ladies and gentlemen , good afternoon! i’m very glad to stand here and give you a short speech. today my topic is “youth”. i hope you will like it , and found the importance in your youth so that more cherish it.
first i want to ask you some questions:
1、do you know what is youth?
2、how do you master your youth?
youth
youth is not a time of life, it is a state of mind ; it is not rosy cheeks , red lips and supple knees, it is a matter of the emotions : it is the freshness ; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life .
youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity of the appetite , for adventure over the love of ease. this often exists in a man of 60 more than a boy of 20 . nobody grows old merely by a number of years . we grow old by deserting our ideals.
years wrinkle the skin , but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul . worry , fear , self –distrust bows the heart and turns the spirit back to dust .
bidding the lovely scenes at distance hail!
and see no end to the landscape, new objects presenting themselves as we advance; so, in the commencement of life, we set no bounds to our inclinations. nor to the unrestricted opportunities of gratifying them. we have as yet found no obstacle, no disposition to flag; and it seems that we can go on so forever. we look round in a new world, full of life, and motion, and ceaseleprogress; and feel in ourselves all the vigor and spirit to keep pace with it, and do not foresee from any present symptoms how we shall be left behind in the natural course of things, decline into old age, and drop into the grave. it is the simplicity, and as it were abstractedneof our feelings in youth, that (so to speak) identifies us with nature, and (our experience being slight and our passions strong) deludes us into a belief of being immortal like it. our short-lives connection with existence we fondly flatter ourselves, is an indissoluble and lasting union-a honeymoon that knows neither coldness, jar, nor separation. as infants smile and sleep, we are rocked in the cradle of our wayward fancies, and lulled into security by the roar of the universe around us0we quaff the cup of life with eager haste without draining it, instead of which it only overflows the more-objects prearound us, filling the mind with their magnitude and with the strong of desires that wait upon them, so that we have no room for the thoughts of death.
during his presidency, bill clinton seized important opportunities on issues from welfare to free trade. he was a tireless champion of peace in the middle east. he used american power in the balkans to confront aggression and halt ethnic cleansing. and in all his actions and decisions, the american people sensed a deep empathy for the poor and the powerless. shortly before leaving office, president clinton said, "christ admonished us that our lives will be judged by how we do unto the least of our neighbors." throughout his career, bill clinton has done his best to live up to that standard. and americans respect him for it. at every stage of his remarkable life, president clinton has made and kept countless friends, who share in the joy of this day. and three people in particular have the largest part in this remarkable story. one day more than 30 years ago, inside the yale law library, a fellow student walked over to bill clinton and said, "if you're going to keep staring at me, and i'm going to keep staring back, we ought to at least know each other's name. mine's hillary rodham. what is yours?"that was a good day for both of them, and the beginning of a partnership unique in american history. so today, we honor the former first lady of arkansas, the former first lady of america, the united states senator from new york, senator hillary rodham clinton.
perhaps the clintons' greatest achievement is their daughter, who moved into the white house as a young girl, and left as an accomplished young lady. it's not easy to be a teenager in the white house, but it's a lot easier when you have a loving mother and a loving father that chelsea clinton had.
this magnificent presidential library, and the american life it celebrates, would not have been possible without the love and sacrifice of a special lady. among his heroes, president clinton always includes his mother, virginia kelley, "a working woman and a widow." virginia was there when her son took the oath of office, and we know that she would be incredibly proud of this day.
the story that began in a little house on hervey street in hope, arkansas is the kind of story that inspires people from every background, all over america. in this great nation, it is always possible for a child to go as far as their talent and vision can take them. visitors to this place will be reminded of the great promise of our country, and the dreams that came true in the life of our 42nd president. the william j. clinton presidential library is a gift to the future by a man who always believed in the future. and today, we thank him for loving and serving america.
iversity is not as satisfactory as what I had expected. I become lazy and don't want to study.I become silcent. I become puzzled. I don't know what I can do in the future. Then I become unhappy.
Four years in the university is only a short period when compared my whole lifetime. Now it has passed a half. In this year, many people ,such as my parents,my friends, ask me what I want to do and tell me to map out a plan for my life.
I don't want to follow their suggestion, and I want to go my style. So I think carefully. I have been a young volunteer for five years.It's very happy and significant. Then I have a dream.I want to join the Univerity Student Volunteers Go West Programe. I think I can be a teacher in the west.I want to try my best to help them and help me. I want to see the world cearly. Now I can't reach its demand and it's very diffcult,but I will work hard in the next two years. There is an old saying"where there is a will,there is a way."I think my dream can come ture.Now in the university I mature,and in the university I prepare for the real world.
At last,I want to say to everybody"Hlod fast to your dreams,no matter how big or small they are.The path to dreams may not be smooth and wide,even some sacrifices are needed.But hold on to the end,you can find there is no geater happiness than making your dream come ture."
no young man believes he shall ever die. it was a saying of my brother's, and a fine one. there is a feeling of eternity in youth, which makes us amend for everything. to be young is to be as one of the immortal gods. one half of time indeed is flown-the other half remains in store for us with all its countletreasures; for there is no line drawn, and we see no limit to our hopes and wishes. we make the coming age our own-
whether 60 of 16 , there is in every human being ‘s heart the lure of wonders, the unfailing childlike appetite of what’s next and the joy of the game of living . in the center of your heart and my heart there’s a wireless station : so long as it receives messages of beauty , hope ,cheer, courage and power from men and from the infinite, so long as you are young .
when the aerials are down , and your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism and the ice of pessimism, then you are grown old ,even at 20 , but as long as your aerials are up ,to catch waves of optimism , there is hope you may die young at 80.
thank you!
we've gone from losing 9 million jobs during the financial crisis to creating 10 million jobs. we've reduced the unemployment rate from 10% in october of to 6.1% today. and for the first time since the 1990s, american manufacturing is steadily5 adding jobs-over 700,000 since . and surveys of both american and foreign business leaders confirm that america once again is viewed as the best place in the world to build and invest.
that's all good news.
but an awful lot of middle class americans are still not feeling the effects of this recovery. since the year , gross domestic product-our gdp - has risen by 25%. and productivity in america is up by 30%. but middle class wages during that same time period have gone up by only fourteen cents.
folks, it's long past time to cut the middle class back into the deal, so they can benefit from the economic growth they helped create. folks, there used to be a bargain in this country supported by democrats6 and republicans, business and labor7. the bargain was simple. if an employee contributed to the growth and profitability of the company, they got to share in the profits and the benefits as well. that's what built the middle class. it's time to restore the bargain, to deal the middle class back in. because, folks, when the middle class does well, everybody does well-the wealthy get wealthier and the poor have a way up.
you know, the middle class is not a number. it's a value set. it means being able to own your home; raise your children in a safe neighborhood; send them to a good school where if they do well they can qualify to go to college and if they get accepted you'd be able to find a way to be able to send them to college. and in the meantime, if your parents need help, being able to take care of them, and hope to put aside enough money so that your children will not have to take care of you.
that's the american dream. that's what this country was built on. and that's what we'redetermined8 to restore.
in order to do that, it's time to have a fair tax structure, one that values paychecks as much as unearned income and inherited wealth, to take some of the burden off of the middle class. it's time to close tax loopholes so we can reduce the deficit9, and invest in rebuilding america - our bridges, our ports, our highways, rails, providing good jobs.
with corporate10 profits at near record highs, we should encourage corporations to invest more in research and development and the salaries of their employees. it's time for us to invest in educational opportunity to guarantee that we have the most highly skilledworkforce11 in the world, for 6 out of every 10 jobs in the near term is going to require some education beyond high school. folks, it's long past due to increase the minimum wage that will lift millions of hardworking families out of poverty target poverty and in the process produce a ripple12 effect that boosts wages for the middle class and spurs economic growth for the united states of america. economists13 acknowledge that if we do these and other things, wages will go up and we'll increase the gross domestic product of the united states.
president clinton, senator clinton, president carter and mrs. carter, president bush and mother governor and mrs. huckabee, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen: laura and i are really pleased to be a part of this happy and historic occasion. on this day of dedication, we honor the man from hope, arkansas, who became the 42nd president of the united states. mr. president, congratulations.
this presidential library chronicles a vivid era in american history, for the benefit of future generations. it will contribute to the vitality of this fine city and to the great state of arkansas. the collections here record the dedication and hard work of thousands, who brought talent and idealism to public service. and at the center of that era, at the head of that administration, was an able and energetic american. president bill clinton led our country with optimism and a great affection for the american people, and that affection has been returned. he gave all to his job, and the nation gave him two terms.
in the early 1990s, the american people saw a young, well-spoken, relatively unknown governor rise to national prominence. yet for decades here in arkansas, the signs of destiny were clear. when young william entered a new school in the 4th grade, a classmate recalls, "he didn't mean to, but he just took the place over." when governor clinton declared his candidacy for president in this city, his close friends were not surprised in the least. they'd always known that bill clinton's moment in history would come.
arkansas is a state that knows political skill when you see it. a fellow in saline county was asked by his son why he liked governor clinton so much. he said, son, he'll look you in the eye, he'll shake your hand, he'll hold your baby, he'll pat your dog -- all at the same time.
over the years, bill clinton showed himself to be much more than a good politician. his home state elected him governor in the 1970s, the 1980s, and the 1990s, because he was an innovator, a serious student of policy, and a man of great compassion. in the white house, the whole nation witnessed his brilliance and mastery of detail, his persuasive power, and his persistence. the president is not the kind to give up a fight. his staffers were known to say, "if clinton were the titanic, the iceberg would sink."