易被人遺忘的畢業演講

摘要：我們常用科技來節省時間，但科技也越來越多地消耗掉了我們節省下來的時間，或者讓節省出來的時間變得不那麼有存在感、不太屬於我們個人、不那麼豐富多彩了。我擔心的是，世界離我們的指間越來越近，卻離我們的內心越來越遠。這不是一個非此即彼的問題，“反科技”大概是唯一一件比無條件“親科技”更愚蠢的事了，這是關乎我們的生活根本的平衡問題。

Susan Sontag(蘇珊 桑塔格)

2003年在Vassar College畢業演講

"You'll notice that I haven't talked about love. Or about happiness. I've talked about becoming -- or remaining -- the person who can be happy, a lot of the time, without thinking that being happy is what it's all about. "

你們會注意到我從沒談過愛或是快樂的話題。但我談過成爲(或是作爲)一個快樂的人，大多數時候根本不去想快樂到底是什麼。

George Saunders

2013年Syracuse University畢業演講

"Do all the other things, the ambitious things — travel, get rich, get famous, innovate, lead, fall in love, make and lose fortunes, swim naked in wild jungle rivers – but as you do, to the extent that you can, err in the direction of kindness."

去做所有你有抱負的大事——旅行、賺錢、成名、創新、領導、相愛、賺到錢賠光錢、在野生叢林的河裏裸泳，但在你做這些事的同時，盡你所能，力求行善。

Jonathan Franzen

2011年Kenyon College畢業演講

"When you stay in your room and rage or sneer or shrug your shoulders, as I did for many years, the world and its problems are impossibly daunting. But when you go out and put yourself in real relation to real people, or even just real animals, there’s a very real danger that you might love some of them."

當你宅在房間裏憤怒、嘲笑或聳肩的時候，就像我過去很多年一樣，這個世界和所有問題只會讓你畏懼。但是，當你走出去和活生生的人建立起互動關係，哪怕是和活生生的動物互動起來，你可能會遇到的危險是——愛上某些人、某些動物。Neil Gaiman

2012年The University of the Arts畢業演講

"I'm serious. Husband runs off with a politician? Make good art. Leg crushed and then eaten by mutated boa constrictor? Make good art. IRS on your trail? Make good art. Cat exploded? Make good art. Somebody on the Internet thinks what you do is stupid or evil or it's all been done before? Make good art. Probably things will work out somehow, and eventually time will take the sting away, but that doesn't matter. Do what only you do best. Make good art."

我是認真的。老公和政客跑了?去創作好的藝術吧。腿被壓斷了然後被變異的大蟒蛇啃了?去創作好的藝術吧。國稅局在查你?去創作好的藝術吧。你家貓爆炸了?去創作好的藝術吧。有網民說你做的東東很傻、很爛、抄襲前人?去創作好的藝術吧。或許事情會莫名其妙地順利發展，最終時間會帶走所有流言蜚語，但那都不重要。把只有你可以做的東東做好。去創作好的藝術吧。

Jonathan Safran Foer

2013年Middlebury College畢業演講

"We often use technology to save time, but increasingly, it either takes the saved time along with it, or makes the saved time less present, intimate and rich. I worry that the closer the world gets to our fingertips, the further it gets from our hearts. It’s not an either/or -- being 'anti-technology' is perhaps the only thing more foolish than being unquestioningly 'pro-technology' -- but a question of balance that our lives hang upon."