历史上的十大著名毕业演讲(上)

Some speeches are so memorable we can quote them at will. But few of them are commencement speeches. How many of us can recall the commencement speech at our college graduation?

一些令人难忘的演讲我们都能如数家珍，但其中只有少数是毕业演讲。多少人还能回想起那些年自己在毕业典礼上听过的演讲呢？

What if a commencement speech was not something to be endured, but to be treasured? And what if, instead of the same tired sentiments to "go forward and seize the day," the 20-minute address dispensed a glimpse of humanity's higher self? Thankfully, some of those exist. But it's not all rainbows and butterflies. Many memorable speeches have a touch of the macabre that foreshadow the underbelly of adulthood. After reading dozens of transcripts and viewing hours of footage, we've distilled 10 famous commencement speeches to their essence. Some speeches are memorable because of their time in history or because millions watched it online. Some were later published as books. At least one became a hit song. Here they are, in chronological order.

假如一场演讲不会让人昏昏欲睡而是被人津津乐道，假如没有无病呻吟，而是与时俱进,把20分钟演讲的关注点放在“如何提升自我”上面，这样的毕业演讲是不是会让你毕生难忘呢？还好，这样的演讲还是存在的，而且它们也不全是镜花水月。许多令人难忘的演讲一针见血地指出了成人世界的软肋。在翻阅了成打的手抄文本、观看了大量的影像带后，我们精心挑选了10个著名的演讲并提取了他们演讲中的精华。一些演讲因其所处的历史时期亦或是过高的点击量而令人难忘，一些后来还被收录在相关书籍中。每一个演讲在当时都掀起了思想的浪潮。下面就为你一一呈现！

ident John F. Kennedy at American University, 1963

10.1963年，约翰·F·肯尼迪总统于美利坚大学

"Our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's futures. And we are all mortal."

“我们都居住在这个小小的星球上，这是你我之间最基本的连接纽带。我们呼吸着同样的空气，我们都珍视子女们的未来，我们最终都会离开这个世界”。

This commencement address had a higher purpose. Just months after the Cuban missile crisis with the Soviet Union, when nuclear war was still a real threat, President John. F. Kennedy used the occasion to deliver a peace-laced talk to the entire world. The speech, which took a month to craft, was written in secret because he feared Pentagon officials would oppose its conciliatory tone. Kennedy asked Americans to consider their attitudes: "Too many of us think is impossible. Too many think it is unreal. But that is a dangerous, defeatist belief. It leads to the conclusion that war is inevitable ... We need not accept that view ... Among the many traits the peoples of our two countries have in common, none is stronger than our mutual abhorrence of war." Kennedy then announced that he, Nikita Khrushchev and Britain's Harold Macmillan would be entering talks about a comprehensive test ban treaty and that the U.S. wouldn't conduct further nuclear tests as long as no other country did either.

这篇毕业演讲因其所处的时代背景而影响深远。就在几个月前，美国虽然结束了与苏联的“古巴导弹危机”，然而核战争还是一个真实存在的威胁。肯尼迪总统选择在这样的场合用演讲向全世界传递了一个和平的信号。肯尼迪为这篇演讲苦心构思了一个月，因担心自己安抚性的语调会遭到国防部的反对,他决定秘密地完成这篇演讲。肯尼迪恳请美国人反思自己的态度：“我们中的许多人认为‘和平’是不可能的、是不现实的。然而，这是一种危险的失败主义观念。这种观念得出的结论是，战争不可避免…我们并非一定要接受这种观点…在我们两国人民的诸多共性中，最显著的莫过于我们对战争的共同憎恶。”之后肯尼迪宣布，他将同苏联最高领导人赫鲁晓夫、英国首相哈罗德·麦克米兰进行关于“全面禁止核试验条约”的商讨与谈话。他将承诺：只要他国不先进行进一步核试验，美国也决不会做核试验第一国。演讲后不过几天，华盛顿和克里姆林宫架设了一次专线。在演讲结束后的两个月，也就是1963年8月5日，三国领导人共同签署了《受限制核试验公约》。这是在全面裁军后的又一重大利好。

ary Rodham at Wellesley, 1969

9.1969年，希拉里·罗德姆于威尔斯利学院

"Every protest, every dissent, whether it's an individual academic paper, Founder's parking lot demonstration, is unabashedly an attempt to forge an identity in this particular age."

“每一次抗议，每一次反对，哪怕是一篇学术论文，甚至是一个停车场的说明，都是为这个特殊的时代烙上印迹的大胆尝试”。

It was her first big speech, but there would be many more to follow. At her graduation from Wellesley College in 1969, Hillary Rodham became the first student in the college's history to deliver a commencement address. She was president of student government at the time. Before beginning her prepared remarks, though, she criticized the event's previous speaker, Sen. Edward Brooke. In his speech, he had urged graduates to reject "coercive protest," which was a polite euphemism for near-riotous student demonstrations. It was an idea at which Rodham pointedly aimed when she took the podium. He was, it seemed to Rodham, too complacent. So she set aside her prepared speech and embarked on an elegantly efficient, impromptu response. "What does it mean to hear that 13.3 percent of the people in this country are below the poverty line? That's a percentage. We're not interested in social reconstruction; it's human reconstruction," she said. Rodham got a standing ovation that lasted several minutes. And she was only getting started. As Hillary Clinton, she went on to scale great heights as first lady of the United States, a senator, secretary of state and a 2016 presidential candidate.

这是希拉里·罗德姆生平第一次在大场面上演讲，但还是有很多值得说道的地方。1969年希拉里·罗德姆从威尔斯利学院毕业，她成为了学院历史上第一位发表毕业演讲的学生，同时她也是当时的学生会主席。然而在开始准备多时的演讲前，她先慷慨激昂地驳斥了上一位演讲者——名叫爱德华·布鲁克的参议员。他在演讲中怂恿学生们抵制“强制性抗议”（对学生暴乱游行的委婉表达），这也是她演讲的中心思想。在罗德姆看来，布鲁克太狂妄，于是她把准备好的演讲稿暂时放在一旁，开始一通优雅但犀利的即兴回击。她犀利地指出：“当听到13.3%的人民生活在国家贫困线以下时意味着什么？它说明我们对社会重建不够重视，说明我们对人类复兴无动于衷，这不仅仅是一个百分比，更是抽我们脸的皮鞭！”演讲结束后，罗德姆得到了全场起立鼓掌数分钟的肯定。然而这才只是她崭露头角的开始，当她变成希拉里·克林顿后，这位女强人在政坛上更加混得风声水起，成为了美国第一夫人、参议员，还曾担任美国国务卿，现在是2016年的总统候选人。

Vonnegut's Fictional Speech at MIT, 1997

8.1997年，库尔特·冯内古特于麻省理工学院

"Wear sunscreen ... The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience."

“防晒霜……科学家已经证明了长期涂防晒霜是有好处的，然而接下来我要给你们的意见却没有什么科学论证，只是基于我个人的经验。”

So begins one of the most popular commencement addresses in recent history, which also included such gems as "Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements. Get to know your parents. Travel". Famed American novelist Kurt Vonnegut sure had a way with words, didn't he? Within days, the sage-but-simple advice he supposedly offered to Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduates in June 1997 was racing across international borders via forwarded e-mails. Except Vonnegut didn't write the commencement address. Or share it from the podium during MIT's graduation ceremony. In fact, MIT's 1997 graduation speaker was actually Kofi Annan, then-secretary-general of the United Nations, who encouraged graduates to pursue multilateral diplomacy rather than save old love letters. Turns out the commencement address wasn't an address at all, but a column penned by Mary Schmich that was published in the Chicago Tribune. "It was witty," Vonnegut later said, "but it wasn't my wittiness." Of course, this didn't stop the prose from becoming nearly as famous as its mistaken author. Within a year, "Wear Sunscreen" had even been adapted into a hit single in Australia that rose to No. 1 in the U.K and No. 45 in the U.S. on the Billboard Hot 100. Schmich made a book out of it, too.

这段演讲竟成为近来历史上最受欢迎的毕业演讲之一，而且这段演讲还包含了许多金玉良言，如“保留你的旧情书，扔掉你的过期银行账单，多了解你的父母，多去旅行”等。那么著名的美国小说家库尔特. 冯内古特真的有说过这样的话吗？1997年6月，麻省理工学院毕业典礼上的这些简单却很有道理的话在接下来的那段日子里被世界各地的人们以电子邮件的方式广为转发。不过冯内古特并没有写过这段演讲，并且他也没有站在麻省理工学院的毕业典礼的颁奖台上分享他的这段话。事实上，这段话的演讲人是联合国前秘书长科菲.安南，他想通过这段演讲，鼓励毕业生去寻求一种多边的外交方式而不是鼓励他们保留自己的旧情书。最后证实，这段毕业演讲并不是一段真正的演讲，只是发表在《芝加哥论坛报》上、由玛丽.修米西撰写的一篇专栏而已。冯内古特随后回应道：“这篇专栏报道内涵丰富，但却不是我的创作。”不过就算是这样，也挡不住这篇演讲和库尔特.冯内古特一样出名，广为人知。在这篇专栏发表后的一年内，“涂防晒霜”这一热词被写进澳大利亚的一首单曲中，并在英国和美国的“广播台100首最热单曲”排行榜中分列第一及第四十五名。修米西也为此出了一本书。

a Shriver at College of the Holy Cross, 1998

7.1998年，玛利亚.施莱佛于圣十字学院

"Don't expect anyone else to support you financially."

“不要期盼任何人给你经济上的支持。”

When Maria Shriver, NBC news anchor and third-generation Kennedy, addressed 1998 graduates at College of the Holy Cross, her remarks received national attention. Shriver mentioned that she'd gotten a lot of advice on what she should say but decided to share her "top-ten list of things I wish someone had told me when I was sitting, like you, at my graduation." (Among them: "Pinpoint your passion." "No job is beneath you." And, "Superwoman is dead". Shriver backed up her advice with personal stories from her career and parenting adventures, and took a humorous approach to life's toughest moments. The well-received speech formed the basis of "Ten Things I Wish I'd Known—Before I Went Out into the Real World," a book that became an instant hit in the graduation gift category. In 2012, Shriver followed up with a second powerful commencement speech, "The Power of the Pause." Delivered at the University of Southern California on the occasion of her daughter's graduation, Shriver asked the new grads to pause before making judgments or decisions.

NBC的新闻主播、肯尼迪家族的第三代成员——玛利亚.施莱佛，当她1998年在圣十字学院发表这篇毕业演讲时，当时她说的那些话引起了全国广泛的关注。施莱佛提到，在演讲前，她得到了很多“关于到底在毕业典礼上说什么”的建议。不过最终她还是决定分享一些她自己的想法：如果她是在座的毕业生，那么她希望别人告诉她的十件事情是什么？（这十件事情包括“找到你的激情”，“不要让工作束缚你”以及“女超人已经死了”等）在演讲中，施莱佛回顾了她个人的工作经历以及育儿的一些小故事，提出了自己的一些意见，并且以一种豁达的态度去对待生活中最艰辛的时刻。在这篇好评如潮的演讲稿的基础上，她又撰写了《在我进入到真正的社会前我希望知道的十件事》一书，后来这本书成为了轰动一时的毕业送别礼物。在2012年的时候，施莱佛又发表了她的第二篇十分轰动的毕业演讲——“停顿的力量”。她在南加利福尼亚大学的一次毕业典礼（凑巧是女儿毕业的那一届）上发表了这段讲话。在演讲中，施莱佛建议应届生在做判断及决定前，一定要记得思考。

e Jobs at Stanford, 2005

6.2005年，史蒂夫·乔布斯在斯坦福大学

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life."

“生命有限，所以要活出自我风采。”

Even if you're not a Mac, you should listen to Steve Jobs' understated commencement address at Stanford University in 2005. Jobs, who quipped that the address was the closest he'd ever come to a college graduation, shared three stories that connected the dots of his life -- and could possibly serve as a roadmap for others. He outlined his decision to drop out of college, how it had loosed a hunger for learning and eventually inspired the launch of Apple computers. Next, Jobs chronicled being fired from the company he'd built and how the painful and embarrassing split had led to greater things, including NeXT (which Apple later purchased because of its proprietary technology). But it was Jobs' recollection of being diagnosed with cancer that really stood out. For one day, he lived with the prognosis that he had three to six months before a rare form of pancreatic cancer would take his life. Then a biopsy revealed he had a rarer form still, one that could be surgically removed. (Sadly, the cancer would return and Jobs died in 2011). "Don't be trapped by dogma -- which is living with the results of other people's thinking," Jobs advised. "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".

即使你不是Mac粉，你也应该听听乔布斯2005年在斯坦福大学毕业典礼上所做的朴实无华的演讲。乔布斯打趣道，这次演讲是他离大学毕业最近的时刻，并分享了三个转变他人生轨迹的故事——这些都可以作为别人的成功指南。他概括了自己辍学的决心，辍学如何激发出学习欲望，及最终灵感涌现、推出苹果电脑的故事。在接下来的演讲中，乔布斯讲述了他被自己一手创建的苹果公司抛弃，如何在内心痛苦和尴尬分歧境遇下，建设诸如NeXT公司的成功故事（NeXT公司后来凭借专利技术，被苹果公司收购）。但演讲的精华，是乔布斯述说自己被诊断出患有癌症的部分。有一天，乔布斯被告知自己的生命只剩3到6个月，因为他被诊断出患有罕见而致命的胰腺癌。接下来的胰岛穿刺活检组织病理结果显示，他的癌虽更罕见，但可以通过手术切除。（不幸的是，癌症会复发。乔布斯于2011年逝世。）乔布斯建议，“不要受教条束缚，因为那意味着你的生活就像拾人牙慧。不要因其他人喧嚣的观点而忽略自己内心的声音。最重要的是，拿出勇气，听从内心所想、直觉所示，因为它们能在某种程度上反映出你的真实想法。”

审校：围巾 编辑：listen 来源：前十网