It's nice to be back at Princeton. I find it difficult to believe that it's been almost 11 years since I departed these halls for Washington. I wrote recently to inquire about the status of my leave from the university, and the letter I got back began, "Regrettably, Princeton receives many more qualified applicants for faculty positions than we can accommodate."

重返普林斯頓感覺不錯，很難相信，我離開校園赴華盛頓已經11年了。近期我向校方詢問了我的教職問題，回信稱：“很遺憾，普林斯頓收到很多更有才華的學者的求職信，而教職有限。”

I'll extend my best wishes to the seniors later, but first I want to congratulate the parents and families here. As a parent myself, I know that putting your kid through college these days is no walk in the park. Some years ago I had a colleague who sent three kids through Princeton even though neither he nor his wife attended this university. He and his spouse were very proud of that accomplishment, as they should have been. But my colleague also used to say that, from a financial perspective, the experience was like buying a new Cadillac every year and then driving it off a cliff. I should say that he always added that he would do it all over again in a minute. So, well done, momsand dads.

我將在稍后獻上對畢業生的最美好祝愿，首先我要恭喜在座的家長們。作為父母，我知道這年頭供孩子讀完大學不容易，數年前，我的一個同事有3個孩子畢業于普林斯頓，盡管他們夫妻都不畢業于此，但我的同事常說，從財政角度講，這如同每年買輛卡迪拉克，然后讓車墜崖。他總會補充說，他會毫不猶豫的選擇重新來過。所以，感謝你們的工作，母親們，父親們，及家人們。

This is indeed an impressive and appropriate setting for a commencement. I am sure that, from this lectern, any number of distinguished spiritual leaders have ruminated on the lessons of the Ten Commandments. I don't have that kind of confidence, and, anyway, coveting your neighbor's ox or donkey is not the problem it used to be, so I thought I would use my few minutes today to make Ten Suggestions, or maybe just Ten Observations, about the world and your lives after Princeton. Please note, these points have nothing to do with interest rates. My qualification for making such suggestions, or observations, besides being kindly invited to speak today by President Tilghman, is the same as the reason that your obnoxious brother or sister got to go to bed later--I am older than you. All of what follows has been road-tested in real-life situations, but past performance is no guarantee of future results.

這確實是做畢業典禮演講的合適場合，我認為，在這一講臺上，每個精神導師都受到過“十誡”的教誨，我沒有那樣的信心，而且無論無何，覬覦鄰居的驢牛已不是目前的問題，所以今年前幾分鐘我將提出“十個建議”，或稱為對這個世界和你們畢業后的生活的十個觀察。請注意，這十點與利率毫無關系。我之所以有資格提出這些建議和或觀察，除了普林斯頓的善意邀請外，理由和你們討厭的哥哥姐姐可以晚睡是一個道理：我比你們更老。以下內容均經受過生活的考驗，但以往表現并不能確保未來的結果。

1. A more contemporary philosopher, Forrest Gump, said something similar about life and boxes of chocolates and not knowing what you are going to get. Life is amazingly unpredictable; any 22-year-old who thinks he or she knows where they will be in 10 years, much less in 30, is simply lacking imagination. Look what happened to me: A dozen years ago I was minding my own business teaching Economics 101 in Alexander Hall and thinking of good excuses for avoiding faculty meetings. Then I got a phone call... In case you are skeptical of Forrest Gump's insight, here's a concrete suggestion for each of the graduating seniors. Take a few minutes the first chance you get and talk to an alum participating in their 25th, or 30th, or 40th reunion--you know, somebody who was near the front of the P-rade. Ask them, back when they were graduating 25, 30, or 40 years ago, where they expected to be today. If you can get them to open up, they will tell you that today they are happy and satisfied in various measures, or not, and their personal stories will be filled with highs and lows and in-betweens. But, I am willing to bet, those life stories will in almost all cases be quite different, in large and small ways, from what they expected when they started out those many years ago. This is a good thing, not a bad thing; who wants to know the end of a story that's only in its early chapters? Don't be afraid to let the drama play out.

1、阿甘曾講到人生和巧克力的相似性，你不知道下一塊巧克力的味道。人生確實難以預料，任何一個認為知道其10年后情況的畢業生，更不同說三十年了，我只能說他或她缺乏想象力。看看我吧，12年前我一心教經濟學入門課程，想著編造什么理由不參加教學會議，結果我接到了那個電話。有過你有機會與畢業25年、30年或40年的校友交談，并使他們敞開心扉，他們將告訴你，他們對生活中哪些事滿意或不滿意，他們經歷過的高潮和低谷。但我敢打賭，他們的人生故事將與預期相異。這是好事而不是壞事，誰想在故事的開篇就知道結局呢？讓人生順其自然。

2. Does the fact that our lives are so influenced by chance and seemingly small decisions and actions mean that there is no point to planning, to striving? Not at all. Whatever life may have in store for you, each of you has a grand, lifelong project, and that is the development of yourself as a human being. Your family and friends and your time at Princeton have given you a good start. What will you do with it? Will you keep learning and thinking hard and critically about the most important questions? Will you become an emotionally stronger person, more generous, more loving, more ethical? Will you involve yourself actively and constructively in the world? Many things will happen in your lives, pleasant and not so pleasant.If you are not happy with yourself, even the loftiest achievements won't bring you much satisfaction.

2、 是否人生偶然性之大的事實，意味著小的決定和行動無足輕重，不需要規劃和奮斗呢？當然不是。無論未來人生如何，她將是一個宏大和漫長的項目，是你作為個人 的發展過程。你的家人、朋友和你在普林斯頓的時光已經為你造就了良好的開端，未來你會如何？你會不斷學習、竭力思索、對至關重要的問題持批判態度嗎？你會 成為情感上更強大、更大度、更有愛心、更道德的人嗎？你會更積極的、更建設性的參與世事嗎？你的人生會有很多故事，快樂的，及不太快樂的，如果你不為自己 感到快樂，就連最偉大的成就業也不會讓你感到滿足。

3. The concept of success leads me to consider so-called meritocracies and their implications. A meritocracy is a system in which the people who are the luckiest in their health and genetic endowment; luckiest in terms of family support, encouragement, and, probably, income; luckiest in their educational and career opportunities; and luckiest in so many other ways difficult to enumerate--these are the folks who reap the largest rewards. The only way for even a putative meritocracy to hope to pass ethical muster, to be considered fair, is if those who are the luckiest in all of those respects also have the greatest responsibility to work hard, to contribute to the betterment of the world, and to share their luck with others.

3、 成功的概念促使我考慮所謂的精英主義及其含義。精英是在健康和基因上最幸運的人，他們在家庭支持、鼓勵上，或在收入上也是最幸運的，他們在教育和職業機遇 上最幸運，他們在很多方面都最幸運，一般人難以復制。一個精英體制是否公平，要看這些精英是否有義務努力工作、致力于建設更好的世界，并與他人分享幸運。