大学英文毕业典礼演讲稿（精选7篇）
When I was in middle school, a poisonous spider bit my right hand. I ran to my mom for help—but instead of taking me to a doctor, my mom set my hand on fire.After wrapping my hand withseveral layers of cotton, then soaking it in wine, she put a chopstick into my mouth,and ignited the cotton. Heat quickly penetrated the cotton and began to roast my hand. The searing pain made me want to scream, but the chopstick prevented it. All I could do was watch my hand burn - one minute, then two minutes –until mom put out the fire.
You see, the part of China I grew up in was a rural village, and at that time pre-industrial. When I was born, my village had no cars, no telephones, no electricity, not even running water. And we certainly didn’t have access to modern medical resources. There was no doctor my mother could bring me to see about my spider bite.
For those who study biology, you may have grasped the science behind my mom’s cure: heat deactivates proteins, and a spider’s venom is simply a form of protein. It’s coolhow that folk remedy actually incorporates basic biochemistry, isn’t itBut I am a PhD student in biochemistry at Harvard, I now know that better, less painful and less risky treatments existed. So I can’t help but ask myself, why I didn’t receive oneat the time.
Fifteen years have passed since that incident. I am happy to report that my hand is fine. But this question lingers, and I continue to be troubled by the unequal distribution of scientific knowledge throughout the world. We have learned to edit the human genome and unlock many secrets of how cancer progresses. We can manipulate neuronal activity literally with the switch of a light. Each year brings more advances in biomedical research-exciting, transformative accomplishments. Yet, despite the knowledge we have amassed, we haven’t been so successful in deploying it to where it’s needed most. According to the World Bank, twelve percent of the world’s population lives on less than $2 a day. Malnutrition kills more than 3 million children annually. Three hundred million peopleare afflicted by malaria globally. All over the world, we constantly see these problems of poverty, illness, and lack of resources impeding the flow of scientific information. Lifesaving knowledge we take for granted in the modern world is often unavailable in these underdeveloped regions.And in far too many places, people are still essentially trying to cure a spider bite with fire.
While studying at Harvard, I saw how scientific knowledge can help others in simple, yet profound ways. The bird flu pandemic in the 20__s looked to my village like a spell cast by demons. Our folk medicine didn’t even have half-measures to offer. What’s more, farmers didn’t know the difference between common cold and flu; they didn’t understand that the flu was much more lethal than the common cold. Most people were also unaware that the virus could transmit across different species.So when I realized that simple hygiene practices like separating different animal species could contain the spread of the disease, and that I could help make this knowledge available to my village, that was my first ―Aha‖ moment as a budding scientist. But it was more than that: it was also a vital inflection point in my own ethical development, my own self-understanding as a member of the global community.
Harvard dares us to dream big, to aspire to change the world. Here on this Commencement Day, we are probably thinking of grand destinations and big adventures that await us. As for me, I am also thinking of the farmers in my village. My experiencehere reminds me how important it is for researchersto communicateour knowledge to those who need it. Because by using the sciencewe already have, we
could probably bring my village and thousands like it into the world you and I take for granted every day. And that’s an impact every one of us can make!
But the question is, will we make the effort or not
More than ever before,our society emphasizes science and innovation. But an equally important emphasis should be on distributing the knowledge we have to where it’s needed. Changing the world doesn’t mean thateveryone has to find the next big thing. It can be as simple as becoming better communicators, and finding more creative ways to pass on the knowledge we have to people like my mom and the farmers in their local community. Our society also needs to recognize that the equal distribution of knowledge is a pivotal step of human development, and work to bring this into reality.
And if we do that, then perhaps a teenager in rural China who is bitten by a spider will not have to burn his hand, but will know to seek a doctor instead.
This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 20xx.
I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, I never graduated from college. This is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.
斯坦福是世界上最好的大学之一，今天能参加各位的毕业典礼，我备感荣幸。(尖叫声)我从来没有从大学毕业，说句实话，此时算是我离大学毕业最近的一刻。(笑声)今天，我想告诉你们我生命中的三个故事，并非什么了不得的大事件，只是三个小故事而已。
The first story is about connecting the dots.
第一个故事关于串起生命中的点点滴滴。
I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?
退学是我这一生所做出的最正确的决定之一。我在里德大学待了6个月就退学了，但之后仍作为旁听生混了18个月后才最终离开。我为什么要退学呢?
It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.
故事要从我出生之前开始说起。我的生母是一名年轻的未婚妈妈，当时她还是一所大学的在读研究生，于是决定把我送给其他人收养。她坚持我应该被一对念过大学的夫妇收养，所以在我出生的时候，她已经为我被一个律师和他的太太收养做好了所有的准备。但在最后一刻，这对夫妇改了主意，决定收养一个女孩。候选名单上的另外一对夫妇，也就是我的养父母，在一天午夜接到了一通电话：“有一个不请自来的男婴，你们想收养吗?”他们回答：“当然想。”事后，我的生母才发现我的养母根本就没有从大学毕业，而我的养父甚至连高中都没有毕业，所以她拒绝签署最后的收养文件，直到几个月后，我的养父母保证会把我送到大学，她的态度才有所转变。
And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.
17年之后，我真上了大学。但因为年幼无知，我选择了一所和斯坦福一样昂贵的大学，(笑声)我的父母都是工人阶级，他们倾其所有资助我的学业。在6个月之后，我发现自己完全不知道这样念下去究竟有什么用。当时，我的人生漫无目标，也不知道大学对我能起到什么帮助，为了念书，还花光了父母毕生的积蓄，所以我决定退学。我相信车到山前必有路。当时作这个决定的时候非常害怕，但现在回头去看，这是我这一生所做出的最正确的决定之一。(笑声)从我退学那一刻起，我就再也不用去上那些我毫无兴趣的必修课了，我开始旁听那些看来比较有意思的科目。
It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5 cent; deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.
这件事情做起来一点都不浪漫。因为没有自己的宿舍，我只能睡在朋友房间的地板上;可乐瓶的押金是5分钱，我把瓶子还回去好用押金买吃的;在每个周日的晚上，我都会步行7英里穿越市区，到HareKrishna教堂吃一顿大餐，我喜欢那儿的食物。我跟随好奇心和直觉所做的事情，事后证明大多数都是极其珍贵的经验。我举一个例子：那个时候，里德大学提供了全美国最好的书法教育。整个校园的每一张海报，每一个抽屉上的标签，都是漂亮的手写体。由于已经退学，不用再去上那些常规的课程，于是我选择了一个书法班，想学学怎么写出一手漂亮字。在这个班上，我学习了各种字体，如何改变不同字体组合之间的字间距，以及如何做出漂亮的版式。那是一种科学永远无法捕捉的充满美感、历史感和艺术感的微妙，我发现这太有意思了。
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.
当时，我压根儿没想到这些知识会在我的生命中有什么实际运用价值;但是10年之后，当我们设计第一款Macintosh电脑的时候，这些东西全派上了用场。我把它们全部设计进了Mac，这是第一台可以排出好看版式的电脑。如果当时我大学里没有旁听这门课程的话，Mac就不会提供各种字体和等间距字体。自从Windows系统抄袭了Mac以后，(鼓掌大笑)所有的个人电脑都有了这些东西。如果我没有退学，我就不会去书法班旁听，而今天的个人电脑大概也就不会有出色的版式功能。当然我在念大学的那会儿，不可能有先见之明，把那些生命中的点点滴滴都串起来;但10年之后再回头看，生命的轨迹变得非常清楚。
Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
再强调一次，你不可能充满预见地将生命的点滴串联起来;只有在你回头看的时候，你才会发现这些点点滴滴之间的联系。所以，你要坚信，你现在所经历的将在你未来的生命中串联起来。你不得不相信某些东西，你的直觉、命运、生活、因缘际会……正是这种信仰让我不会失去希望，它让我的人生变得与众不同。
My second story is about love and loss.
第二个故事关于爱与失去。
I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.
被苹果开掉是我这一生所经历过的最棒的事情。
我是幸运的，在年轻的时候就知道了自己爱做什么。在我20岁的时候，就和沃兹在我父母的车库里开创了苹果电脑公司。我们勤奋工作，只用了10年的时间，苹果电脑就从车库里的两个小伙子扩展成拥有4000名员工，价值达到20亿美元的企业。而在此之前的一年，我们刚推出了我们最好的产品Macintosh电脑，当时我刚过而立之年。然后，我就被炒了鱿鱼。一个人怎么可以被他所创立的公司解雇呢?(笑声)这么说吧，随着苹果的成长，我们请了一个原本以为很能干的家伙和我一起管理这家公司，在头一年左右，他干得还不错，但后来，我们对公司未来的前景出现了分歧，于是我们之间出现了矛盾。由于公司的董事会站在他那一边，所以在我30岁的时候，就被踢出了局。我失去了一直贯穿在我整个成年生活的重心，打击是毁灭性的。
I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.
在头几个月，我真不知道要做些什么。我觉得我让企业界的前辈们失望了，我失去了传到我手上的指挥棒。我遇到了戴维.帕卡德(普惠的创办人之一)和鲍勃.诺伊斯(英特尔的创办人之一)，我向他们道歉，因为我把事情搞砸了。我成了人人皆知的失败者，我甚至想过逃离硅谷。但曙光渐渐出现，我还是喜欢我做过的事情。在苹果电脑发生的一切丝毫没有改变我，一个比特都没有。虽然被抛弃了，但我的热忱不改。我决定重新开始。
I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.
我当时没有看出来，但事实证明，我被苹果开掉是我这一生所经历过的最棒的事情。成功的沉重被凤凰涅槃的轻盈所代替，每件事情都不再那么确定，我以自由之躯进入了我整个生命当中最有创意的时期。
在接下来的5年里，我开创了一家叫做NeXT的公司，接着是一家名叫Pixar的公司，并且结识了后来成为我妻子的曼妙女郎。Pixar制作了世界上第一部全电脑动画电影《玩具总动员》，现在这家公司是世界上最成功的动画制作公司之一。(掌声)后来经历一系列的事件，苹果买下了NeXT，于是我又回到了苹果，我们在NeXT研发出的技术成为推动苹果复兴的核心动力。我和劳伦斯也拥有了美满的家庭。
I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it.
Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.
我非常肯定，如果没有被苹果炒掉，这一切都不可能在我身上发生。
生活有时候就像一块板砖拍向你的脑袋，但不要丧失信心。热爱我所从事的工作，是一直支持我不断前进的惟一理由。你得找出你的最爱，对工作如此，对爱人亦是如此。工作将占据你生命中相当大的一部分，从事你认为具有非凡意义的工作，方能给你带来真正的满足感。而从事一份伟大工作的惟一方法，就是去热爱这份工作。如果你到现在还没有找到这样一份工作，那么就继续找。不要安于现状，当万事了于心的时候，你就会知道何时能找到。如同任何伟大的浪漫关系一样，伟大的工作只会在岁月的酝酿中越陈越香。所以，在你终有所获之前，不要停下你寻觅的脚步。不要停下。
My third story is about death.
第三个故事关于死亡。
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
在17岁的时候，我读过一句格言，好像是：“如果你把每一天都当成你生命里的最后一天，你将在某一天发现原来一切皆在掌握之中。” (笑声)这句话从我读到之日起，就对我产生了深远的影响。在过去的33年里，我每天早晨都对着镜子问自己：“如果今天是我生命中的末日，我还愿意做我今天本来应该做的事情吗?”当一连好多天答案都否定的时候，我就知道做出改变的时候到了。
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
提醒自己行将入土是我在面临人生中的重大抉择时，最为重要的工具。
因为所有的事情——外界的期望、所有的尊荣、对尴尬和失败的惧怕——在面对死亡的时候，都将烟消云散，只留下真正重要的东西。在我所知道的各种方法中，提醒自己即将死去是避免掉入畏惧失去这个陷阱的最好办法。人赤条条地来，赤条条地走，没有理由不听从你内心的呼唤。
About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
大约一年前，我被诊断出癌症。在早晨7：30我做了一个检查，扫描结果清楚地显示我的胰脏出现了一个肿瘤。我当时甚至不知道胰脏究竟是什么。医生告诉我，几乎可以确定这是一种不治之症，顶多还能活3至6个月。大夫建议我回家，把诸事安排妥当，这是医生对临终病人的标准用语。这意味着你得把你今后10年要对你的子女说的话用几个月的时间说完;这意味着你得把一切都安排妥当，尽可能减少你的家人在你身后的负担;这意味着向众人告别的时间到了。
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck anendoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.
我整天都想着诊断结果。那天晚上做了一个切片检查，医生把一个内窥镜从我的喉管伸进去，穿过我的胃进入肠道，将探针伸进胰脏，从肿瘤上取出了几个细胞。我打了镇静剂，但我的太太当时在场，她后来告诉我说，当大夫们从显微镜下观察了细胞组织之后，都哭了起来，因为那是非常罕见的，可以通过手术治疗的胰脏癌。我接受了手术，现在已经康复了。
This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
这是我最接近死亡的一次，我希望在随后的几十年里，都不要有比这一次更接近死亡的经历。在经历了这次与死神擦肩而过的经验之后，死亡对我来说只是一项有效的判断工具，并且只是一个纯粹的理性概念，我能够更肯定地告诉你们以下事实：没人想死;即使想去天堂的人，也是希望能活着进去。(笑声)死亡是我们每个人的人生终点站，没人能够成为例外。生命就是如此，因为死亡很可能是生命最好的造物，它是生命更迭的媒介，送走耄耋老者，给新生代让路。现在你们还是新生代，但不久的将来你们也将逐渐老去，被送出人生的舞台。很抱歉说得这么富有戏剧性，但生命就是如此。
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
你们的时间有限，所以不要把时间浪费在别人的生活里。不要被条条框框束缚，否则你就生活在他人思考的结果里。不要让他人的观点所发出的噪音淹没你内心的声音。最为重要的是，要有遵从你的内心和直觉的勇气，它们可能已知道你其实想成为一个什么样的人。其他事物都是次要的。
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.
在我年轻的时候，有一本非常棒的杂志叫《全球目录》(The Whole Earth Catalog)，它被我们那一代人奉为圭臬。这本杂志的创办人是一个叫斯图尔特.布兰德的家伙，他住在Menlo Park，距离这儿不远。他把这本杂志办得充满诗意。那是在60年代末期，个人电脑、桌面发排系统还没有出现，所以出版工具只有打字机、剪刀和宝丽来相机。这本杂志有点像印在纸上的`Google，但那是在Google出现的35年前;它充满了理想色彩，内容都是些非常好用的工具和了不起的见解。
Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.
图尔特和他的团队做了几期《全球目录》，快无疾而终的时候，他们出版了最后一期。那是在70年代中期，我当时处在你们现在的年龄。在最后一期的封底有一张清晨乡间公路的照片，如果你喜欢搭车冒险旅行的话，经常会碰到的那种小路。在照片下面有一排字：物有所不足，智有所不明(Stay Hungry，Stay Foolish.求知若饥，虚心若愚)这是他们停刊的告别留言。物有所不足，智有所不明——我总是以此自省。现在，在你们毕业开始新生活的时候，我把这句话送给你们。
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
Thank you all very much
求知若饥，虚心若愚。
非常感谢!
Cutting through complexity to find a solution runs through four predictable stages: determine a goal, find the highest-leverage approach, discover the ideal technology for that approach, and in the meantime, make the smartest application of the technology that you already have — whether it’s something sophisticated, like a drug, or something simpler, like a bednet.
The AIDS epidemic offers an example. The broad goal, of course, is to end the disease. The highest-leverage approach is prevention. The ideal technology would be a vaccine that gives lifetime immunity with a single dose. So governments, drug companies, and foundations fund vaccine research. But their work is likely to take more than a decade, so in the meantime, we have to work with what we have in hand – and the best prevention approach we have now is getting people to avoid risky behavior.
Pursuing that goal starts the four-step cycle again. This is the pattern. The crucial thing is to never stop thinking and working – and never do what we did with malaria and tuberculosis in the 20th century – which is to surrender to complexity and quit.
The final step – after seeing the problem and finding an approach – is to measure the impact of your work and share your successes and failures so that others learn from your efforts.
You have to have the statistics, of course. You have to be able to show that a program is vaccinating millions more children. You have to be able to show a decline in the number of children dying from these diseases. This is essential not just to improve the program, but also to help draw more investment from business and government.
But if you want to inspire people to participate, you have to show more than numbers; you have to convey the human impact of the work – so people can feel what saving a life means to the families affected.
I remember going to Davos some years back and sitting on a global health panel that was discussing ways to save millions of lives. Millions! Think of the thrill of saving just one persons life – then multiply that by millions. … Yet this was the most boring panel Ive ever been on – ever. So boring even I couldnt bear it.
What made that experience especially striking was that I had just come from an event where we were introducing version 13 of some piece of software, and we had people jumping and shouting with excitement. I love getting people excited about software – but why cant we generate even more excitement for saving lives?
You cant get people excited unless you can help them see and feel the impact. And how you do that – is a complex question.
Still, Im optimistic. Yes, inequity has been with us forever, but the new tools we have to cut through complexity have not been with us forever. They are new – they can help us make the most of our caring – and thats why the future can be different from the past.
The defining and ongoing innovations of this age – biotechnology, the computer, the Internet – give us a chance we’ve never had before to end extreme poverty and end death from preventable disease.
Sixty years ago, George Marshall came to this commencement and announced a plan to assist the nations of post-war Europe. He said: "I think one difficulty is that the problem is one of such enormous complexity that the very mass of facts presented to the public by press and radio make it exceedingly difficult for the man in the street to reach a clear appraisement of the situation. It is virtually impossible at this distance to grasp at all the real significance of the situation."
Thirty years after Marshall made his address, as my class graduated without me, technology was emerging that would make the world smaller, more open, more visible, less distant.
The emergence of low-cost personal computers gave rise to a powerful network that has transformed opportunities for learning and communicating.
The magical thing about this network is not just that it collapses distance and makes everyone your neighbor. It also dramatically increases the number of brilliant minds we can have working together on the same problem – and that scales up the rate of innovation to a staggering degree.
At the same time, for every person in the world who has access to this technology, five people dont. That means many creative minds are left out of this discussion -- smart people with practical intelligence and relevant experience who dont have the technology to hone their talents or contribute their ideas to the world.
We need as many people as possible to have access to this technology, because these advances are triggering a revolution in what human beings can do for one another. They are making it possible not just for national governments, but for universities, corporations, smaller organizations, and even individuals to see problems, see approaches, and measure the impact of their efforts to address the hunger, poverty, and desperation George Marshall spoke of 60 years ago.
Members of the Harvard Family: Here in the Yard is one of the great collections of intellectual talent in the world.
What for?
There is no question that the faculty, the alumni, the students, and the benefactors of Harvard have used their power to improve the lives of people here and around the world. But can we do more? Can Harvard dedicate its intellect to improving the lives of people who will never even hear its name?
Let me make a request of the deans and the professors – the intellectual leaders here at Harvard: As you hire new faculty, award tenure, review curriculum, and determine degree requirements, please ask yourselves:
Should our best minds be dedicated to solving our biggest problems?
Should Harvard encourage its faculty to take on the worlds worst inequities? Should Harvard students learn about the depth of global poverty … the prevalence of world hunger … the scarcity of clean water …the girls kept out of school … the children who die from diseases we can cure?
Should the worlds most privileged people learn about the lives of the worlds least privileged?
These are not rhetorical questions – you will answer with your policies.
My mother, who was filled with pride the day I was admitted here – never stopped pressing me to do more for others. A few days before my wedding, she hosted a bridal event, at which she read aloud a letter about marriage that she had written to Melinda. My mother was very ill with cancer at the time, but she saw one more opportunity to deliver her message, and at the close of the letter she said: "From those to whom much is given, much is expected."
When you consider what those of us here in this Yard have been given – in talent, privilege, and opportunity – there is almost no limit to what the world has a right to expect from us.
In line with the promise of this age, I want to exhort each of the graduates here to take on an issue – a complex problem, a deep inequity, and become a specialist on it. If you make it the focus of your career, that would be phenomenal. But you dont have to do that to make an impact. For a few hours every week, you can use the growing power of the Internet to get informed, find others with the same interests, see the barriers, and find ways to cut through them.
Dont let complexity stop you. Be activists. Take on the big inequities. It will be one of the great experiences of your lives.
You graduates are coming of age in an amazing time. As you leave Harvard, you have technology that members of my class never had. You have awareness of global inequity, which we did not have. And with that awareness, you likely also have an informed conscience that will torment you if you abandon these people whose lives you could change with very little effort. You have more than we had; you must start sooner, and carry on longer.
Knowing what you know, how could you not?
And I hope you will come back here to Harvard 30 years from now and reflect on what you have done with your talent and your energy. I hope you will judge yourselves not on your professional accomplishments alone, but also on how well you have addressed the worlds deepest inequities … on how well you treated people a world away who have nothing in common with you but their humanity.
Good luck.
my dear mr. and misses, my fellows schoolmates,
good morning! as you know and see, it is a sunny bump harvest season. in the city, in our school campus, everywhere is surrounded with roses which we together planted 4 years ago. today may these roses and our friendship as well be together and comfort our excited hearts!
it was four years ago that everyone of us came from every part of china and formed a new collective. as we are young, it’s very easy for us to communicate. it was in the past four years that we were ambitious. it was in the past four years that we worried. it was in the past four years that we were content. it was in the past four years that we were vexed. it was in the past four years that we were friendly and lonely ... and it was in the past fours that we studied, lived and respected each other with genuine and with our ambitions. nothing in the world is more significant than we miss all of these.
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 he really 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。我想请你们为我做一件事。请你---好好看一看周围，看一看站在你左边的同学，看一看站在你右边的同学。
请你设想这样的情况：从现在起5年之后，20xx年之后，或30年之后，今天站在你左边的这个人会是一个失败者;右边的这个人，同样，也是个失败者。而你，站在中间的家伙，你以为会怎样?一样是失败者。失败的经历。失败的优等生。
说实话，今天我站在这里，并没有看到一千个毕业生的灿烂未来。我没有看到一千个行业的一千名卓越领导者，我只看到了一千个失败者。你们感到沮丧，这是可以理解的。为什么，我，埃里森，一个退学生，竟然在美国最具声望的学府里这样厚颜地散布异端?我来告诉你原因。因为，我，埃里森，这个行星上第二富有的人，是个退学生，而你不是。因为比尔-盖茨，这个行星上最富有的人——就目前而言---是个退学生，而你不是。因为艾伦，这个行星上第三富有的人，也退了学，而你没有。再来一点证据吧，因为戴尔，这个行星上第九富有的人——他的排位还在不断上升，也是个退学生。而你，不是。
你们非常沮丧，这是可以理解的。
你们将来需要这些有用的工作习惯。你将来需要这种'治疗'。你需要它们，因为你没辍学，所以你永远不会成为世界上最富有的人。哦，当然，你可以，也许，以你的方式进步到第10位，第11位，就像steve。但，我没有告诉你他在为谁工作，是吧?
根据记载，他是研究生时辍的学，开化得稍晚了些。
现在，我猜想你们中间很多人，也许是绝大多数人，正在琢磨，'我能做什么? 我究竟有没有前途?'当然没有。太晚了，你们已经吸收了太多东西，以为自己懂得太多。你们再也不是19岁了。你们有了'内置'的帽子，哦，我指的可不是你们脑袋上的学位帽。
嗯......你们已经非常沮丧啦。这是可以理解的。所以，现在可能是讨论实质的时候啦——
绝不是为了你们，20xx年毕业生。你们已经被报销，不予考虑了。我想，你们就偷偷摸摸去干那年薪20万的可怜工作吧，在那里，工资单是由你两年前辍学的同班同学签字开出来的。事实上，我是寄希望于眼下还没有毕业的同学。我要对他们说，离开这里。收拾好你的东西，带着你的点子，别再回来。退学吧，开始行动。
我要告诉你，一顶帽子一套学位服必然要让你沦落，就像这些保安马上要把我从这个讲台上撵走一样必然。(此时，larry被带离了讲台)
Madam President Faust， members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers，faculty， family， friends， and， most importantly， todays graduates，Thank you for letting me share this wonderful day with you.
I am not sure I can live up to the high standards of Harvard Commencement speakers. Lastyear， J.K. Rowling， the billionaire novelist， who started as a classics student， graced thispodium. The year before， Bill Gates， the mega-billionaire philanthropist and computer nerdstood here. Today， sadly， you have me. I am not wealthy， but at least I am a nerd.
I am grateful to receive an honorary degree from Harvard， an honor that means more to methan you might care to imagine. You see， I was the academic black sheep of my family. Myolder brother has an M.D./Ph.D. from MIT and Harvard while my younger brother has a lawdegree from Harvard. When I was awarded a Nobel Prize， I thought my mother would besatisfied. Not so. When I called her on the morning of the announcement， she replied， "Thatsnice， but when are you going to visit me next." Now， as the last brother with a degree fromHarvard， maybe， at last， she will be satisfied.
Another difficulty with giving a Harvard commencement address is that some of you maydisapprove of the fact that I have borrowed material from previous speeches. I ask that youforgive me for two reasons.
First， in order to have impact， it is important to deliver the same message more than once. Inscience， it is important to be the first person to make a discovery， but it is even more importantto be the last person to make that discovery.
Second， authors who borrow from others are following in the footsteps of the best. Ralph WaldoEmerson， who graduated from Harvard at the age of 18， noted "All my best thoughts werestolen by the ancients." Picasso declared "Good artists borrow. Great artists steal." Why shouldcommencement speakers be held to a higher standard?
I also want to point out the irony of speaking to graduates of an institution that would haverejected me， had I the chutzpah to apply. I am married to "Dean Jean，" the former dean ofadmissions at Stanford. She assures me that she would have rejected me， if given the chance.When I showed her a draft of this speech， she objected strongly to my use of the word"rejected." She never rejected applicants; her letters stated that "we are unable to offer youadmission." I have difficulty understanding the difference. After all， deans of admissions ofhighly selective schools are in reality， "deans of rejection." Clearly， I have a lot to learn aboutmarketing.
My address will follow the classical sonata form of commencement addresses. The firstmovement， just presented， were light-hearted remarks. This next movement consists ofunsolicited advice， which is rarely valued， seldom remembered， never followed. As Oscar Wildesaid， "The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself."So， here comes the advice. First， every time you celebrate an achievement， be thankful tothose who made it possible. Thank your parents and friends who supported you， thank yourprofessors who were inspirational， and especially thank the other professors whose less-than-brilliant lectures forced you to teach yourself. Going forward， the ability to teach yourself is thehallmark of a great liberal arts education and will be the key to your success. To your fellowstudents who have added immeasurably to your education during those late night discussions，hug them. Also， of course， thank Harvard. Should you forget， theres an alumni association toremind you. Second， in your future life， cultivate a generous spirit. In all negotiations， dontbargain for the last， little advantage. Leave the change on the table. In your collaborations，always remember that "credit" is not a conserved quantity. In a successful collaboration，everybody gets 90 percent of the credit.
my dear mr. and misses, my fellows schoolmates,
good morning! as you know and see, it is a sunny bump harvest season. in the city, in our school campus, everywhere is surrounded with roses which we together planted 4 years ago. today may these roses and our friendship as well be together and comfort our excited hearts!
it was four years ago that everyone of us came from every part of china and formed a new collective. as we are young, it’s very easy for us to communicate. it was in the past four years that we were ambitious. it was in the past four years that we worried. it was in the past four years that we were content. it was in the past four years that we were vexed. it was in the past four years that we were friendly and lonely ... and it was in the past fours that we studied, lived and respected each other with genuine and with our ambitions. nothing in the world is more significant than we miss all of these.
we miss you─teachers who are tireless in teaching; we will keep your gestures and your white hairs in our hearts deeply; we will miss the quietness with the lights at night in the classroom; we will miss the race and exercise on the playground; we will miss even the crowds in the dining hall and the quarrel on the beds; we will still miss every green piece and every piece of waste paper flying like flakes in the air ... however, today we will leave nothing but the first rose with our alma mater and our teachers which is entrusted with our love and respect.
4 years seems very long but 4 years seems very short. from now on, we all will go into the society. the society is broad and wide for us. we will shoulder heavy responsibilities; we will work diligently; and we will expect to be informed of good news from one another. now, i beg you all to cherish the occasion; to remember the names, the status, appearance and the character of the person around you. now let’s be hand in hand together; let’s present the rose to each other. may the rose carry our appreciation and blessing! we are very closely linked no matter what the world may be. may the fresh rose in our hands keep its fragrants!
thank you all again!