Aaron Sorkin’s Commencement Address at Syracuse University, May 13, 2012

Don’t ever forget that you’re a citizen of this world, and there are things you can do to lift the human spirit, things that are easy, things that are free, things that you can do every day. Civility, respect, kindness, character. You’re too good for schadenfreude, you’re too good for gossip and snark, you’re too good for intolerance—and since you’re walking into the middle of a presidential election, it’s worth mentioning that you’re too good to think people who disagree with you are your enemy….

Don’t ever forget that a small group of thoughtful people can change the world. It’s the only thing that ever has.

Rehearsal’s over. You’re going out there now, you’re going to do this thing. How you live matters. You’re going to fall down, but the world doesn’t care how many times you fall down, as long as it’s one fewer than the number of times you get back up.

The whole speech is phenomenal. It’s worth giving it a listen if you have a few minutes. Also, the transcript can be found here if you’d rather read it. Also worth noting at this time is that Aaron Sorkin just signed on to write the screenplay for the Steve Jobs movie that is going to be done. That’s also exciting. Finally, his new show, “The Newsroom,” premieres on June 24. (Seriously, watch the trailer for it. It looks brilliant). It’s a good time to be an Aaron Sorkin fan.

"A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world." — Oscar Wilde (via hellodearestfriend)

(Source: narc8tics, via chmns)