“Here’s my Golden Rule for a tarnished age: be fair with others, but then keep after them until they’re fair with you.”
~Alan Alda, American actor, author & director
“62nd Commencement Address” (1 June 1980) Connecticut College, London, CT; transcript online via Connecticut College, Paper 7, p. 2, https://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu
Extended excerpt: [Address to the 1980 graduating class of Connecticut College. Alda’s daughter, Eve, was one of the students receiving a degree.]
“I want to tell you things that will see you through. I have this helpless urge to pass on maxims to you. But we live in new times. Strange times. Even the Golden Rule doesn’t seem adequate to pass on to a daughter. There should be something added to it. You know how I love amendments. You knew I wanted to amend the Constitution, but you probably didn’t know I wanted to amend the Golden Rule as well. Here’s my Golden Rule for a tarnished age: Be fair with others but then keep after them until they’re fair with you.” (p. 2)
Source link: “62nd Commencement Speech, 1980” (June 1980) online via Connecticut College: http://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/commence/7/
“Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won’t come in.”
~Alan Alda, American actor, author & director
“62nd Commencement Address” (1 June 1980) Connecticut College, London, CT; transcript online via Connecticut College, Paper 7, p. 2, https://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu
Misattribution note:
Alan Alda’s “Your assumptions are your windows on the world” quote is frequently misattributed to author & biochemistry professor Isaac Asimov. The words are original to Alda – we could find no record of Asimov sharing this idea (or a similar phrase) in any of his writing, interviews, or other materials.
Extended excerpt: [Address to the 1980 graduating class of Connecticut College. Alda’s daughter, Eve, was one of the students receiving a degree.]
“If we can make distinctions, we can be tolerant, and we can get to the heart of our problems instead of wrestling endlessly with their gross exteriors. And once you make a habit of making distinctions, you’ll begin challenging your own assumptions. Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while or the light won’t come in. If you challenge your own, you won’t be so quick to accept the unchallenged assumptions of others.” (pp. 2-3)
Source link: “62nd Commencement Speech, 1980″ (June 1980) online via Connecticut College: http://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/commence/7/
“You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition…what you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover will be yourself.”
~Alan Alda, American actor, author & director
“62nd Commencement Address” (1 June 1980) Connecticut College, London, CT; transcript online via Connecticut College, Paper 7, p. 2, https://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu
Extended excerpt: [Address to the 1980 graduating class of Connecticut College. Alda’s daughter, Eve, was one of the students receiving a degree.]
“Have the nerve to go into unexplored territory. Be brave enough to live life creatively. The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. It is not the previously known. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. You can’t get there by bus, only by hard work and risk and by not quite knowing what you’re doing, but what you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover will be yourself.” (p. 5)
Source link: “62nd Commencement Speech, 1980″ (June 1980) online via Connecticut College: http://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/commence/7/
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