Tyson saved his most powerful line for the very end of the speech. After spending most of his time on science, literacy, and cosmic perspective, he pivoted to a simple observation about empathy and privilege. The 'bootstraps' metaphor — so beloved by advocates of self-reliance — contains a hidden assumption: that everyone has boots. The line hit hard because it came from someone who had, by any measure, pulled himself up spectacularly — from a housing project in the Bronx to becoming the most famous scientist in America. Tyson wasn't arguing against self-reliance. He was arguing against the smugness that sometimes accompanies it — the failure to recognize that not everyone starts from the same place, with the same resources, or with the same opportunities. He tweeted the line in real time from the podium, cementing it as one of the most shared graduation quotes of 2015.