佳言必知．大美勵志演說集成

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.
中譯：若我們空等某人或某時機，改變並不會來臨。我們一直所等待的就是我們自己；我們自己就是所追尋的改變本身。
- Barack Obama

You don't need to change yourself. Ever. You need to come home to yourself. And that changes everything.
- John Jacob Scherer

You must be the change you want to see in the world.
你自己必須成為你在世上想見到的那個改變。
- Mahatma Gandhi（甘地）

Woody Allen once said that 80 percent of success is showing up. I think he got it half-right; 80 percent of success is showing up early and staying late.
- Michael R. Bloomberg’s Commencement Address at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 2012

The fourth responsibility of an educated person is to be optimistic. Too often, cynicism can be the fellow traveler of learning, and I understand why. History is full of much cruelty and suffering and darkness, and it can be hard sometimes to believe that a brighter future is indeed dawning.
But for all of our past failings, for all our current problems, more people now enjoy lives of hope and opportunity than ever before in all of human history. This progress has been the concerted effort not of cynics, but of visionaries and optimists, of impatient patriots who have dealt with our world as it was but never lost sight of the world as it should be.
- Condoleezza Rice's (former U.S. secretary of state) commencement address at Southern Methodist University on May 12, 2012

It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.
- J. K. Rowling. Harvard University Commencement Address (5 June 2008)

I knew that as long as I kept walking towards the mountain I would be all right. And when I truly was not sure what to do, I could stop, and think about whether it was taking me towards or away from the mountain.
我知道，只要以堅定的步伐朝那座山邁進，就能達成目標。當我不確定該怎麼做時，就停下腳步，思考這麼做會使我朝著那座山邁進，還是會使我遠離那座山。

I learned to write by writing. I tended to do anything as long as it felt like an adventure, and to stop when it felt like work, which meant that life did not feel like work.
我藉由寫作學習寫作，我願意嘗試任何能帶給我冒險感覺的事。當某件事讓我感覺僅像是一份工作時，我就罷手。這意味著人生不該令人感覺僅像是一份工作。

I decided that I would do my best in future not to write books just for the money. If you didn't get the money, then you didn't have anything. If I did work I was proud of, and I didn't get the money, at least I'd have the work.
於是我決定，今後我會盡量試著不只是為了賺錢而寫書，若是如此，當我賺不到錢時，將一無所獲；如果我創作令自己驕傲的作品，就算賺不到錢，至少我還擁有足以自豪的作品。

The things I did because I was excited, and wanted to see them exist in reality have never let me down, and I've never regretted the time I spent on any of them.
那些我因為感興趣而做、為了實現夢想而做的事從未令我失望過，我也不曾後悔將時間花在那些事上。

whatever you do you have one thing that's unique. You have the ability to make art. And for me, and for so many of the people I have known, that's been a lifesaver. The ultimate lifesaver. It gets you through good times and it gets you through the other ones. Life is sometimes hard. Things go wrong, in life and in love and in business and in friendship and in health and in all the other ways that life can go wrong. And when things get tough, this is what you should do. Make good art.
無論你從事什麼行業，都擁有一樣獨一無二的東西，那就是創作藝術的能力。對於我和許多我認識的人來說，那是一項救贖，最終的救贖，它能陪伴你度過人生的順境與逆境。有時人生充滿艱辛，不如意事十之八九，生活、愛情、事業、友誼、健康和任何方面都可能出問題。當你遇上困境時，這就是你應該做的事－創作美妙的藝術。

The things I've done that worked the best were the things I was the least certain about, the stories where I was sure they would either work, or more likely be the kinds of embarrassing failures people would gather together and talk about until the end of time. They always had that in common: looking back at them, people explain why they were inevitable successes. While I was doing them, I had no idea. I still don't. And where would be the fun in making something you knew was going to work? And sometimes the things I did really didn't work. There are stories of mine that have never been reprinted. Some of them never even left the house. But I learned as much from them as I did from the things that worked.
我曾經獲得的最大成就，往往是我最沒自信的作品；那些我確信絕不會受歡迎的故事，或極可能遭受尷尬的失敗、讓人們聚在一起批評到世界末日的故事。這些作品都有一個共同點：回首過往，人們試著解釋為什麼這些作品會如此成功，當我創作它們時，並未預期會獲得這樣的成果；我依然不知道其中原因。完成你已知會成功的事有什麼樂趣？有時，我的努力確實一無所獲。我寫的故事有些不曾再版，其中一些甚至不曾出版，但我從它們身上學到的就跟那些成功作品一樣多。

People keep working, in a freelance world, and more and more of today's world is freelance, because their work is good, and because they are easy to get along with, and because they deliver the work on time. And you don't even need all three. Two out of three is fine. People will tolerate how unpleasant you are if your work is good and you deliver it on time. They'll forgive the lateness of the work if it's good, and if they like you. And you don't have to be as good as the others if you're on time and it's always a pleasure to hear from you.
但人們紛紛投入自由職業領域。在當今世界裡，從事自由職業者越來越多，原因在於他們的作品優秀、在於他們容易相處、在於他們能準時交稿。你甚至不需要同時擁有這三項優勢，只要擁有其中兩項即可。人們會容忍你多麼難相處；只要你的作品優秀、準時交稿。人們會原諒你拖稿；如果你的作品優秀、性格討喜。你不需要跟別人一樣才華洋溢；如果你能準時交稿、討人喜歡。

I wish you luck. Luck is useful. Often you will discover that the harder you work, and the more wisely you work, the luckier you get. But there is luck, and it helps.
祝你們好運。運氣十分有用。通常你會發現，越是努力工作、越是運用智慧工作，就會越幸運。但很多事都得靠運氣，它確實能帶來幫助。

so be wise, because the world needs more wisdom, and if you cannot be wise, pretend to be someone who is wise, and then just behave like they would.
所以，請運用智慧，因為這個世界需要更多智慧。如果你並不聰明，只要假裝自己是聰明人，做聰明人會做的事就行。
- Neil Gaiman. Commencement speech to the University of the Arts in Philadelphia (2012)

By all reckoning, the bumblebee is aerodynamically unsound and shouldn't be able to fly. Yet, the little bee gets those wings going like a turbo-jet and flies to every plant its chubby little body can land on to collect all the nectar it can hold.
Bumblebees are the most persistent creatures. They don't know they can't fly, so they just keep buzzing around.
Never give in to pessimism. Don't know that you can't fly, and you will soar like an eagle. Don't end up regretting what you did not do because you were too lazy or too frightened to soar. Be a bumblebee! And soar to the heavens. You can do it.
無論怎麼考量，大黃蜂從空氣動力學上講是不健全、不應該會飛的。但是，這種小蜜蜂卻像渦輪噴氣飛機一樣地展翅飛行，飛到它圓乎乎的身體能夠降落的任何植物上去採蜜。
大黃蜂最堅韌的生靈，它們不知道自己不能飛，因此它們只管到處嗡嗡地飛個不停。
千萬不要悲觀。不知道你不會飛，你會像鷹一樣高高飛翔。不要到頭來後悔自己因為太懶或太怕高飛而無所作為。做一隻大黃蜂。飛到天上去。你能做到的。
- Earl Bakken. University of Hawaii. May 16, 2004

In football we always said that the other team couldn't beat us. We had to be sure that we didn't beat ourselves. And that’s what people have to do, too — make sure they don't beat themselves.
... you'll find out that nothing that comes easy is worth a dime. As a matter of fact, I never saw a football player make a tackle with a smile on his face. Never.
在橄欖球場上，我們總是說其他隊戰勝不了我們。我們必須做到不把自己打垮。所有人也都必須這麼做，確保自己不要被自己打垮。
……你會發現，來得容易的東西總是一文不值。事實上，我從來沒有看到哪位橄欖球運動員是帶著微笑完成阻截的。從來沒有。
- Woody Hayes. Ohio State University. May 14, 1986

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.
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.
記著你總會死去，這是我知道的防止患得患失的最佳辦法。赤條條來去無牽掛，還有什麼理由不隨你的心？！
你的時間是有限的，因此不要把時間浪費在過別人的生活上。不要被教條所困——使自己的生活受限於他人的思想成果。不要讓他人的意見淹沒了你自己內心的聲音。最重要的是，要有勇氣跟隨你的內心與直覺，它們好歹已經知道你真正想讓自己成為什麼。其他的，都是次要的。
- Steve Jobs. Stanford University. June 12, 2005

You can fool all the people some of the time, some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.
你可以一時矇騙所有人，也可以一直矇騙一些人，但不可能一直矇騙所有人。
- 亞伯拉罕．林肯 Abraham Lincoln

You can fail at what you don’t want, so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love.
即使選擇了自己不喜歡的那條路，也可能會失敗，所以你也可以嘗試放手一搏，做你喜歡做的事。
- Jim Carrey 2014年在瑪赫西管理大學

You can not let a fear of failure or a fear of comparison or a fear of judgment stop you from doing the things that will make you great. You can not succeed without the risk of failure. You can not have a voice without the risk of criticism. You can not love without the risk of loss. You must take these risks.

I don't think you should just do what makes you happy. Do what makes you great. Do what's uncomfortable and scary and hard but pays off in the long run. Be willing to fail. Let yourself fail. Fail in the way and place where you would be proud to fail. Fail and pick yourself up and fail again. Without that struggle, what is your success anyway?

As best we know we have one life. In it, you must trust your own voice, your own ideas, your honestly and venerability and though this you will find your way. You don't have to be fearless just don't let fear stop you.
- Charlie Day 2014 Merrimack College Commencement