Tom Hanks

The effort is optional, but the truth is sacred, unalterable, chiseled into the stone of the foundation of our republic.

The work that is called for, that we must do, has no expiration date. It is the construction of our more perfect union, and that job will never, ever be completed.

Every day, every year, and for every graduating class, there is a choice to be made: those who embrace liberty and freedom for all, those who won't, or those who are indifferent. Only the first do the work.

When you respect the law and the rights of all — because if you don't, who will? When your food is brought to you, when you thank the server — because if you don't, who will? When you pick up the litter that has missed the recycling bin — because if you don't, who will?

Fear is cheap. Fear is easy. Fear gets attention. Fear is spread as fast as gossip and is just as glamorous, juicy, and profitable. Fear twists facts into fictions that become indistinguishable from ignorance.

Fear or faith, which will be our master? Fear is whispered in our ears and shouted in our faces. Faith must be fostered by the man or woman you see every day in the mirror.

Your career as human beings and as Americans and as graduates of Yale is to stand on the fulcrum between fear and faith—fear at your back, faith in front of you. Which way will you lean? Which way will you move? Move forward. Ever forward.