9696 – Global | English Speeches, Books, coupons and online services ratings.
College is something you complete. Life is something you experience. So don’t worry about your grade, or the results or success. Success is defined in myriad ways, and you will find it, and people will no longer be grading you, but it will come from your own internal sense of decency. Love what you do. Get good at it. Competence is a rare commodity in this day and age. And let the chips fall where they may.
Graduates, this is the time to take your shots. Your life will go by fast. Give it your all. Stand up for yourself. Stay curious. Be a good citizen of the world. Don’t get crushed under the weight of your expectations. Know that the real victory in life is the long game – measure your success by how much you evolve, not necessarily how much you win. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes.
But as I get farther away from my years here, I know that the power of this school is much deeper than weather control. It changed the very questions I was asking. To quote one of my favorite thinkers Abraham Joshua Heschel: “To be or not to be is not the question; the vital question is how to be and how not to be.”
I’m here to tell you finding your purpose isn’t enough. The challenge for our generation is creating a world where everyone has a sense of purpose. Today I want to talk about three ways to create a world where everyone has a sense of purpose: by taking on big meaningful projects together, by redefining equality so everyone has the freedom to pursue purpose, and by building community across the world.
The lesson here is clear, and that is, if you’re hurting, you need to help somebody ease their hurt. If you’re in pain, help somebody else’s pain. And when you’re in a mess, you get yourself out of the mess helping somebody out of theirs. And in the process, you get to become a member of what I call the greatest fellowship of all, the sorority of compassion and the fraternity of service.
As you leave Stanford, take your genius and your optimism and your empathy and go change the world in ways that will make millions of others optimistic as well. In the course of your lives, without any plan on your part, you’ll come to see suffering that will break your heart. When it happens, and it will, don’t turn away from it; turn toward it.
Accept the world for what it is, and at the same time, make it your own. I especially want you to make it your own. You are a particular variety of person, Ms. Smithie. You have spent the last four years in an environment that has encouraged you to be not just yourself, but your best self, your strongest self.
You and you alone are the only person who can live the life that writes the story that you were meant to tell. And the world needs your story because the world needs your voice. Every single one of you. And because as your story unfolds, you will inspire others to find their stories and so on and so on and so on.
Former First Lady Michelle Obama’s Commencement Speech at Tuskegee University 2015. I have learned that as long as I hold fast to my beliefs and values — and follow my own moral compass — then the only expectations I need to live up to are my own. So, graduates, that’s what I want for all of you. I want you all to stay true to the most real, most sincere, most authentic parts of yourselves.
Now I tell the story, because the world might say you are not allowed to yet. I waited a long time out in the world before I gave myself permission to fail. Please, don’t even bother asking, don’t bother telling the world you are ready. Show it. Do it. Just As Beckett said: “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.”
While the legacy of enslavement, racism, discrimination, and exclusion still influences so much of contemporary attitudes, we must never conclude that it is too late to overcome such a legacy. For it is never too late to do justice.
Facts and truth are matters of life and death. Misinformation, disinformation, delusions and deceit can kill. Here is what can move us forward: Science and medicine. Study and knowledge. Expertise and reason. In other words, fact and truth. I want to tell you why free expression by all of us and an independent press, imperfect though we may be, is essential to getting at the truth.
The face of power is not the same as the face of the people. And this has to change. I also want things to change but I can not do it alone. I need you and others with me to make the world more equal, more sustainable and more just. I know I’m not alone with this thought. I know many of you want the same and together we can make it a reality.
Here at Harvard you’ve been well trained. You must lead. You must get out there and as Dr. King would say, be a headlight, not a taillight! It’s your time, it’s your calling. My philosophy is very simple, when you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, stand up! Say something! Speak up and speak out!
When you tap into what it’s trying to tell you, when you can get yourself quiet enough to listen, I mean, really listen, you can begin to distill the still, small voice, which is always representing the truth of you from the noise of the world. And you can start to recognize when it comes your way. You can learn to make distinctions, to connect, to dig a little deeper. You’ll be able to find your own voice within the still, small voice.
‘Stay loose, be smart, and go with love… and then leap. And then leap again. And then leap again’ Michelle Yeoh, Academy-award winning actress, advocate, and United Nations Development Programme Goodwill ambassador, offered the Harvard Law School Class of 2023 some advices during the Class Day celebration on Wednesday as they were poised to dive into “a presumably bright but unpredictable future.”
If the past two decades have taught us anything, it’s that the biggest challenges we face cannot be solved in isolation. When overseas states start falling apart, they become breeding grounds for terrorists and ideologies of nihilism and despair that ultimately can reach our shores.
How Yale’s newest graduates make their imprint on the world and on history will be determined by how well they handle fear and inspire faith, Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks told the seniors in his Class Day address on May 22.
As the US grapples with a disinformation crisis, Tom Hanks told graduates of Harvard on Thursday to be superheroes in their defense of truth and American ideals, and to resist those who twist the truth for their own gain. “For the truth to some is no longer empirical. It’s no longer based on data, nor common sense, nor even common decency,”
At the University of Michigan’s Spring Commencement, President Obama discussed the nature of politics in our democracy which he said has “never been for the thick-skinned or the faint-of-heart.” He talked about pundits and politicians who call each other all sorts of names and continue to debate about the role and size of government, but reminded the audience that “our experiment in democracy has worked better than any form of government on Earth.”
