英文励志演讲稿（精选13篇）
Wherever you are,and whoever you may be, there is one thing in which you and I are just alike, at this moment, and in all the moments of our existence. We are not at rest; we are on a journey. Our life is not a mere fact; it is a movement, a tendency, a steady, ceaseless progress towards an unseen goal. We are gaining something, or losing something, every day. Even when our position and our character seem to remain precisely the same, they are changing. For the mere advance of time is a change. It is not the same thing to have a bare field in January and in July. The season makes the difference. The limitations that are childlike in the child are childish in the man.
无论你现在身处何方,也无论你是何等人物，此时此刻，以及我们生命中的任一瞬间，你我之间都有一点相同之处。那就是，我们并未停歇，而仍在旅途。我们的人生并不仅仅是一种存在的事实,而是一种运动，一种趋势，一种坚定不移而没有停息地朝向某个看不见的目标前行的过程。每一天，我们都有所得,也有所失。即使我们的地位和品性看似与原来无异，但实际上它们正在改变，因为时间的推移本身就是一种改变。同一片荒野，在一月和七月是不同的，季节造成了这种差异。智能上的不足，在孩子身上被视为天真无邪，而对于成人来说则是一种幼稚的表现。
Everything that we do is a step in one direction or another. Even the failure to do something is in itself a deed. It sets us forward or backward. The action of the negative pole of a magnetic needle is just as real as the action of the positive pole. To decline is to accept the other alternative.
我们所做的每件事都是朝着某一个方向迈出的一步。甚至无为，其本身也是一种作为，它使我们前进或后退。一根磁针的磁极作用，无论正负都是一样的真实。拒绝也是一种接受，只不过是另外一种选择罢了。
Are you richer today than you were yesterday? No? Then you are a little poorer. Are you better today than you were yesterday? No? Then you are a little worse. Are you nearer to your port today than you were yesterday? Yes, you must be a little nearer to some port or other; for since your ship was first launched upon the sea of life you have never been still for a single moment; the sea is too deep, you could not find an anchorage if you would; there can be no pause until you come into port.
你今天比昨天富有吗？没有，那说明你变穷了点。你今天比昨天过得好吗？没有，那么你的情况变糟了一点。你今天比昨天更接近你的港口了吗？是的，那么你一定距某个港口更近了。因为，自从你驶入人生之海，你的航船至今尚未停歇片刻。这片海洋太深了，纵使你想找到一个抛锚停泊之处也难以求得。因此，在驶入港口之前，你无法稍作歇息。
As you slowly open your eyes, look around, notice(注意) where the light comes into your room; listen carefully(仔细的，小心的。谨慎的), see if there are new sounds you can recognize(认识。认出，辨认); feel with your body and spirit, and see if you can sense the freshness(新鲜的) in the air.(bfanwen.com)
Yes, yes, yes, it's a new day, it's a different day, and it's bright (明亮的，发亮的，辉煌的，阳光灿烂的)day! And most importantly, it's a new beginning for your life, a beginning where you are going to make new decisions(决定), take new actions, make new friends, and take your life
to a totally unprecedented(空前的) level(水平，层次，级别).
In your mind's(n.心，精神，心力，知，智力，智慧;心胸，头脑，人;愿望，目的，意向，意志，决心，见解，意见;记忆，记性，记忆力，回想vi.介意;注意vt.专心于;介意;愿意做;照顾) eye, you can see clearly(清晰的，明白的)， the things you want to have, the paces(步度，步速，步调) you intend (想要，打算，计划)to go, the relationships you desire (愿望，欲望，情欲，要求，请求)to develop, and the positions(位置，方位。地位，职务。状况) you aspire(励志)to reach.
You can hear your laughters of joy(欢乐，快乐) and happiness on the day when everything happens as you dream. You can see the smiles on the people around you when the magic(魔法，也指神奇的力量，魔力，魅力) moment strikes(攻击，击中). You can feel your face is getting red, your heart is beating fast, and your blood is rushing(冲，奔涌) all over your body, to every single(单一的，个别的) corner(角落，转折点) of your being!
You know all this is real as long as you are confident(确定的，肯定的，有信心的), passionate (热情的，感情强烈的，激昂的)and committed!(效忠的) And you are confident, you are passionate, you are committed!
You will no longer fear making new sounds, showing new facial(面部的，面部用的，美容用的)expressions(表达，陈述，体现，表情), using your body in new ways, approaching new people, and asking new questions.
You will live every single(单一的，个别的)day of your life with absolute(绝对的，专制独裁的，完全的) passion, and you will show your
passion through the words you speak and the actions you take.
You will focus all your time and effort(努力，艰难的尝试，努力的成果，成就) on the most important goals of your life. You will never succumb(屈服，屈从) to challenges of hardships(苦难，困苦，苦事，苦因).
You will never waver(动摇) in your pursuit(追赶，追逐，追求) of excellence(优秀，杰出，卓越). After all, you are the best, and you deserve
the best!
As your coach(私人教练，指导教师) and friend, I can assure(使确信，使放心，向。。。保证) you the door to all the best things in the world will open to you, but the key to that door is in your hand. You must do your part(部分，本分，职责). You must faithfully(忠诚的) follow the plans you make and take the actions you plan; you must never quit(离开，退出，停止，放弃) and you must never fear. I know you must do it, you can do it, you will do it, and you will succeed! Now stand firm and
tall, make a fist, get excited, and yell it out:
I must do it! I can do it! I will do it! I will succeed!
I must do it! I can do it! I will do it! I will succeed!
I must do it! I can do it! I will do it! I will succeed!
Only mother love is true love 's gives everybody everything in all his life ,When you are still a baby ,mother takes good care of you as much as your waking hour she always holds you in her you are ill,she stop her work right now to look after you day and night and forgets about you are growing up day by day,she feels very you are old enough to go to school,mother still looks after you all the cold winter days,she always tells you to put on more always stands in the window waiting for you back from you are hurry to leave home for school for breakfast ,she feels worried about you at usually knows about your study and spends much money on your school things you do well at school will see the brightset smile on her face.
Mother is ailways ready to give everything she has to her children ,not to receive.
What true love that is in the world !We will remember Mother love forever .
Every one of us,rich or poor,should at least have one or two good friends will listen to me when I want to speak,will wipe my eyes when I cry,will take care of me when I am sick,and my friends will go together with me side by side through this journey of life.
Dear：
as you slowly open your eyes,look around,notice where the light comes into your room;listen carefully,see if there are new sounds you can recognize;feel with your body and spirit,and see if you can sense the freshness in the air.
yes,yes,yes,it’s a new day,it’s a different day,and it’s a bright day!and most importantly,it is a new beginning for your life,a beginning where you are going to make new desicisions,take new actions,make new friends,and take your life to a totally unprecedented level!
in your mind’s eye,you can see clearly the things you want to have,the paces you intend to go,the relationships you desire to develop,and the positions you aspire to reach.
you can hear your laughters of joy and happiness on the day when everything happens as you dream.
you can see the smiles on the people around you when the magic moment strikes.
you can feel your face is getting red,your heart is beating fast,and your blood is rushing all over your body,to every single corner of your being!
you know all this is real as long as you are confident,passionate and committed!and you are confident,you are confident,passionate and committed!
you will no longer fear making new sounds,showing new facial expressions,using your body in new ways,approaching new people,and asking new questions.
you will live every single day of your life with absolute passion,and you will show your passion through the words you speak and the actions you take.
you will focus all your time and effort on the most important goals of your life.you will never succumb to challenges of hardships.
you will never waver in your pursuit of excellence.after all,you are the best,and you deserve the best!
as you coach and friend,i can assure you the door to all the best things in the world will open to you,but the key to that door is in your hand.you must do your part,you must faithfully follow the plans you make and take the actions you plan,you must never quit,you must never fear.i know you must do it,you can do it,you will do it,and you will succeed!now stand firm and tall,make a fist,get excited,and yell it out:
i must do it!i can do it!i will do it!i will succeed!
as you slowly open your eyes,look around,notice where the light comes into your room;listen carefully,see if there are new sounds you can recognize;feel with your body and spirit, and see if you can sense the freshness in the air.
yes, it's a new day,it's a different day,and its a bright day!and most importantly,it is a new beginning for your life,a beginning where you are going to make new desicisions, take new actions,make new friends,and take your life to a totally unprecedented level!
in your mind's eye, you can see clearly the things you want to have,the paces you intend to go,the relationships you desire to develop,and the positions you aspire to reach.you can hear your laughters of joy and happiness on the day when everything happens as you dream.you can see the smiles on the people around you when the magic moment strikes.you can feel your face is getting red, your heart is beating fast,and your blood is rushing all over your body,to every single corner of your being!
you know all this is real as long as you are confident,passionate and committed! and you are confident,you are passionate,you are committed!
you will no longer fear making new sounds, showing new facial expressions, using your body in new ways,approaching new people,and asking new questions.you will live every single day of your life with absolute passion,and you will show your passion through the words you speak and the actions you take.you will focus all your time and effort on the most important goals of your life.you will never succumb to challenges of hardships.you will never waver in your pursuit of excellence.after all,you are the best,and you deserve the best!
as your coach and friend,i can assure you the door to all the best things in the world will open to you,but the key to that door is in your hand.you must do your part,you must faithfully follow the plans you make and take the actions you plan,you must never quit,you must never fear.i know you must do it,you can do it,you will do it,and you will succeed! now stand firm and tall,make a fist,get excited,and yell it out:i must do it!i can do it! i will do it!i will succeed!
Dear teacher,classmates：
Good morning everyone！
Everyone wants success. But what is success? Generally, people think success is a great deal of money, high position, academic achievement, and so on. However, most of these people never really define what success means to them. In my opinion, success is a feeling, which makes you happy and content.
Success is a feeling, that means success is not considered as big or small, high or low. It is just a good mood from your heart. Maybe passing a final test is a success for a student, learning to walk is a success for a little child, marrying a beautiful girl is a success for a lad, signing a contract is a success for a company. Success varies from individual to group.
Success is a feeling, that means success is changing since your childhood. While you were a little child, you thought it was a success that your parents finally bought you lovely toys after you begged again and again. Success is the feeling you had when you were told that you won the contest. After graduation, you started working. You were successful when you finished a complicated task very well and you were praised. When married, maybe a happy marriage and a happy family meant success for you. When your child grew up, you hoped he or she attend a famous university or go abroad to study or work, at that time you considered that was your success. When you were old enough and couldn’t work at all, success was a feeling that your children and grandchildren came to see you from a long distance. Actually, success always accompanied you in your growth.
However, we have to admit that you can’t be successful all the time. We always meet many difficulties on the way to success. The more difficult it is, the much happier we are when we succeed.
To be successful, we should have a clear aim and then try our best to reach it. Wherever you go, whatever you are, your success belongs to yourself. It is a good feeling that you love it very much, and it really can make you laugh from the heart.
Dear teacher, dear classmates：
Good morning !
Someone said “we are reading the first verse of the first chapter of a book, whose pages are infinite”. I don't know who wrote these words, but I've always liked them as a reminder that the future can be anything we want it to be. We are all in the position of the farmers. If we plant a good seed ,we reap a good harvest. If we plant nothing at all, we harvest nothing at all.
We are young. “How to spend the youth?” It is a meaningful question. To answer it, first I have to ask “what do you understand by the word youth?” Youth is not a time of life, it is a state of mind. It's not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips or supple knees. It's the matter of the will. It's the freshness of the deep spring of life.
A poet said “To see a world in a grain of sand, and a heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour. Several days ago, I had a chance to listen to a lecture. I learnt a lot there. I'd like to share it with all of you. Let's show our right palms. We can see three lines that show how our love.career and life is. I have a short line of life. What about yours? I wondered whether we could see our future in this way. Well, let's make a fist. Where is our future? Where is our love, career, and life? Tell me.Yeah, it is in our hands. It is held in ourselves.
We all want the future to be better than the past. But the future can go better itself. Don't cry because it is over, smile because it happened. From the past, we've learnt that the life is tough, but we are tougher. We've learnt that we can't choose how we feel, but we can choose what about it. Failure doesn't mean you don't have it, it does mean you should do it in a different way. Failure doesn't mean you should give up, it does mean you must try harder.
As what I said at the beginning, “we are reading the first verse of the first chapter of a book, whose pages are infinite”. The past has gone. Nothing we do will change it. But the future is in front of us. Believe that what we give to the world, the world will give to us. And from today on, let's be the owners of ourselves, and speak out “We are the world, we are the future.”
The greatest results in life are usually attained by simple means, and the exercise of ordinary qualities. The common life of every day, affords ample opportunities for acquiring experience of the best kind.
人生最大的收获往往是通过最简单的方法或对常识的准确应用而获得的。每一个平凡的日子都会为我们提供许多机会，并使我们的阅历有所增强。
Fortune has often been blamed for her blindness. Those who look into practical life will find that fortune is usually on the side of the industrious, as the winds and waves are on the side of the best navigators. In the pursuit of even the highest branches of human inquiry, the commoner qualities are found the most useful,such as common sense, attention, application, and perseverance.
人们常常认为：机会是可遇而不可求的。而那些懂得细心观察生活的人往往会发现：机会总是更偏向于勤勉的人，正如海风与波浪经常会与航海家做伴一样。哪怕是在对人类事业的最高追求上，实践也是最有效的途径之一。当然，顽强的毅力也是必不可少的。
Genius may not be necessary, though even genius of the highest sort does not disdain the use of these ordinary qualities. The very greatest men have been among the least believers in the power of genius, and as worldly wise and persevering as successful men of the commoner sort. Some have even defined genius to be only common sense intensified. A distinguished teacher and president of a college spoke of it as the power of making ef forts. John Foster held it to be the power of lighting one's own fire.
天赋并不是获取成功的制胜法宝，即便是天才也同样会意识到常识的重要性。事实上，一些伟大人物往往是那些最不相信天赋的人。真正的智者和成功人士也并非在哪一方面特别出众，甚至他们曾被认为是缺少天赋的人。没错，他们之所以能够获得成功正是凭借着扎实的基本功，对基本常识的强化训练。一位校长兼优秀教师曾说过，他的成功源自不懈的努力。约翰?福斯特则把这种力量称之为“点燃生活的火焰”。
Newton's was unquestionably a mind of the very highest order, and yet, when asked by what means he had worked out his extraordinary discoveries, he modestly answered, "By always thinking unto them." At another time he thus expressed his method of study: "I keep the subject continually before me, and wait till the first dawnings open slowly by little and little into a full and clear light." It was in Newton's case, as in every other,only by diligent application and perseverance that his great reputation was achieved.
无可争议，牛顿的头脑是最高才智的头脑，但当我们问及他是通过什么方法取得了如此重大的发现时，他非常谦虚地答道：“全靠对那些问题不断地深思。”另一次，他这样表述他的研究方法：“我从未停止探索的脚步，当我看到第一缕曙光后，坚定的信念支持着我最终看到了清晰的世界。”正是通过勤奋和实践，牛顿才最终获得了不朽的名誉和伟大的成就。
Dalton,the chemist,repudiated the notion of his being "a genius," attributing everything which he had accomplished to simple industry and accumulation. John Hunter said of himself, "My mind is like a beehives; but full as it is of buzz and apparent confusion, it is yet full of order and regularity, and food collected with incessant industry from the choiceset stores of nature. "
英国化学家道尔顿对世人称他为“天才”的做法进行了批判。他认为自己之所以能获得成功完全凭借自身的不懈努力和对知识的不断积累。约翰?亨特也曾说过：“我的思想如同一个蜂箱，常常嗡嗡作响，甚至还会出现混乱，但通过不懈的努力，嗡嗡声已经消失了，蜜蜂们也都恢复了正常的秩序，而且还学会了如何从大自然的宝库中寻找食物。”
We have, indeed, but to glance at the biographies of great men to find that the most distinguished inventors, artists, thinkers, and workers of all kinds, owe their success, in a great measure, to their indefatigable industry and application.
我们同样可以在诸多人物传记中看到：大多数杰出人物，无论是发明家、艺术家、思想家、工人，还是社会各界人士，都无一例外地将自己的成就归功于勤奋和实践。
as you slowly open your eyes,look around,notice where the light comes into your room;listen carefully,see if there are new sounds you can recognize;feel with your body and spirit,and see if you can sense the freshness in the air.
yes,yes,yes,it’s a new day,it’s a different day,and it’s a bright day!and most importantly,it is a new beginning for your life,a beginning where you are going to make new desicisions,take new actions,make new friends,and take your life to a totally unprecedented level!
in your mind’s eye,you can see clearly the things you want to have,the paces you intend to go,the relationships you desire to develop,and the positions you aspire to reach.
you can hear your laughters of joy and happiness on the day when everything happens as you dream.
you can see the smiles on the people around you when the magic moment strikes.
you can feel your face is getting red,your heart is beating fast,and your blood is rushing all over your body,to every single corner of your being!
you know all this is real as long as you are confident,passionate and committed!and you are confident,you are confident,passionate and committed!
you will no longer fear making new sounds,showing new facial expressions,using your body in new ways,approaching new people,and asking new questions.
you will live every single day of your life with absolute passion,and you will show your passion through the words you speak and the actions you take.
you will focus all your time and effort on the most important goals of your will never succumb to challenges of hardships.
you will never waver in your pursuit of r all,you are the best,and you deserve the best!
as you coach and friend,i can assure you the door to all the best things in the world will open to you,but the key to that door is in your must do your part,you must faithfully follow the plans you make and take the actions you plan,you must never quit,you must never fear.i know you must do it,you can do it,you will do it,and you will succeed!now stand firm and tall,make a fist,get excited,and yell it out:
i must do it!i can do it!i will do it!i will succeed!
many things in this world find neither an answer nor a proper explanation. for example, why should two become a couple among the billions of people on earth? why don't they love each other even though they live together everyday, and yet one of them falls in love with someone else at the first sight? why do the members of a family quarrel daily but still stay unhappily together? why can't they get married in spite of the fact that they are a perfect match to each other? why should one toil so much for the other? why should the love-infatuated always be deserted by the heartless?.....
people remain puzzled in spite of their great effort to understand the endless questions, so they invented the all-embracing word---“predestination”. in order to be more precise, different combinations were derived from it: love predestination, sinful predestination, evil predestination, and kind predestination etc., hence we have the sayings like: “predestination will definitely bring you together despite the great distance while without predestination, you'll never know each other even though you are standing fact to face” “a distant couple is tied up with the thread of predestination” and even the phrases and expressions like “the god of marriage”, “predestination without luck”, “luck without predestination”, “coming across each other is a kind of predestination”, “enemies are bound to meet on a narrow road”, “they shall not marry each other unless they are predestined lovers”. if people still can not find answers, they turn to “reincarnation” for help. lin daiyu is always in tears just for repaying for the water jia baoyu had given her when she was a plant in her previous life in a dream of the red mansions .
in fact, the so-called “predestination” is often a kind of coincidence or chance encounter, even a kind of accident. if you don't meet this person, you'll surely meet some one else. but people insist on adding some colors of emotions or superstition, thus generating various religious factions, the main theories of which are no more than that of “reincarnation”, “heaven and hell” and “the ever-lasting soul” etc.
but does anyone know anything about his previous life or his after life? what could he do even if he knew them? if he can't grasp the present life, what's the benefit of commenting on the visionary after life? giving up today is the same as giving up tomorrow, for they are closely connected. how absurd it is to work like the horse or cattle in the present life in order to be above others in the next life.
have you ever seen emperor qinshihuang reincarnate? have you ever heard of emperor wudi of the han dynasty going into another life? where is now monk xuanzang of the tang dynasty (what we know is the big wild goose pagoda)? where is the monkey king (the flower and fruit mountain does exist, though)? and where can we find those great emperors such as yao , shun yu and the influential philosophers like confucius, laozi and zhuangzi?
how many heavens do we find? are they also divided into the oriental and the occidental world? is god a chinese or westerner? which is the greatest religion among buddhism, daoism, christianity, catholicity and islamism? all religions advocate doing good deeds and not killing, but why do they keep contending against each other, even fighting and killing among themselves? is the paradise the same one in all religions? there's only one sun in the sky, and there should be only one emperor in a country, but do all religions believe in the same god, or do they have different gods of their own? if all of us expected god's help, wouldn't god be too busy and too tired?
does god respect science? if not, why does he allow computers and telecommunications to run rampant? if it is god who created human beings, then doesn't he feel out of control of what the human being are doing now (the nuclear weapons and bio-chemical weapons, etc.)?
we human beings have an origin, and is it the same with god? does god get married? is god hereditary, or is it the same ever-lasting one?
we have all those questions but who can answer them?.
predestination needs us to strive for; friendship needs us to maintain; good will needs us to treasure and future needs us to create. there is no savior, nor goddess of mercy who once saved people in the past but cannot do anything to help the people at the present. the world is developing too fast.
people have to work together and associate with each other. talking about predestination, it's just a kind of explanation about what has happened, and i'm afraid nobody can predict it before hand. from ancient times till the 1980' s, once getting married, the couple had to stick to each other for their whole life. can we say it is because of their life-long predestination? it is just because of the marriage system. in the western countries, life-long marriage is rare. can we sa
y it is because their predestination makes it so? it is actually the result of human nature. the color of love could be attached to predestination, but not the color of superstition.
predestination is a lovely word which we should treasure and respect. in the present world, we should always follow the win-win or multi-win policy, instead of being single-handed. in order to achieve success, we must gain mass support instead of indulging in self-admiration. we might as well call the communication, the cooperation, the common concerns and the common aspirations of human beings “predestination”.
you will live every single day of your life with absolute passion, and you will show your passion through the words you speak and the actions you take.
you will focus all your time and effort on the most important goals of your life. you will never succumb to challenges of hardships.
you will never waver in your pursuit of excellence. after all,you are the best, and you deserve the best!
as your coach and friend, i can assure you the door to all the best things in the world will open to you, but the key to that door is in your hand. you must do your part, you must faithfully follow the plans you make and take the actions you plan, you must never quit, you must never fear. i know you must do it, you can do it, you will do it, and you will succeed!
now stand firm and tall, make a fist, get excited, and yell it out:
i must do it! i can do it! i will do it! i will succeed!
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.名人励志演讲稿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 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 made 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 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, 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 about 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 dot.community 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 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 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 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 aren’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.
The very in the creed of common sense is Obedience.
生的第一信条就是:学会服从。
Perform your work with a whole heart.
在工作中，你必须做到全心投入。
Revolt may be sometimes necessary, but the man who tries to mix revolt and obedience is doomed to disappoint himself and everybody with whom he has dealings. To flavor work with protest is to fail absolutely.
当然，我们必定要有做出反抗的时候。不过，如果一个人始终在反抗与服从这两种情绪中挣扎，并试图将两者混合在一起，那么他不仅会使自己感到失望，也会使身边的人感到失望。如果一个人对工作充满抵触情绪，那么他必定会一事无成。
When you revolt, climb, hike, get out, defy, tell everybody and everything to go to hades! That disposes of the case. You thus separate yourself entirely from those you have served, no one misunderstands you have declared yourself.
当你的内心充满了愤懑的情绪时，千万不要将这种情绪发泄到他人身上！只有这样你才不会众叛亲离，才不会被他人误解。否则的话只会使事情变得更糟。
The man who quits in disgust when ordered to perform a task which he considers menial or unjust may be a pretty good fellow, but the malcontent who takes your order with a smile and then secretly disobeys is a dangerous proposition. To pretend to obey, and yet carry in your heart the spirit of revolt is to do half hearted, slipshod work. If revolt and obedience are equal in power, your engine will then stop on the center and you benefit no one, not even yourself.
如果一个人面对繁重的工作依然能够泰然处之，那么他必定是个好员工；如果一个人表面上笑着接受你的命令，背地里却不服从，那么这种情况显然很危险。如果你假装服从，而内心却充满抵触情绪，那么你必定会对工作表现得漫不经心。更何况，当服从与抵触情绪共同出现时，你的能力必定会被这两种力量所抵消。这一结果对任何人而言都不是件好事。
The spirit of obedience is the controlling impulse that dominates the receptive mind and the hospitable heart.
我们必须通过一种自制力，使自己的思想与内心完全接受服从心理。
There are boats that mind the helm and there are boats that do not. Those that do not, get holes knocked in them sooner or later. To keep off the rocks, obey the rudder.
一些人的思想之舟中有一个舵手，而另外一些人的思想之舟却没有舵手来掌握方向。显然，后者极易覆舟。因而，我们必须按照“蛇手”的要求去做,这样才能够避开暗礁险滩。
Obedience is not to slavishly obey this man or that, but it is that cheerful mental state which responds to the necessity of the case, and does the thing without any back talk unuttered or expressed.
服从并不是指让我们像奴隶那样俯首帖耳，而是要以一种愉悦的心情来接受必须去做的事情。这样一来，当我们去做某件事时才不会表现得闷不吭声或喋喋不休。
The man who has not learned to obey has trouble ahead of him every step of the way. The world has it in for him continually, because he has it in for the man who does not know how to receive orders is not fit to issue them to others. But the individual who knows how to execute the orders given him is preparing the way to issue orders, and better still to have them obeyed.
一个不懂得服从的人必定会四处碰壁，他与世界为敌，世界必定也会与他为敌！一个不懂得服从的人根本不配让他人服从自己。反之，越是懂得服从的重要性的人，越有权利得到他人的服从。