Part ofSupreme Court Justice John Roberts' Unconventional Speech to His Son's Graduating Class

Now the commencement speakers will typically also wish you good luck and extend good wishes to you. I will not do that, and I’ll tell you why. From time to time in the years to come, I hope you will be treated unfairly, so that you will come to know the value of justice. I hope that you will suffer betrayal because that will teach you the importance of loyalty. Sorry to say, but I hope you will be lonely from time to time so that you don’t take friends for granted. I wish you bad luck, again, from time to time so that you will be conscious of the role of chance in life and understand that your success is not completely deserved and that the failure of others is not completely deserved either. And when you lose, as you will from time to time, I hope every now and then, your opponent will gloat over your failure. It is a way for you to understand the importance of sportsmanship. I hope you’ll be ignored so you know the importance of listening to others, and I hope you will have just enough pain to learn compassion. Whether I wish these things or not, they’re going to happen. And whether you benefit from them or not will depend upon your ability to see the message in your misfortunes.

这是美国最高法院大法官约翰·罗伯茨对儿子毕业班发表的非常规演讲的一部分  

毕业典礼上的演讲者通常也会祝你们好运，并向你们致以良好的祝愿。我不会这么做，我来告诉你为什么。 在未来的岁月里，我希望你会不时受到不公平的对待，这样你才会明白正义的价值。 我希望你遭受背叛，因为这将教会你忠诚的重要性。 很抱歉，但我希望你会时常感到孤独，这样你才不会把朋友视为理所当然。 我希望你偶尔运气不佳，这样你才会意识到机遇在人生中的角色，才会明白你的成功并非理所应当，别人的失败也非理所当然。当你偶尔失败时，我希望你的对手会因你的失败而幸灾乐祸。 这是让你了解竞争精神重要性的一种方式。我希望你会被忽视，这样你才知道倾听他人的重要性，我也希望你会经历足够的痛苦，以学会同情。 不管我愿不愿意，这些事情都会发生。 而你是否能从中受益，则取决于你从不幸中领悟信息的能力。