Long

As you get older, you realize that no one has all the answers. It turns out that life is an exercise in living with the certainty of uncertainty.

In bringing the president to me, in having me speak to and question a shaper of history and experience the value he saw in my view, Harvard would make me feel I too could be him. I too had the power to shape history and not just be passively shaped by it.

It's not even a question of ethics or self-sacrifice or moral high ground, it's actually totally selfish. Being with people, doing for people, it's going to bring you joy. Unexpectedly, it just feels better.

Don't assume that exclusive always and everywhere means better. It may only mean lonelier. There will always be folks hard selling you the life of the few: the private schools, private planes, private islands, private life. They are trying to convince you that hell is other people. Don't believe it. We are far more frequently each other's shelter and correction, the antidote to solipsism, and so many windows on this world.

Celebrate idleness. Yes, idleness! Our greatest insights and discoveries have come not when we are doubling down staring at a computer screen, but when we sit back, rub our eyes, go for a walk, read a book or give our children a bath. Isaac Newton did not discover gravity in a laboratory. He was sitting under a tree.

Judge work by the quality of what they produce, not the number of hours they put in. Stand up for play — for the leisure that will renew and recharge you. Stand up for love. Stand up for each other.

It meant more to our father to see us deal with a setback and try to bounce back than to watch how we handled our successes. 'Show what you are made of,' he would say.

What's next for me? I don't know. So I'm in exactly the same boat as many of you. And like you, I'm a little scared but also excited.

Listening to others, especially those with whom we disagree, tests our own ideas and beliefs. It forces us to recognize, with humility, that we don't have a monopoly on the truth.

The search for purpose is really a search for a place, not an idea. It is a search for a location in the world where you want to be part of making things better for others in your own small way.

You cannot flourish without a larger purpose. And that's lucky in a way, because our society cannot flourish without your reaching for a larger purpose, either.

People often say find your passion. But there's more to it than that. Not all passions are enough. Just existing for your desires feels empty and insufficient, because our desires are fleeting and insatiable. You need a loyalty.