Long

Pursuing your dream, I believe, is the path you should follow. If you follow that road, you might not end up at your dream, but you will end up doing something that gives you immense satisfaction.

Money and power by themselves are a two-legged stool — you can balance on them for a while, but eventually, you're going to topple over.

Don't buy society's definition of success. Because it's not working for anyone. It's not working for women, it's not working for men, it's not working for polar bears.

Make no mistake about it, you are dumb. You're a group of incredibly well-educated dumb people. There are some screwups headed your way. It's a combination of life being unpredictable, and you being super dumb.

Education does begin in the home, not in the schools. In the first weeks of life, there comes a moment when a child hears its mother's voice and knows that it's his mother. At that point, the brain shuts out all other languages and only listens to the mother's language. At that moment, education begins.

All forms of success, from being a great mother to being a great actor, take tenacity and determination. They say for every light on Broadway there is a broken heart, an unrealized dream — and that's the same in every profession.

Raise the rest of your life to meet you. Don't search for defining moments because they will never come. The moments that define you have already happened. And they will already happen again. And it passes so quickly.

Imagine yourself in 50 years. You're in your early 70s, near the end of your career. You start to reflect on your life and think of all the things you wished you had done differently. And just while that's happening, a genie appears and gives you a second chance. You blink your eyes and find yourself right here, right now. The genie was serious.

A generation is not 'youth.' Youth is just an age bracket. It's like an empty hotel room that different generations move into — with their own baggage — and then soon leave. Sometimes that room swells with sweet music, sometimes it throbs with death metal, sometimes it's utterly silent. But it's never the same.

No one knows what challenges this Millennial Generation may eventually be asked to bear. Hardly anyone expects them to become America's next greatest generation. But someday you can say you heard it from me: that is their destiny.

I hope if you learn anything from me today, if you remember anything that I say today, I hope you'll remember about the power of the pause. Pausing today and throughout your entire life allows you to take a breath. It allows you to take a beat. It allows you to be in the moment.

Pause before you make judgments about people's personal and professional decisions. Pause before you join in and disparage someone's sexuality or their intellectual ability. Pause before forwarding the untrue and inflammatory tidbits that have made it so difficult for public servants to serve.