Steven Chu: "authors who borrow from others are following in the footsteps of the best. Ralph Waldo Emerson, who graduated from Harvard at the age of 18, noted “All my best thoughts were stolen by the ancients.” Picasso declared “Good artists borrow. Great artists steal.” Why should commencement
speakers be held to a higher standard?"“从别人那里借来的作者正在追求最好的脚步,拉尔夫·沃尔多·艾默生18岁从哈佛大学毕业,他说:”我所有的最好的想法都被古人偷走了“毕加索宣称”好艺术家借 伟大的艺术家偷了“为什么要开始演讲者要高一些?”
在北大研究生毕业典礼上,当然会想到北大的前辈杰出学者,可是,如果历数北大前辈杰出学者,就等于要写一部中国现代学术史。我没法一一列举,在这里我只是给各位送上三个北大前辈的话。第一段话,是胡适(1891-1962)说的,“做人要在有疑处不疑,做学问要在不疑处有疑”,后面这句话是说,在学术研究中,永远需要勇于怀疑的精神,靠着这种精神,你才能发现死角、看出破绽,提出超越前人的真问题;第二段话,是傅斯年(1896-1950)说的,“上穷碧落下黄泉,动手动脚找东西”,没有寻找再寻找(search and research)的吃苦精神,没有扎实的知识基础,你是不能成功的,学问不能靠小聪明,因为“罗马不是一天建成的”;第三段话,是顾颉刚(1893-1980)说的,“学问上是没有止境的,如果得到了止境就等于自己的堕落”,因为在学术研究这一行,比的常常是马拉松,而不是百米,不能坚持就没有收获,千万不要自我满足,别满足于SCI SSCI AHCI的数量,把平庸的小土坡,当作“会当凌绝顶,一览众山小”的泰山。
Jun 4, 2009 - His Secretary of Energy, our speaker Steven Chu, has reinforced this message, predicating our prosperity as a nation in the years to come ...
Harvard Commencement 2009. Harvard University ... from many, including President Drew Faust and Energy ...
Personal story:
"I am grateful to receive an honorary degree from Harvard, an honor that means more to me than you might care to imagine. You see, I was the academic black sheep of my family. My older brother has an M.D./Ph.D. from MIT and Harvard while my younger brother has a law degree from Harvard. When I was awarded a Nobel Prize, I thought my mother would be pleased. Not so. When I called her on the morning of the announcement, she replied, “That’s nice, but when are you going to visit me next? Now, as the last brother with a degree from Harvard, maybe, at last, she will be satisfied."
His advice was borrowed from the famous:
"Second, authors who borrow from others are following in the footsteps of the best. Ralph Waldo Emerson, who graduated from Harvard at the age of 18, noted “All my best thoughts were stolen by the ancients.” Picasso declared “Good artists borrow. Great artists steal.” Why should commencement speakers be held to a higher standard?"
"As Oscar Wilde said, “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 to those who made it possible. Thank your parents and friends who supported you, thank your professors 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 the hallmark of a great liberal arts education and will be the key to your success. To your fellow students who have added immeasurably to your education during those late night discussions, hug them. Also, of course, thank Harvard. Should you forget, there’s an alumni association to remind you.?Second, in your future life, cultivate a generous spirit. In all negotiations, don’t bargain 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.
Jimmy Stewart, as Elwood P. Dowd in the movie “Harvey” got it exactly right. He said: “Years ago my mother used to say to me, ‘In this world, Elwood, you must be … she always used to call me Elwood … in this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant.’” Well, for years I was smart. … I recommend pleasant. You may quote me on that.
My third piece of advice is as follows: As you begin this new stage of your lives, follow your passion. If you don’t have a passion, don’t be satisfied until you find one. Life is too short to go through it without caring deeply about something. When I was your age, I was incredibly single-minded in my goal to be a physicist. After college, I spent eight years as a graduate student and postdoc at Berkeley, and then nine years at Bell Labs. During that my time, my central focus and professional joy was physics.
Here is my final piece of advice. Pursuing a personal passion is important, but it should not be your only goal. When you are old and gray, and look back on your life, you will want to be proud of what you have done. The source of that pride won’t be the things you have acquired or the recognition you have received. It will be the lives you have touched and the difference you have made."
Nobel laureate William Faulkner:
“I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet’s, the writer’s, duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past.”“我相信人不会忍受:他将胜利。 他是不朽的,不是因为他一个人在生物之间有一个取之不尽的声音,而是因为他有一个灵魂,能够同情,牺牲和忍耐的精神。诗人,作家的职责是写这些东西。他的荣幸是通过提升他的心灵来帮助人忍受,提醒他过往的荣耀的勇气和荣幸,希望,骄傲和同情,怜悯和牺牲。“