me and he said, and they adopted him, Joe.I felt like a fool.He then went on to say, Joe, it’s always appropriate to question another man’s judgment, but never appropriate to question his motives because you simply don't know his motives.It happened early in my career fortunately.From that moment on, I tried to look past the caricatures of my colleagues and try to see the whole person.Never once have I questioned another man’s or woman’s motive.And something started to change.If you notice, every time th ere’s a crisis in the Congress the last eight years, I get sent to the Hill to deal with it.It’s because every one of those men and women up there -- whether they like me or not -- know that I don't judge them for what I think they're thinking.Because whe n you question a man’s motive, when you say they're acting out of greed, they're in the pocket of an interest group, et cetera, it’s awful hard to reach consensus.It’s awful hard having to reach across the table and shake hands.No matterhow bitterly you disagree, though, it is always possible if you question judgment and not motive.Senator Helms and I continued to have profound political differences, but early on we both became the most powerful members of the Senate running the Foreign Relations Committee, as Chairmen and Ranking Members.But something happened, the mutual defensiveness began to dissipate.And as a result, we began to be able to work together in the interests of the country.And as Chairman and Ranking Member, we passed some of the most significant legislation passed in the last 40 years.All of which he opposed -- from paying tens of millions of dollars in arrearages to an institution, he despised, the United Nations -- he was part of the so-called “black helicopter” crowd; to passing the chemical weapons treaty, constantly referring to, “we’ve never lost a war, and we’ve never won a treaty,” which he vehemently opposed.But we were able to do these things not because he changed his mind, but because in this new relationship to maintain it is required to play fair, to be straight.The cheap shots ended.And the chicanery to keep from having to being able to vote ended -- even though he knew I had the votes.After that, we went on as he began to look at the other side of things and do some great things together that he supported like PEPFAR -— which by the way, George W. Bush deserves an overwhelming amount of credit for, by the way, which provided treatment and prevention HIV/AIDS in Africa and around the world, literally saving millions of lives.So one piece of advice is try to look beyond the caricature of the person with whom you have to work.Resist the temptation to ascribe motive, because you really don’t know -— and it gets in the way of being able to reach a consensus on things that matter to you and to many other people.Resist the temptation of your generation to let “network” become a verb that saps the personal away, that blinds you to the person right in front of you, blinds you to their hopes, their fears, and their burdens.Build real relationships -—even with people with whom you vehemently disagree.You’ll not only be happier.You will be more successful.The second thing I’ve noticed is that although you know no one is better than you, every other persons is equal to you and deserves to be treated with dignity and respect.I’ve worked with eight Presidents, hundreds of Senators.I’ve met every major world leader literally in the last 40 years.And I’ve had scores of talented people work for me.And here’s what I’ve observed:Regardless of their academic or social backgrounds, those who had the most success and who were most respected and therefore able to get the most done were the ones who never confused academic credentials and societal sophistication with gravitas and judgment.Don’t forget about what doesn’t come from this prestigious diploma -- the heart to know what’s meaningful and what’s ephemeral; and the head to know the difference between knowledge and judgment.But even if you get these things right, I’ve observed that most peop le who are successful and happy remembered a third thing:Reality has a way of intruding.I got elected in a very improbable year.Richard Nixon won my state overwhelmingly.George McGovern was at the top of the ticket.I got elected as the second-youngest man in the history of the United States to be elected, the stuff that provides and fuels raw ambition.And if you’re not careful, it fuels a sense of inevitability that seeps in.But be careful.Things can change in a heartbeat.I know.And so do many of your parents.Six weeks after my election, my whole world was altered forever.While I was in Washington hiring staff, I got a phone call.My wife and three children were Christmas shopping, a tractor trailer broadsided them and killed my wife and killed my daughter.And they weren’t sure that my sons would live.Many people have gone through things like that.But because I had the incredible good fortune of an extended family, grounded in love and loyalty, imbued with a sense of obligation imparted to each of us, I not only got help.But by focusing on my sons, I foundmy redemption.I can remember my mother -- a sweet lady -- looking at me, after we left the hospital, and saying, Joey, out of everything terrible that happens to you, something good will come if you look hard enough for it.She was right.The incredible bond I have with my children is the gift I’m not sure I would have had, had I not been through what I went through.Who knows whether I would have been able to appreciate at that moment in my life, the heady moment in my life, what my first obligation was.So I began to commute -- never intending to stay in Washington.And that's the God’s truth.I was supposed to be sworn in with everyone else that year in ’73, but I wouldn’t go down.So Mansfield thought I’d ch ange my mind and not come, and he sent up the secretary of the Senate to swear me in, in the hospital room with my children.And I began to commute thinking I was only going to stay a little while -- four hours a day, every day -- from Washington to Wilmin gton, which I’ve done for over 37 years.I did it because I wanted to be able to kiss them goodnight and kiss them in the morning the next day.No, “Ozzie and Harriet” breakfast or great familial thing, just climb in bed with them.Because I came to realize that a child can hold an important thought, something they want to say to their mom and dad, maybe for 12 or 24 hours, and then it’s gone.And when it’s gone, it’s gone.And it all adds up.But looking back on it, the truth be told, the real reason I went home every night was that I needed my children more than they needed me.Some at the time wrote and suggested that Biden can't be a serious national figure.If he was, he’d stay in Washington more, attend to more important events.It’s obvious he’s not serious.H e goes home after the last vote.But I realized I didn’t miss a thing.Ambition is really important.You need it.And I certainly have never lacked in having ambition.But ambition without perspective can be a killer.I know a lot of you already understand this.Some of you really had to struggle to get here.And some of you have had to struggle to stay here.And some of your familiesmade enormous sacrifices for this great privilege.And many of you faced your own crises, some unimaginable.But the truth is all of you will go through something like this.You’ll wrestle with these kinds of choices every day.But I’m here to tell you, you can find the balance between ambition and happiness, what will make you really feel fulfilled.And along the way, it helps a great deal if you can resist the temptation to rationalize.My chief of staff for over 25 years, one of the finest men I’ve ever known, even though he graduated from Penn, and subsequently became a senator from the state of Delaware, Senator Ted Kaufman, every new hire, that we’d hire, the last thing he’d tell them was, and remember never underestimate the ability of the human mind to rationalize.Never underestimate the ability of the human mind to rationalize -- her birthday really doesn’t matter that much to her, and this business trip is just a great opportunity; this won’t be his last game, and besides, I’d have to take the redeye to get back.We can always take this family vacation another time.There’s plenty of time.For your generation, there’s an incredible am ount of pressure on all of you to succeed, particularly now that you have accomplished so much.You’re whole generation faces this pressure.I see it in my grandchildren who are honors students at other Ivy universities right now.You race to do what others think is right in high school.You raced through the bloodsport of college admissions.You raced through Yale for the next big thing.And all along, some of you compare yourself to the success of your peers on Facebook, Instagram, Linked-In, Twitter.Today, some of you may have found that you slipped into the self-referential bubble that validates certain choices.And the bubble expands once you leave this campus, the pressures and anxiousness, as well -- take this job, make that much money, live in this place, hang out with people like you, take no real risks and have no real impact, while getting paid for the false sense of both.But resist that temptation to rationalize what others view is the right choice for you -—instead of what you feel in your gut is the right choice —- that’s your North Star.Trust it.Follow it.You're an incredible group of young women and men.And that's nothyperbole.You're an incredible group.Let me conclude with this.I’m not going to moralize about to whom much is given, much is expected, because most of you have made of yourself much more than what you’ve been given.But now you are in a privileged position.You’re part of an exceptional generation and doors will open to you that will not open to others.My Yale Law School grad son graduated very well from Yale Law School.My other son out of loyalty to his deceased mother decided to go to Syracuse Law School from Penn.They're a year and a day apart in their age.The one who graduated from Yale had doors open to him, the lowest salary offer ed back in the early ‘90s was $50,000 more than a federal judge made.My other son, it was a struggle -- equally as bright, went on to be elected one of the youngest attorney generals in the history of the state of Delaware, the most popular public official in my state.Big headline after the 2012 election, “Biden Most Popular Man in Delaware -- Beau.”(Laughter.)And as your parents will understand, my dad’s definition of success is when you look at your son and daughter and realize they turned out better than you, and they did.But you’ll have opportunities.Make the most of them and follow your heart.You have the intellectual horsepower to make things better in the world around you.You’re also part of the most tolerant generation in history.I got roundly crit icized because I could not remain quiet anymore about gay marriage.The one thing I was certain of is all of your generation was way beyond that point.(Applause.)Here’s something else I observed -- intellectual horsepower and tolerance alone does not make a generation great: unless you can break out of the bubble of your own making -—technologically, geographically, racially, and socioeconomically -—to truly connect with the world around you.Because it matters.No matter what your material success or personal circumstance, it matters.You can't breathe fresh air or protect your children from a changing climate no matter what you make.If your sister is the victim of domestic violence, you are violated.If your brother can’t marry the man he loves, you are les sened.And if your best friend has to worry about being racially profiled, you live in a circumstance not worthy of us.(Applause.)It matters.So be successful.I sincerely hope some of you become millionaires and billionaires.I mean that.But engage the world around you because you will be more successful and happier.And you can absolutely succeed in life without sacrificing your ideals or your commitments to others and family.I’m confident that you can do that, and I’m confident that this generation will do it more than any other.Look to your left, as they say, and look to your right.And remember how foolish the people next to you look -- (laughter) -- in those ridiculous hats.(Laughter.)That’s what I want you to remember.I mean this.Because it means you’ve l earned something from a great tradition.It means you’re willing to look foolish, you’re willing to run the risk of looking foolish in the service of what matters to you.And if you remember that, because some of the things your heart will tell you to do, will make you among your peers look foolish, or not smart, or not sophisticated.But we’ll all be better for people of your consequence to do it.That’s what I want you to most remember.Not who spoke at the day you all assembled on this mall.You’re a remarka ble class.I sure don't remember who the hell was my commencement speaker.(Laughter.)I know this is not officially commencement.But ask your parents when you leave here, who spoke at your commencement?It’s a commencement speaker aversion of a commencement s peaker’s fate to be forgotten.The question is only how quickly.But you’re the best in your generation.And that is not hyperbole.And you're part of a remarkable generation.And, you -- you’re on the cusp of some of the most astonishing breakthroughs in the history of mankind -— scientific, technological, socially —- that’s going to change the way you live and the whole world works.But it will be up to you in this changing world to translate those unprecedented capabilities into a greater measure of happiness and meaning -—not just for yourself, but for the world around you.And I feel more confident for my children and grandchildren knowing that the men and women who graduate here today, here and across the country, will be in their midst.That’s the honest truth.That's the God’s truth.That's my word as a Biden.Congratulations, Class of 2015.And may God bless you and may God protect our troops.Thank you.附录：2015年美国大学毕业典礼演讲名单女演员娜塔莉波特曼- 哈佛大学Natalie Portman - Harvard University (Class Day) 第一夫人米歇尔奥巴马- 塔斯基吉大学Michelle Obama - Tuskegee University美国总统巴拉克奥巴马- 湖区理工学院Barack Obama - Lake Area Technical Institute政客约翰路易斯- 劳伦斯大学U.S. Rep. John Lewis - Lawrence University美国副总统乔拜登- 耶鲁大学Joe Biden - Yale University (Class Day)波士顿大主教Blase J. Cupich - 波士顿学院Chicago Archbishop Blase J. Cupich - Boston College洛杉矶市长Eric Garcett - 哥伦比亚大学LA Mayor Eric Garcetti - Columbia University (College)男演员Alan Alda - 卡内基梅隆大学Actor Alan Alda - Carnegie Mellon University女漓员Stephanie Courtney - 纽约州立大学宾汉姆顿大学Stephanie Courtney - Binghamton University美国天文学家奈尔德葛拉司泰森---马萨诸塞大学艾默斯特分校Neil deGrasse Tyson - University of Massachusetts- Amherst《人在纽约》创始人Brandon Stanton - 西菲尔德州立大学Humans of New York Founder Brandon Stanton - Westfield State University男演员Anthony Hopkins - 佩柏代因大学西维尔学院Actor Anthony Hopkins - Seavar College空中英语整理收集。
布什总统在耶鲁大学毕业典礼上的演讲
THE PRESIDENT: President Levin, thank you very much. Dean Brodhead, fellows of the Yale Corporation, fellow Yale parents, families, and graduates: It's a special privilege to receive this honorary degree. I was proud 33 years ago to receive my first Yale degree. I'm even prouder that in your eyes I've earned this one.I congratulate my fellow honorees. I'm pleased to share this honor with such a distinguished group. I'm particularly pleased to be here with my friend, the former of Mexico. Senor Presidente, usted es un verdadero lider, y un gran amigo. (Applause.)I congratulate all the parents who are here. It's a glorious day when your child graduates from college. It's a great day for you; it's a great day for your wallet. (Laughter.)Most important, congratulations to the class of 2001. (Applause.) To those of you who received honors, awards, and distinctions, I say, well done. And to the C students -- (applause) -- I say, you, too, can be President of the United States. (Laughter and applause.) A Yale degree is worth a lot, as I often remind Dick Cheney -- (laughter) -- who studied here, but left a little early. So now we know -- if you graduate from Yale, you become President. If you drop out, you get to be Vice President. (Laughter.)I appreciate so very much the chance to say a few words on this occasion. I know Yale has a tradition of having no commencement speaker. I also know that you've carved out a single exception. Most people think that to speak at Yale's commencement, you have to be President. But over the years, the specifications have become far more demanding. Now you have to be a Yale graduate, you have to be President, and you have had to have lost the Yale vote to Ralph Nader. (Applause.)This is my first time back here in quite a while. I'm sure that each of you will make your own journey back at least a few times in your life. If you're like me, you won't remember everything you did here. (Laughter.) That can be a good thing. (Laughter.) But there will be some people, and some moments, you will never forget.Take, for example, my old classmate, Dick Brodhead, the accomplished dean of this great university. (Applause.) I remember him as a young scholar, a bright lad -- (laughter) -- a hard worker. We both put a lot of time in at the Sterling Library, in the reading room, where they have those big leather couches. (Laughter.) We had a mutual understanding -- Dick wouldn't read aloud, and I wouldn't snore. (Laughter.) Our course selections were different, as we followed our own path to academic discovery. Dick was an English major, and loved the classics. I loved history, and pursued a diversified course of study. I like to think of it as the academic road less traveled. (Laughter.)For example, I took a class that studied Japanese Haiku. Haiku, for the uninitiated, is a 15th century form of poetry, each poem having 17 syllables. Haiku is fully understood only by the Zen masters. As I recall, one of my academic advisers was worried about my selection of such a specialized course. He said I should focus on English. (Laughter.) I still hear that quite often. (Laughter.) But my critics don't realize I don't make verbal gaffes. I'm speaking in the perfect forms and rhythms of ancient Haiku. (Applause.)I did take English here, and I took a class called "The History and Practice of American Oratory," taught by Rollin G. Osterweis. (Applause.) And, President Levin,I want to give credit where credit is due. I want the entire world to know this -- everything I know about the spoken word, I learned right here at Yale. (Laughter.)As a student, I tried to keep a low profile. It worked. Last year the New York Times interviewed John Morton Blum because the record showed I had taken one of his courses. Casting his mind's eye over the parade of young faces down through the years, Professor Blum said, and I quote, "I don't have the foggiest recollection of him." (Laughter.)But I remember Professor Blum. And I still recall his dedication and high standards of learning. In my time there were many great professors at Yale. And there still are. They're the ones who keep Yale going after the commencements, after we have all gone our separate ways. I'm not sure I remembered to thank them the last time I was here, but now that I have a second chance, I thank the professors of Yale University. (Applause.)That's how I've come to feel about the Yale experience -- grateful. I studied hard, I played hard, and I made a lot of lifelong friends. What stays with you from college is the part of your education you hardly ever notice at the time. It's the expectations and examples around you, the ideals you believe in, and the friends you make.In my time, they spoke of the "Yale man." I was really never sure what that was. But I do think that I'm a better man because of Yale. All universities, at their best, teach that degrees and honors are far from the full measure of life. Nor is that measure taken in wealth or in titles. What matters most are the standards you live by, the consideration you show others, and the way you use the gifts you are given.Now you leave Yale behind, carrying the written proof of your success here, at a college older than America. When I left here, I didn't have much in the way of a life plan. I knew some people who thought they did. But it turned out that we were all in for ups and downs, most of them unexpected. Life takes its own turns, makes its own demands, writes its own story. And along the way, we start to realize we are not the author.We begin to understand that life is ours to live, but not to waste, and that the greatest rewards are found in the commitments we make with our whole hearts -- to the people we love and to the causes that earn our sacrifice. I hope that each of you will know these rewards. I hope you will find them in your own way and your own time.For some, that might mean some time in public service. And if you hear that calling, I hope you answer. Each of you has unique gifts and you were given them for a reason. Use them and share them. Public service is one way -- an honorable way -- to mark your life with meaning.Today I visit not only my alma mater, but the city of my birth. My life began just a few blocks from here, but I was raised in West Texas. From there, Yale always seemed a world away, maybe a part of my future. Now it's part of my past, and Yale for me is a source of great pride.I hope that there will come a time for you to return to Yale to say that, and feel as I do today. And I hope you won't wait as long. Congratulations and God bless. (Applause.)。
初中英语名人演讲稿美国国务卿约翰克里在外事机构同性恋雇员活动上的讲话素材
I remind everybody that it is amazing to think, but it has been nearly 15 years since we mourned the tragic murder of their son, Matthew. And I can remember very clearly meeting them previously and speaking to the crowd gathered on the National Mall in front of the Capitol building at a vigil that was held two nights after he was killed. Thousands of people came together to share their grief, but also to share their sense of outrage that such an act could be carried out, such a senseless, violent, terrible heartbreak. And we were all standing with Judy and Dennis on that dark night, and frankly, since then, they have helped to lead the way through darkness and into the light, and they’ve turned their pain and their loss into a remarkable global message of hope and of tolerance. So, Judy and Dennis, make no mistake: You really do inspire us and we are very honored to have you here with us today. Thank you.
耶鲁大学毕业典礼英语演讲稿
耶鲁大学毕业典礼英语演讲稿Graduates of Yale University, I apologize if you have endured this type of prologue before, but I want you to do something for me. Please, take a ood look around you. Look at the classmate on your left. Look at the classmate on your right. Now, consider this: five years from now, 10 years from now, even 30 years from now, odds are the person on your left is going to be a loser. The person on your right, meanwhile, will also be a loser. And you, in the middle? What can you expect? Loser. Loserhood. Loser Cum Laude."In fact, as I look out before me today, I don't see a thousand hopes for a bright tomorrow. I don't see a thousand future leaders in a thousand industries. I see a thousand losers."You're upset. That's understandable. After all, how can I,Lawrence 'Larry' Ellison, college dropout, have the audacity to spout such heresy to the graduating class of one of the nation's most prestigious institutions? I'll tell you why. Because I, Lawrence "Larry" Ellison, second richest man on the planet, am a college dropout, and you are not."Because Bill Gates, richest man on the planet -- for now, anyway -- is a college dropout, and you are not."Because Paul Allen, the third richest man on the planet, dropped out of college, and you did not."And for good measure, because Michael Dell, No. 9 on the list and moving up fast, is a college dropout, and you, yet again, are not."Hmm . . . you're very upset. That's understandable. So let me stroke your egos for a moment by pointing out, quite sincerely, that your diplomas were not attained in vain. Most of you, I imagine, have spent four to five years here, and in many ways what you've learned and endured will serve you well in the years ahead. You've established good work habits. You've established a network of people that will help you down the road. And you've established what will be lifelong relationships with the word 'therapy.' All that of is good. For in truth, you will need that network. You will need those strong work habits. You will need that therapy."You will need them because you didn't drop out, and so you will never be among the richest people in the world. Oh sure, you may, perhaps, work your way up to No. 10 or No. 11, like Steve Ballmer. But then, I don't have to tell you who hereally works for, do I? And for the record, he dropped out of grad school. Bit of a late bloomer."Finally, I realize that many of you, and hopefully by now most of you, are wondering, 'Is there anything I can do? Is there any hope for me at all?' Actually, no. It's too late. You've absorbed too much, think you know too much. You're not 19 anymore. You have a built-in cap, and I'm not referring to the mortar boards on your heads."Hmm... you're really very upset. That's understandable. So perhaps this would be a good time to bring up the silver lining. Not for you, Class of '00. You are a write-off, so I'll let you slink off to your pathetic $200,000-a-year jobs, where your checks will be signed by former classmates who dropped out two years ago."Instead, I want to give hope to any underclassmen here today. I say to you, and I can't stress this enough: leave. Pack your things and your ideas and don't come back. Drop out. Start up."For I can tell you that a cap and gown will keep you down just as surely as these security guards dragging me off this stage are keeping me down . . ."(At this point The Oracle CEO was ushered off stage.)【中文译文】：耶鲁的毕业生们，我很抱歉——如果你们不喜欢这样的开场。
美国国务卿克里在美国
美国国务卿克里在美国美国国务卿克里在美国-东盟部长级会议英语演讲稿Well, everybody, my apologies for being delayed, and I thank everybodyfor their patience and look forward to a very interesting and prehensive discussion thisevening. I want to begin by thanking Foreign Minister Lwin and the Government of Myanmar,which has done a very solid job of leading ASEAN as chair this year. And I also want torecognize our new Ambassador to ASEAN Nina Hachigian, who was confirmed just in time tobe here today. (Laughter and applause.) We’re delighted to have Nina on board, and I know allof you will really enjoy working with her. The United States remains deeply mitted to engaging the Asia Pacific region. I thinkyou’ve heard us talking about our rebalanced Asia and the deep involvement that we havethere, working for the trade agreement, working with respect to security issues and globalclimate change – particularly important. I had occasion to be in the Philippines and see theimpact directly of Typhoon Haiyan. And so we have a lot of work to do, and we are deeplymitted. President Obama has reinforced again and again his intention to keep the UnitedStates front and center in the region. I’ve already traveled there – I think it’s five or six timesin a year and a half. The President’s been there several times. We’re looking forward to beingback there shortly for the meetings in October, November, and there’s obviously a lot tocontinue to work on. ASEAN and its centrality is essential to upholding the rules-based system throughout the AsiaPacific, and it is the best way to ensure that all countries big and small have a voice as we worktogether to address the challenges and take advantageof the opportunities. That’s why theUnited States continues to invest so much in the relationship. It’s why we’re deepening our tiesamong our people-to-people programs, like President Obama’s Young Southeast Asian LeadersInitiative and theU.S.-ASEAN Fulbright Program. And it’s why we fully support the formationof the ASEAN Economic Community in 20xx. President Obama and I are very much looking forward to being at the East Asia Summit, but inthe meantime we’re happy to discuss a few of the challenges that we’ve partnered on, includingour maritime security and the global threat of climate change. I hope we can discuss thisevening how best to work on some of the other global issues that we also face today – forexample, the growing numbers of foreign fighters from all over the world who have chosen to goto ISIL and join in their activities and present a danger and risk to all of us. We also obviouslyface the challenge of Ebola in West Africa, and we need everybody to be involved in the effortto contain it. So I thank you all for carving out time in what has been an extraordinarily busy week here inNew York. We’ve got some very important conversations to have, but before we turn to that, Iwant to recognize Foreign Minister Lwin for his opening ments. FOREIGN MINISTER LWIN: Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary. Excellencies, at the outset letme express my sincere thanks to Secretary Kerry and the Government of the United States ofAmerica for hosting this important meeting, taking the opportunity of all our ASEANcolleagues’ presence here in New York as we are attending the 69th General Assembly of theUnited Nations. I am delighted to see the progress in ASEAN-U.S. dialogue relations that enpasses all threepillars ofthe ASEAN munity. We appreciate U.S. role in maintaining peace and securityin the region, as well as providing technical assistance for socio-economic and socio-culturaldevelopment in ASEAN member-states. We are confident that ASEAN and the U.S. can further strengthen cooperation through theeffective implementation of the Plan of Action to implement the Joint Vision Statement ofASEAN-U.S. Enhanced Partnership. ASEAN-U.S. Economic Ministers Meeting was held on 28 August overseeing the progress ofASEAN-U.S. economic cooperation and finding ways to move forward on the outstandingects of E3 Initiative, particularly on nonbinding shared principles of ASEAN-U.S. investment.I hope we could be able to see progress on those matters during the uping second ASEAN-U.S. Summit in November. The ASEAN-U.S. Business Summit was successfully convened in Naypyidaw on 28 August,providing opportunities for our business people to interact and build works. I look forward toseeing increased business activities between ASEAN and the United States. Socio-culture andpeople-to-people ties are also the areas that we should focus to promote better understandingbetween the peoples of ASEAN and U.S. The U.S. supports on the CityLinks Pilot Partnership, which provide capacity building andtechnical (inaudible) programs on climate change adaptation among cities, is timely andeffective as we urgently need to tackle the negative effects of climate change. In this respect,we’ll work with the U.S. for the ASEAN-U.S. joint climate change statement to be issued atthe second ASEAN-U.S. Summit. I look forward to have a fruitful discussion today to further address ASEAN-U.S. engagementin a more prehensive way.Thank you, Mr. Secretary.。
初中英语名人演讲稿美国国务卿约翰克里独立纪念日献词素材
美国国务卿约翰克里独立纪念日献词Hello, everybody. I wanted to take a moment to welcome you to our embassies, consulates and residences, and wish you a very Happy American Independence Day. My colleagues from our embassies and consulates are constantly learning from all of you about your cultures and traditions, and, frankly, we really couldn’t be happier that you’re here to share our traditions and celebrate the birthday of the United States. While the Fourth of July is an occasion to enjoy great food and the company of f riends and family, it’s also a time for Americans to reflect on the founding of our country 237 years ago. And while our Declaration of Independence is the most American of documents, and while we proudly associate ourselves with the promises of equality, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, in truth, those ideals are not uniquely American. These rights actually belong to everyone on earth. These are values that we all share, and they represent the aspirations of people the world over. So we look forward to working with all of you to find the common ground on which we can work to build a safer, healthier and more prosperous world. Thanks so much for joining us today, and Happy Independence Day to all of you.大家好。
- 1、下载文档前请自行甄别文档内容的完整性，平台不提供额外的编辑、内容补充、找答案等附加服务。
- 2、"仅部分预览"的文档,不可在线预览部分如存在完整性等问题,可反馈申请退款(可完整预览的文档不适用该条件!)。
- 3、如文档侵犯您的权益，请联系客服反馈,我们会尽快为您处理(人工客服工作时间：9:00-18:30)。
美国国务卿克里在耶鲁大学毕业活动日上英语演讲稿Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you very much. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I think Winston Churchill said the only reason people give a standing ovation is they desperately seek an excuse to shift their underwear. (Laughter.) So certainly before I’ve opened my mouth, that’s true. (Laughter.) Anyway, President Salovey and faculty members, parents, siblings who came here under thefalse impression there would be free food (laughter); Handsome Dan, wherever youare,probably at some fire hydrant somewhere (laughter); members of the 2019 NCAA championmen’s ice hockey team (cheers and applause); distinguished guests and graduates,graduates of the Class of 2019, I really am privileged to be able to be here and share thecelebration of this day with you, especially 48 years after standing up right here as a veryintimidated senior wondering what I was going to say.You are graduating today as the most diverse class in Yale’s long history. Or as they call it inthe NBA, Donald Sterling’s worst nightmare. (Laughter and applause.)Nia and Josh: Thank you for such a generous introduction. What Josh didn’t mention is that heinterned for me at the StateDepartment last summer. (Cheers and applause.) Well, hold on aminute now. (Laughter.) I learned that he’s not afraid to talk truth to power, or semi-truth. (Laughter.) On his last day he walked up to me at the State Department and he was brutallyhonest. He said, “Mr. Secretary, JE sucks.” (Laughter and cheers.)No, actually, on the last day at the State Department, he asked if I would come here today anddeliver a message his classmates really needed to hear. So here it goes: Jarred Phillips, you stillowe Josh money from that road trip last fall. (Laughter and applause.)I have to tell you, it is really fun for me to be back here on the Old Campus. I’m accompaniedby a classmate of mine. We were on the soccer team together. We had a lot of fun. He served asambassador to Italy recently, David Thorne. And my daughter Vanessa graduated in the Classof 1999, so I know what a proud moment this is for your parents. But my friends, the test willbe if they still feel this way next May if you live at home. (Laughter.)Now, I’m really happy you made it back from Myrtle Beach. (Cheers and applause.) As if youhadn’t already logged enough keg time at “Woads”. (Cheers.) Just remember, just remember:4.0 is a really good GPA, but it’s a lousy blood-alcohol level. (Laughter.)I love the hats. We didn’t have the hats when I was here.I love the hats. They are outrageous.They’re spectacular. This may well be the only event that Pharrell could crash and gounnoticed. (Laughter and applause.)I’ve been looking around. I’ve seen a couple of Red Sox, a few Red Sox hats out there. (Cheers.)I’ve also seen a few of those dreaded interlocking N’s and Y’s. (Cheers.) But that’s okay: I saiddiversity is important. (Laughter.) It’s also an easy way for me to tell who roots for theYankees and who’s graduating with distinction. (Laughter and cheers.) So here’s the deal, here’s the deal: I went online and I learned in the Yale Daily comments thatI wasn’t everyone’s first choice to be up here. (Laughter.)When Yale announced that I’d be speaking, someone actually wrote, “I hope they give outFive-Hour Energy to help everyone stay awake.” (Laughter.) Well don’t worry folks: I promisenot to be one minute over four hours. (Laughter.)Someone else wrote I haven’t “screwed up badly as Secretary of State ... yet.” (Laughter.)Well, all I can say is, stay tuned. (Laughter.)But my favorite comment was this: “I’m really proud that a Yalie is Secretary of State.” Ishould have stopped reading right there because he or she went on to write, “but he is buttugly.” (Laughter.) So there go my dreams of being on “Yale’s 50 most beautiful” list. (Cheersand applause.) It really is a privilege for me to share this celebration with you, though I’m forewarned that noone remembers who delivers their graduation speech. All I really remember about our speakerin 1966 is that he was eloquent, insightful, really good looking. (Laughter.) Anyway, onething I promise you, one thing I promise you: I will stay away from the tired cliches ofcommencement, things like “be yourself,”“do what makes you happy,”“don’t use the laundryroom in Saybrook”. (Cheers and applause.) That’s about all I’ll say about that. (Laughter.) So right after we graduated, Time Magazine came out with its famous “Man of the Year” issue.But for 1966, Timedidn’t pick one man or one woman. They picked our entire generation.And Time expressed a lot of high hopes for us. It not only predicted that we’d cure thecommon cold, but that we’d cure cancer, too. It predicted that we’d build smog-free cities andthat we’d end poverty and war once and for all. I know what you’re thinking – we reallycrushed it. (Laughter.)So fair question: Did my generation get lost? Well, that’s actually a conversation for anothertime. But let me put one theory to rest: It’s not true that everyone in my generationexperimented with drugs. Although between Flomax, Lipitor and Viagra, now we do. (Laughterand applause.) Now, I did have some pretty creative classmates back then. One of my good friends, very closefriends in JE – (cheers) –I’m going to set it right for you guys right now. (Laughter.) One of mygood friends in JE had at least two hair-brained ideas. The first was a little start-up built on thenotion that if people had a choice, they’d pay a little more to mail a package and have it arrivethe very next day. Crazy, right? Today that start-up is called FedEx. And by the way, it wascreated in JE, which therefore means JE rules. (Cheers and applause.) Now, his other nutty idea was to restart something called the Yale Flying Club. And admittedly,this was more of a scheme to get us out of class and off the campus. So I basically spent mysenior year majoring in flying, practicing take-offs and landings out at Tweed Airport.Responsible? No. But I wouldn’t have missed it.And one of the best lessons I learned here is that Mark Twain was absolutely right: Never letschool get in the way of aneducation.Now, I didn’t know it at the time, but Yale also taught me to finish what you start. And that’sone thing that clearly separates us from Harvard. (Laughter.) After all, a lot of those guys don’teven graduate. Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Matt Damon – what the hell have they everamounted to? (Laughter.) For all I ever learned at Yale, I have to tell you truthfully the best piece of advice I ever got wasactually one word from my 89-year-old mother. I’ll never forget sitting by her bedside andtelling her I had decided to run for President. And she squeezed my hand and she said: “Integrity, John. Integrity. Just remember always, integrity.” And maybe that tells you a lotabout what she thought about politics.But you should know: In a complicated world full of complicated decisions and close calls thatcould go either way, what keeps you awake at night isn’t so much whether or not you got thedecision right or wrong. It’s whether you made your decision for the right reasons: Integrity.And the single best piece of advice I ever received about diplomacy didn’t come from myinternational relations class, but it came from my father, who served in the Foreign Service. Hetold me that diplomacy was really about being able to see theworld through the eyes ofsomeone else, to understand their aspirations and assumptions.And perhaps that’s just another word for empathy. But whatever it is, I will tell you sittinghere on one of the most gorgeous afternoons in New Haven as you graduate: Listening makes adifference, not just in foreign ministries but on the streets and in the souks and on the socialmedia network the world over.So Class of 2019, as corny as it may sound, remember that your parents aren’t just here todayas spectators. They’re also here as teachers – and even if counter-intuitive, it’s not a badidea to stay enrolled in their course as long as you can.Now for my part, I am grateful to Yale because I did learn a lot here in all of the ways that agreat university can teach. But there is one phrase from one class above all that for somereason was indelibly stamped into my consciousness. Perhaps it’s because I spent almost 30years in the United States Senate seeing it applied again and again.One morning in the Law School Auditorium, my Professor, John Morton Blum, said simply: “Allpolitics is a reaction to felt needs.” What I thought he meant is that things only get done inpublic life when the people who want something demandnothing less and the people who makeit happen decide tht they can do nothing less.Those “felt needs” have driven every movement and decision that I’ve witnessed in politicssince – from South Africa a couple of decades ago to the Arab Spring a few years ago to ourown communities, where same-sex couples refuse to be told by their government who they canlove.In 1963, I remember walking out of Dwight Hall one evening after an activist named AllardLowenstein gave the impassioned and eloquent plea that I had ever heard. He compelled usto feel the need to engage in the struggle for civil rights right here in our own country.And that’s why, just steps from here, right over there on High Street, we lined up buses thatdrove students from Yale and elsewhere south to be part of the Mississippi Voter RegistrationDrive and help break the back of Jim Crow. Ultimately we forced Washington to ensure throughthe law that our values were not mere words. We saw Congress respond to this “felt need” andpass the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, and life in America did change.Not only did landmark civil rights advances grow out of the sit-ins and marches, but we sawthe EPA and the Clean Water Actand the Clean Air Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act and allof it come out of Earth Day in 1970. We saw women refusing to take a back-seat, forceinstitutions to respond, producing Title IX and a Yale University that quickly transformedfrom a male bastion of 1966. Citizens, including veterans of the war, spoke up and brought ourtroops home from Vietnam.The fact is that what leaps out at me now is the contrast between those heady days and today.Right or wrong, and like it or not – and certainly some people certainly didn’t like it – back theninstitutions were hard pressed to avoid addressing the felt needs of our country.Indeed, none of what I’ve talked about happened overnight. The pace of change was differentfrom today. The same fall that my class walked in as freshmen, Nelson Mandela walked intoprison. It wasn’t until 30 years later, when my daughter walked through these gates for thefirst time, that Mandela was his country’s president.When I was a senior, the debate over the growing war in Vietnam was becoming allconsuming. But it took another seven years before combat ended for our country, and morethan 25,000 lives. And it wasn’t until the year 2019 that we finally made peace and normalizedrelations. Now, amazingly, we have moreVietnamese studying in America – including some inyour class – than from almost any other country in the world.What’s notable is this daring journey of progress played out over years, decades, and evengenerations. But today, the felt needs are growing at a faster pace than ever before, piling upon top of each other, while the response in legislatures or foreign capitals seems nonexistentor frozen.It’s not that the needs aren’t felt. It’s that people around the world seem to have grown used toseeing systems or institutions failing to respond. And the result is an obvious deepeningfrustration if not exasperation with institutional governance.The problem is today’s institutions are simply not keeping up or even catching up to the feltneeds of our time. Right before our eyes, difficult decisions are deferred or avoided altogether.Some people even give up before they try because they just don’t believe that they can make adifference. And the sum total of all of this inaction is stealing the future from all of us.Just a few examples, from little to big: a train between Washington and New York that can go150 miles-per-hour – but, lacking modern infrastructure, goes that fast for only 18 milesof thetrip; an outdated American energy grid which can’t sell energy from one end of the country tothe other; climate change growing more urgent by the day, with 97 percent of scientists tellingus for years of the imperative to act. The solution is staring us in the face: Make energypolicy choices that will allow America to lead a $6 trillion market. Yet still we remain gridlocked;immigration reform urgently needed to unleash the power – the full power of millions who livehere and make our laws in doing so both sensible and fair.And on the world stage, you will not escape it – even more urgency. We see huge, growingpopulations of young people in places that offer little education, little economic or politicalopportunity. In countries from North Africa to East Asia, you are older than half theirpopulation. Forty percent of their population is younger than Yale’s next incoming class.If we can’t galvanize action to recognize their felt needs – if we don’t do more to coordinatean attack on extreme poverty, provide education, opportunity, and jobs, we inviteinstability. And I promise you, radical extremism is all too ready to fill the vacuum leftbehind.What should be clear to everyone – and it’s perhaps what makes our current predicament,frankly, so frustrating – isthat none of our problems are without solutions. None of them. Butneither will they solve themselves. So for all of us, it’s really a question of willpower, notcapacity. It’s a matter of refusing to fall prey to the cynicism and apathy that have alwaysbeen the mortal enemies of progress. And it requires keeping faith with the ability ofinstitutions – of America –to do big things when the moment demands it. Remember whatNelson Mandela said when confronted by pessimism in the long march to freedom: “It alwaysseems impossible until it is done.”One thing I know for sure – these and other felt needs will never be addressed if you, we fallvictim to the slow suffocation of conventional wisdom.On Tuesday I sat in the State Department with some young Foreign Service officers at theState Department, and one of them said something to me that I’ve been thinking about,frankly, all week. He wasn’t much older than any of you. He said: “We’ve gone from an erawhere power lived in hierarchies to an era where power lives in networks – and now we’rewrestling with the fact that those hierarchies are unsettled by the new power.”Every one of you and your parents have mobile devices here today. They represent a lot morethan your ability to put a picture on Fbook or Ins. They are one of the powerfulnewinstruments of change that makes hierarchies uncomfortable because you can communicatewith everybody, anywhere, all the time – and that’s how you beat conventional wisdom.That’s what makes me certain that felt needs are not just problems. They are opportunities.And I am convinced if you are willing to challenge the conventional wisdom, which youshould be after this education, you can avoid the dangerous byproducts of indifference,hopelessness, and my least favorite: cynicism.It is indifference that says our problems are so great, let’s not even try. We have to rejectthat. It’s hopelessness that says that our best days are behind us. I couldn’t disagree more.It’s cynicism that says we’re powerless to effect real change, and that the era of Americanleadership is over. I don’t believe that for a second, and neither does President Obama. Werefuse to limit our vision of the possibilities for our country, and so should you. Together wehave to all refuse to accept the downsizing of America’s role in a very complicated world.I happen to love T.S. Eliot’s "Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” one of my favorite poems. And Irespectfully challenge you to never wind up fretfully musing as Prufrock did: “Do I daredisturb the universe? In a minute there is time fordecisions and revisions which a minute willreverse.” Class of 2019: Your job is to disturb the universe.You have to reject the notion that the problems are too big and too complicated so don’t wadein. You don’t have the luxury of just checking out. And it doesn’t matter what profession youwind up in, what community you live in, where you are, what you’re doing, you do not havethat luxury.One of the greatest rewards of being Secretary of State is getting to see with my own eyes howmuch good news there actually is in the world – how many good people there are out thereevery single day courageously fighting back. The truth is that everywhere I go I see or hearabout an extraordinary number of individual acts of courage and bravery, all of which defythe odds – all by people who simply refuse to give up, and who start with a lot lessopportunity than you do.You can see this in the lonely human rights activist who struggles against tyranny and againsta dictator until they are defeated. You see it in the democracy activist who goes to jail tryingto ensure an election is free and transparent. You see it in the civil rights lawyer who suffersscorn and isolation for standing against bigotry, racism, and intolerance.I am literally in awe of the courage that ordinary,anonymous people demonstrate in themost difficult circumstances imaginable – in a dank African jail, a North Korean gulag, aprison in Syria or Central Asia, facing the cruelest persecution and lonely isolation.Many of these people just quietly disappear. They lose their lives. They never become aninternational cause or a global hero. Courage is not a strong enough word for what they doevery day, and all of us need to think about that.What all these people have in common – and what I hope they have in common with you – isthat they refuse to be complacent and indifferent to what is going on around them or towhat should be going on around them.And that’s the most important lesson I hope you will take with you when you leave Yale. Thefact is that for those of you who have loans are not the only burden you graduate with today.You have had the privilege of a Yale education. No matter where you come from, no matterwhere you’re going next, the four years that you’ve spent here are an introduction toresponsibility. And your education requires something more of you than serving yourself. It callson you to give back, in whatever way you can. It requires you to serve the world around youand, yes, to make a difference. That is what has always setAmerica apart: our generosity, ourhumanity, our idealism.Last year I walked through the devastation of the typhoon that hit the Philippines. The itary and USAID and regular volunteers got there before countries that lived a lot closer. Wewent there without being asked and without asking for anything in return. And today Americansare helping to bring that community back to life.In Nigeria, when Boko Haram kidnapped hundreds of girls, the government didn’t turn to otherpowerful countries for help – and by the way, they’re not offering.As Josh and Nia mentioned, it was my privilege to stand here 48 years ago at Class Day.Before coming here, I did re-read that speech. A lot of it was about Vietnam, but one linejumped out at me. In 1966 I suggested, “an excess of isolation had led to an excess ofinterventionism.” Today we hear a different tune from some in Congress and even on somecampuses and we face the opposite concern. We cannot allow a hangover from the excessiveinterventionism of the last decade to lead now to an excess of isolationism in this decade.I can tell you for certain, most of the rest of the world doesn’t lie awake at night worryingabout America’s presence – they worry about what would happen in our absence.Without arrogance, without chauvinism, never forget that what makes America different fromother nations is not a common bloodline or a common religion or a common ideology or acommon heritage – what makes us different is that we are united by an uncommon idea: thatwe’re all created equal and all endowed with unalienable rights. America is not just a countrylike other countries. America is an idea and we – all of us, you – get to fill it out over time.Tomorrow, when President Salovey grants you those diplomas, listen to what he says. He won’tsay what is said at most schools – that your degree admits you to all its “rights and privileges.”At Yale, we say your degree admits you to all its “rights and responsibilities.” It means we needto renew that responsibility over and over again every day. It’s not a one-time decision.Participation is the best antidote to pessimism and ultimately cynicism.So I ask you today on a celebratory afternoon as you think about the future: Remember whathappened when the Founding Fathers had finished their hard work at the ConstitutionalConvention in Philadelphia and Ben Franklin, tired, end of day, walked down at night, down thesteps of the hall. A woman called to him. She said, “Tell us Dr. Franklin:What do we have, amonarchy or a republic?” And he answered: “A republic, if you can keep it.”Class of 2019: We know what you have – a world-class education – if you will use it.Congratulations to you, good luck, and God bless. (Cheers and applause.)---来源网络整理，仅供参考。