Your life will not be defined by the society that we have left you. Every generation must define itself, and so make the world that suits itself.
Stephen Colbert
University of Virginia Valedictory Exercises 2013, 2013
视频从14:39开始——这句语录被说出的那一刻
这句语录背后的故事
Stephen Colbert concluded his UVA address by connecting the graduates' challenge to the vision of their university's founder, Thomas Jefferson. Paraphrasing Robert Bolt, he argued that society's understanding of any individual is fundamentally limited — it can only think with that person's own brains. The implication was liberating: if society can't define you, then you're free to define yourself. Colbert then invoked the Declaration of Independence itself, urging graduates to seize their own moment 'when in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the bands that have connected them with another.' At a university founded by the author of those words, the call carried special weight. 'You are his intellectual heirs,' Colbert told them — then couldn't resist adding, 'In fact, some of you may be his actual heirs. We're still testing the DNA.'
收藏你最喜欢的语录
保存激励你的语录。在Minditly中建立你的个人智慧合集——在两个平台都可用。