Chief Justice Roberts' commencement address offers students stunning wisdom

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts gave a moving and inspiring commencement speech to the graduating class of Cardigan Mountain School, an all-boys middle school in New Hampshire. It was quite different from the usual “good luck” and “good going” addresses across the United States this graduation, and conspicuously devoid of political exhortations.

Mike Opelka was particularly taken with this section of the speech on today’s “Pure Opelka,” the full transcript of which is can be found on Time:

“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.”

Mike said it was “an ingenious way to turn a commencement speech on its side.”

To see more from Mike, visit his channel onTheBlaze and listen live to “Pure Opelka” weekdays 7–10 p.m. ET & Saturdays 6–9 a.m. ET, only on TheBlaze Radio Network.