Graduation Quotes:

To the uneducated, an A is just three sticks.

- A. A. Milne

topic: Graduation, Education, Memorable, Winni The Pooh, Winnie The Pooh Inspirational

The things that make me different are the things that make me.

- A. A. Milne

topic: Inspirational, Life, Graduation, Winnie The Pooh Life, Pooh And Piglet

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 numbers of times you get back up.

- Aaron Sorkin

source: "Remarks by Aaron Sorkin ’83 at Syracuse University’s 158th Commencement and the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry’s 115th Commencement". Aaron Sorkin's Commencement address at Syracuse University in New York, news.syr.edu. May 13, 2012.

topic: Graduation, Fall, Numbers, Great Graduation

Make no mistake about it, you are dumb. You're a group of incredibly, well-educated dumb people. I was there. We all were there. You're barely functional. There are some screw-ups headed your way. I wish I could tell you that there was a trick to avoiding the screw-ups, but the screw-ups, they're a-coming for ya. It's a combination of life being unpredictable, and you being super dumb.

- Aaron Sorkin

topic: Graduation, Mistake, Memorable, Well Educated, Dumb People

Develop your own compass, and trust it. Take risks, dare to fail, remember the first person through the wall always gets hurt.

- Aaron Sorkin

source: Aaron Sorkin's Commencement Address at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York, news.syr.edu. May 13, 2012.

topic: Inspirational, Graduation, Hurt, First Person

Of course there's a lot of knowledge in universities: the freshmen bring a little in; the seniors don't take much away, so knowledge sort of accumulates.

- Abbott Lawrence Lowell

topic: Graduation, Senior, Education, Freshman, Off To College

Don't work for fools. It's not worth it. Getting paid less to work for people you like and believe in is much better for you (and your career) in the long run.

- Adam Savage

topic: Inspirational, Graduation, Running, Long Runs, Not Worth It

There's few things that get you over your own crap more than working hard.

- Adam Savage

topic: Graduation, Over You, Crap, Great Graduation

Curiosity is the key to creativity.

- Akio Morita

topic: Graduation, Creativity, Keys

Remember, half the doctors in this country graduated in the bottom half of their class.

- Al McGuire

topic: Graduation, Basketball, Country

As I am becoming older, the only thing that speeds up is time.

- Alan Alda

topic: Graduation, Becoming, Speed

If a student takes the whole series of my folklore courses including the graduate seminars, he or she should learn something about fieldwork, something about bibliography, something about how to carry out library research, and something about how to publish that research.

- Alan Dundes

topic: Inspirational, Funny, Graduation, Library Research, Folklore

The most important thing is to not stop questioning.

- Albert Einstein

source: Source: www.broadwayworld.com

topic: Success, Graduation, Important, Modern Physics, Wonder And Mystery

Education forms the common mind. Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined.

- Alexander Pope

topic: Birthday, Graduation, Education

Really, the potential for, first of all, any college graduate today is enormously good. These are good times for anyone with a college degree today, particularly African Americans. With a college degree today, you really breach the unemployment rate.

- Alexis Herman

topic: Graduation, College, African American, College Degree, Unemployment Rate

For I dipped into the future, far as human eye could see, Saw the Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be.

- Alfred Lord Tennyson

topic: Graduation, Future, Eye, Future Science, Visions Of The Future

A college education is not a quantitative body of memorized knowledge salted away in a card file. It is a taste for knowledge, a taste for philosophy, if you will; a capacity to explore, to question to perceive relationships, between fields of knowledge and experience.

- Alfred Whitney Griswold

topic: Graduation, Philosophy, College, Knowledge And Experience

Be compassionate to everyone. Don't just search for whatever it is that annoys and frightens you-see beyond those things to the basic human being. Especially see the child in the man or woman. Even if they are destroying you, allow a moment to see how lost in their own delusion and suffering they are.

- Alice Walker

topic: Graduation, Children, Men, Destroying You, Graduation Speech

Don't treat your heart like an action figure wrapped in plastic and never used.

- Amy Poehler

source: Harvard University Class Day Commencement Address, delivered 26 May 2011

topic: Inspirational, Graduation, Heart, Packing, Limited Edition

The great thing about taking big chances when you're younger is you have less to lose, and you don't know as much. So you take big swings.

- Amy Poehler

topic: Graduation, Swings, Chance

Life is the most exciting opportunity we have. But we have one shot. You graduate from college once, and that's it. You're going out of that nest. And you have to find that courage that's deep, deep, deep in there. Every step of the way.

- Andrew Shue

topic: Inspirational, Funny, Graduation, Memorable Graduation, Every Step

We live by what we believe not but what we see.

- Angela Ahrendts

topic: Inspirational, Graduation, Believe

If you think you're too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito.

- Anita Roddick

source: "Bloody Wonderful: Goodbye, Anita Roddick" by Brooke Shelby Biggs, www.motherjones.com. September 11, 2007.

topic: Inspirational, Graduation, Thinking, Successful Women, Inspire Women

Don't ever confuse the two, your life and your work. The second is only part of the first.

- Anna Quindlen

source: Anna Quindlen (2002). “A Short Guide to a Happy Life”, Arrow/Children's (a Division of Random House Group)

topic: Graduation, Two, Firsts

Give me but a firm spot on which to stand, and I shall move the earth.

- Archimedes

source: Quoted in Pappus, Synagoge

topic: Graduation, Determination, Moving, Stand Firm

Don't buy society's definition of success. Because it's not working for anyone. It's not working for women, it's not working for men, it's not working for polar bears, it's not working for the cicadas that are apparently about to emerge and swarm us. It's only truly working for those who make pharmaceuticals for stress, diabetes, heart disease, sleeplessness, and high blood pressure.

- Arianna Huffington

topic: Graduation, Stress, Heart

In life, the things that go wrong are often the very things that lead to other things going right.

- Arianna Huffington

source: "Arianna Huffington Speaks To The Nightingale School’s Senior Class Of 2012", www.huffingtonpost.com. June 20, 2012.

topic: Graduation

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

- Aristotle

topic: Inspirational, Motivational, Graduation, Inspirational Education, Keep An Open Mind

The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.

- Aristotle

topic: Graduation, Education, Sweet, Inspirational Education, Memorable Graduation

Education is the best provision for old age.

- Aristotle

topic: Graduation, Education, Teaching, Inspirational Educational, Inspirational Graduation

The most rewarding things you do in life are often the ones that look like they cannot be done.

- Arnold Palmer

source: FaceBook post by Arnold Palmer from Oct 04, 2016

topic: Graduation, Inspiration, Golf, Life Challenges, Convocation

Just remember, you can't climb the ladder of success with your hands in your pockets.

- Arnold Schwarzenegger

source: "Six Rules on How to Be Successful". Speech at the University of Southern California, www.graduationwisdom.com. May 15, 2009.

topic: Graduation, Hands, Pockets, Climbing The Ladder, Commencement Speech

I was a lesbian for a semester at Wesleyan - it was a graduation requirement.

- Ayelet Waldman

topic: Inspirational, Funny, Graduation, Semester

Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.

- B. F. Skinner

source: New Scientist 21 May 1964

topic: Graduation, Education, Teacher, Math Education, Inspirational Graduation

If your uniform isn't dirty, you haven't been in the game.

- Ben Bernanke

topic: Graduation, Dirty, Games

Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.

- Benjamin Franklin

topic: Happiness, Inspiring, Graduation, Stress And Anxiety, Stress And Worry

You will find the key to success under the alarm clock.

- Benjamin Franklin

topic: Success, Graduation, Smart, Alarm Clocks

When you graduate from college, they tell you to follow your dreams. Does anyone say you have to wake up first?

- Bill Cosby

topic: Graduation, Dream, College, College Graduates

Lesson number one: opportunity can be manufactured. Yes, you can wait around for the right set of circumstances to fall into place and then leap into action but you can also create those set of circumstances on your own. In so doing, you manufacture your own opportunities. This has helped me immeasurably.

- Biz Stone

topic: Inspirational, Graduation, Fall, Yes You Can, Fall Into Place

Colleges are like old-age homes, except for the fact that more people die in colleges.

- Bob Dylan

topic: Graduation, Home, College

I was never a Certified Public Accountant. I just had a degree in accounting. It would require passing a test, which I would not have been able to do.

- Bob Newhart

topic: Inspirational, Funny, Graduation, Accounting, Certified Public Accountant

Work hard but work smart. Always. Every day. Nothing is handed to you and nothing is easy. You're not owed anything... No job or task is too small or beneath you. If you want to get ahead, volunteer to do the things no one else wants to do, and do it better. Be a sponge. Be open and learn.

- Bobbi Brown

source: "Graduation Speech at Fashion Institute of Technology". www.seventeen.com.

topic: Inspiring, Graduation, Jobs, Work Smart, Nothing Is Easy

North Dakota State. What do you have to do there to graduate? Milk a cow with your left hand?

- Bobby Heenan

topic: Inspirational, Funny, Graduation, Dakota, North Dakota

It is virtually impossible to compete in today's global economy without a college degree.

- Bobby Scott

source: Congressional Record, Government Printing Office, September 29, 2004.

topic: Inspirational, Funny, Graduation, Global Economy, College Degree

Take action. Every story you've ever connected with, every leader you've ever admired, every puny little thing that you've ever accomplished is the result of taking action. You have a choice. You can either be a passive victim of circumstance or you can be the active hero of your own life.

- Bradley Whitford

source: Bradley Whitford's Commencement Address at University of Wisconsin-Madison in in Madison, Wisconsin, news.wisc.edu. May 15, 2004.

topic: Graduation, Hero, Leader, Victims Of Circumstance

We all go through life bristling at our external limitations, but the most difficult chains to break are inside us.

- Bradley Whitford

topic: Graduation, Break, Chains

There's no there. That elusive 'there' with the job, the beach house, the dream, it's not out there. There is here. It's in you... right now.

- Brian Kenny

topic: Graduation, Dream, Beach, Beach House

It takes most men five years to recover from a college education, and to learn that poetry is as vital to thinking as knowledge.

- Brooks Atkinson

source: Brooks Atkinson (1951). “Once around the sun”

topic: Graduation, Men, Thinking, Inspirational High School Graduation, Convocation

We don't stop going to school when we graduate.

- Carol Burnett

topic: Inspirational, Funny, Graduation, Memorable Graduation

I first became interested in women and religion when I was one of the few women doing graduate work in Religious Studies at Yale University in the late 1960's.

- Carol P. Christ

topic: Inspirational, Funny, Graduation, Religious Studies, Yale University

As knowledge increases, wonder deepens.

- Charles Morgan

topic: Inspirational, Inspiring, Graduation

Let your life yield a sweet, winsome melody that this old world needs so desperately. Yes you can if you will.

- Charles R. Swindoll

topic: Graduation, Sweet, Yield, Yes You Can, Winsome

Go God's way! His is the most reliable route to follow when life gets complicated. It will have its tough moments, but you will never regret it.

- Charles R. Swindoll

topic: Graduation, Regret, Way, Tough Moments

If you want to play a game, go to where it's played and find a way to get in. Things happen when you get in the game.

- Chris Matthews

topic: Graduation, Games, Play

When nearly a third of our high school students do not graduate on time with their peers, we have work to do. We must design our middle and high schools so that no student gets lost in the crowd and disconnected from his or her own potential.

- Christine Gregoire

topic: Inspirational, Funny, Graduation, High School Students

So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.

- Christopher Reeve

source: Christopher Reeve (1998). “Still Me”, Random House Incorporated

topic: Positive, Inspiring, Graduation, Impossible Dream, Impossible Becomes Possible

I hope you will go out and let stories happen to you, and that you will work them, water them with your blood and tears and you laughter till they bloom, till you yourself burst into bloom.

- Clarissa Pinkola Estes

topic: Happiness, Graduation, Hope, Blooming

I did get a degree in special education.

- Clay Aiken

topic: Graduation, Special, Degrees, Special Education

How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something but to be someone.

- Coco Chanel

topic: Inspirational, Happiness, Graduation, Inspirational High School Graduation, Inspirations Being Yourself

Wherever you go, go with all your heart.

- Confucius

topic: Inspirational, Happiness, Graduation, Live For Yourself, Soft Heart

Real courage is holding on to a still voice in your head that says, 'I must keep going.' It's that voice that says nothing is a failure if it is not final. That voice that says to you, 'Get out of bed. Keep going. I will not quit.'

- Cory Booker

source: "Most of all, be kind, Newark Mayor Cory Booker tells seniors at Class Day" by Susan Gonzalez, news.yale.edu. May 19, 2013.

topic: Graduation, Real, Voice, Real Courage

First class in life has nothing to do with the clothes you wear, the car you drive or the house you live in. First class is and always will be about the content of your character, the quality of your ideas and the kindness in your heart.

- Cory Booker

topic: Graduation, Kindness, Heart, Clothes You Wear

It is important to have determination and optimism and patience. If you lack patience, even when you face some small obstacle, you lose courage. There is a Tibetan saying, "Even if you have failed at something nine times, you have still given it effort nine times." I think that's important. Use your brain to analyze the situation. Do not rush through it, but think. Once you decide what to do about that obstacle, then there's a possibility that you will achieve your goal.

- Dalai Lama

topic: Inspirational, Graduation, Determination

I think I finally chose the graduate degree in engineering primarily because it only took one year and law school took three years, and I felt the pressure of being a little behind - although I was just 22.

- Daniel J. Evans

topic: Graduation, School, Thinking

I did graduate with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering in 1948.

- Daniel J. Evans

topic: Graduation, Engineering, Degrees, Civil Engineer, Civil Engineering

The school asks a person who has achieved a certain level of career success to give you a speech telling you that career success is not important.

- David Brooks

topic: Inspirational, Graduation, School

I could tell you that when you have trouble making up your mind about something, tell yourself you'll settle it by flipping a coin. But don't go by how the coin flips; go by your emotional reaction to the coin flip. Are you happy or sad it came up heads or tails?

- David Brooks

topic: Graduation, Emotional, Mind, Emotional Reactions, Flipping A Coin

The daily activity that contributes most to happiness is having dinner with friends. The daily activity that detracts most from happiness is commuting. Eat more. Commute less.

- David Brooks

topic: Graduation, Dinner, Commuting, Daily Activities, Dinner With Friends

The message of the summoned life is that you don't need to panic if you don't yet know what you want to do with your life. But you probably want to throw yourselves into circumstances where the summons will come.

- David Brooks

source: Commencement Address at Rice University in Houston, May 14, 2011.

topic: Inspirational, Graduation, Needs

The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day.

- David Foster Wallace

topic: Inspirational, Graduation, Sacrifice, Infinite Jest, Awareness Of Others

If this day means anything, it means that you are now in the contingent of the responsible. You must be kind, yes, but you must also look beyond your own house. We're depending on you for your efforts and your vision. We are depending on your eye and your imagination to identify what wrongs exist and persist, and on your hands, your backs, your efforts, to right them.

- David Remnick

topic: Graduation, Mean, Eye

I found that nothing in life is worthwhile unless you take risks.

- Denzel Washington

topic: Graduation, Risk, Life Is, Commencement

Nothing in life is worthwhile unless you take risks. Fall forward. Every failed experiment is one step closer to success.

- Denzel Washington

topic: Inspiring, Graduation, Fall

If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.

- Derek Bok

topic: Inspirational, Graduation, Education, Inspirational Graduation, Inspirational High School Graduation

Believe that if you make courageous choices and bet on yourself and put yourself out there, that you will have an impact, as a result of what you do. And you don't need to know now what that would be or how will it happen because no one ever does.

- Dick Costolo

topic: Graduation, Believe, Impact, Putting Yourself Out There, Courageous Choices

Don't always worry what your next line is going to be.

- Dick Costolo

topic: Graduation, Worry, Lines

When I was your age, we didn't have the Internet in our pants. We didn't even have the Internet not in our pants. That's how bad it was.

- Dick Costolo

source: Dick Costolo's Commencement Address at University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, www.c-span.org. May 4, 2013.

topic: Graduation, Age, Pants, Question Mark

There is no script. Live your life. Soak it all in.

- Dick Costolo

topic: Graduation, Live Your Life, Scripts

Not only can you not plan the impact you're going to have, you often won't recognize it when you're having it.

- Dick Costolo

topic: Graduation, Impact, Plans

The trouble with learning from experience is that you never graduate.

- Doug Larson

topic: Graduation, Graduates, Trouble, Grad, Cool Graduation

You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You're on your own, and you know what you know. And you are the guy who'll decide where to go.

- Dr. Seuss

source: Theodor Seuss Geisel, “Oh, The Places You'll Go”

topic: Life, Graduation, Confidence, Going To College, Seeing Yourself

Oh, the places you will go.

- Dr. Seuss

source: Dr. Seuss (2016). “Oh, the Places I'll Go! by Me, Myself”, Random House Books for Young Readers

topic: Graduation

To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.

- e. e. cummings

topic: Inspirational, Motivational, Graduation

People with goals succeed because they know where they're going.

- Earl Nightingale

topic: Inspirational, Motivational, Graduation, Inspirational Goal, Inspirational Goal Setting

I am learning all the time. The tombstone will be my diploma.

- Eartha Kitt

topic: Inspirational, Graduation, Education, Inspirational Graduation, Learning Life

Don't be afraid of fear. Because it sharpens you, it challenges you, it makes you stronger; and when you run away from fear, you also run away from the opportunity to be your best possible self.

- Ed Helms

topic: Graduation, Running, Opportunity, Commencement Speech, Graduation Speech

The fireworks begin today. Each diploma is a lighted match. Each one of you is a fuse.

- Ed Koch

topic: Success, Graduation, Education, Memorable Graduation, Inspirational High School Graduation

It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.

- Edmund Hillary

source: "That's Life : Wild Wit & Wisdom". Book by Bonnie Louise Kuchler, 2003.

topic: Inspirational, Motivational, Graduation, Inspirational Confidence, Inspirational High School Graduation

You can lead a boy to college, but you cannot make him think.

- Elbert Hubbard

topic: Inspiring, Graduation, Boys, Going Back To School, Back To College

Last but not least, I would say you should have big dreams, full dreams, not half dreams. You know, it's very simple. You can't put a large box in a small box. Well, you cannot put a full life in a small dream box.

- Elias Zerhouni

source: Elias Zerhouni's Commencement Address at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, news.mit.edu. June 4, 2004.

topic: Graduation, Dream, Simple

My good friends, we are all waiting. We are waiting, if not for the Messiah, as such, we are waiting for the messianic moment. And the messianic moment is what each and every one of us tries to build, meaning a certain area of humanity that links us to all those who are human and, therefore, desperately trying to fight despair as humanly as possible and-I hope-with some measure of success.

- Elie Wiesel

topic: Inspirational, Graduation, Fighting

The idea of winning a doctor's degree gradually assumed the aspect of a great moral struggle, and the moral fight possessed immense attraction for me.

- Elizabeth Blackwell

source: Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell (2016). “Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women: Autobiographical Sketches”, p.24, Library of Alexandria

topic: Graduation, Struggle, Fighting, Moral Struggle

Just don't give up trying to do what you really want to do.

- Ella Fitzgerald

topic: Graduation, Giving Up

When you take risks you learn that there will be times when you succeed and there will be times when you fail, and both are equally important.

- Ellen DeGeneres

topic: Inspirational, Success, Graduation, Top Management, Taking Risks

The definition of success changes. Success is to live your life with integrity and not give in to peer pressure to be something you're not. Follow your passion, stay true to yourself, never follow someone else's path; unless you're in the woods and you're lost and you see a path, then by all means, you should follow that.

- Ellen DeGeneres

topic: Graduation, Integrity, Mean, Commencement, Stay True To Yourself

The knowledge of languages was very useful. I have a university degree in foreign languages and literature.

- Emma Bonino

topic: Graduation, Degrees, Literature, University Degrees

Life has a very simple plot: first you're here and then you're not.

- Eric Idle

source: "17 Funniest Lines from Monty Python Star Eric Idle’s Commencement Speech" By Gillian Frew, www.huffingtonpost.com. May 21, 2013.

topic: Graduation, Simple, Plot, Commencement, Commencement Speech

There is just one life for each of us: our own.

- Euripides

topic: Life, Positive, Graduation, Inspirational Graduation, Inspirations Being Yourself

You're never too old or too busy to continue your educatioan!

- Eva Longoria

source: "Eva Longoria Graduates With Master's Degree In Chicano Studies". www.foxnews.com. May 23, 2013.

topic: Graduation, Busy, Too Busy

Everybody wants you to do good things, but in a small town you pretty much graduate and get married. Mostly you marry, have children and go to their football games.

- Faith Hill

topic: Graduation, Football, Children

It is likely that human beings will find fulfillment and will be rewarded for the same qualities that they have been rewarded for for 5,000 years. And that is intelligence, hard work, honesty, a sense of character, loyalty to family and friends, and above all, love and faith. If you are trying to decide what you should do, those are the things you should do. And you know it.

- Fareed Zakaria

topic: Graduation, Loyalty, Honesty

I got all my work done to graduate in two months and then they were like, I'm sorry, you have to take driver's ed. I just kind of went, Oh, forget it.

- Fiona Apple

topic: Inspirational, Funny, Graduation

A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.

- Francis Bacon

topic: Inspirational, Success, Graduation, Inspirational High School Graduation, High School Graduation

I learned law so well, the day I graduated I sued the college, won the case, and got my tuition back.

- Fred Allen

topic: Graduation, Education, Laughter, Inspirational Graduation, Inspirational High School Graduation

Avoid people who tell you that something you want to do is not possible.

- Fred Armisen

topic: Graduation, People, Want

I received my undergraduate degree in engineering in 1939 and a Master of Science degree in mathematical physics in 1941 at Steven Institute of Technology.

- Frederick Reines

topic: Graduation, Technology, Engineering, Undergraduate

Keep true to the dreams of your youth.

- Friedrich Schiller

topic: Inspiring, Graduation, Dream, Lost Youth

One half who graduate from college never read another book.

- G. M. Trevelyan

topic: Inspirational, Funny, Graduation, College Days, College Life

It is not true that people stop pursuing dreams because they grow old, they grow old because they stop pursuing dreams.

- Gabriel Garcia Marquez

source: FaceBook post by Gabriel García Márquez from Jun 23, 2011

topic: Birthday, Inspiring, Graduation, Inspirational High School Graduation, One Hundred Years Of Solitude

Be bold, be courageous, be your best.

- Gabrielle Giffords

source: "Giffords Urges Graduates at Bard to ‘Be Courageous’" by Vivian Yee, autoglassweek.com. May 25, 2013.

topic: Graduation, Courageous, Be Courageous

Commencement speeches were invented largely in the belief that outgoing college students should never be released into the world until they have been properly sedated.

- Garry Trudeau

source: "Peace, war, economy dominate graduation speeches" by Patricia McCormack, www.upi.com. May 29, 1982.

topic: Graduation, College, World, Grad, Inspirational High School Graduation

I think sleeping was my problem in school. If school had started at 4:00 in the afternoon, I'd be a college graduate today.

- George Foreman

topic: Graduation, Sleep, School, Problems In School

Always do more than is required of you.

- George S. Patton

topic: Motivational, Inspiring, Graduation, Customer Experience, Inspirational Service

The wisest mind has something yet to learn.

- George Santayana

source: George Santayana (1936). “The Works of George Santayana”

topic: Graduation, Wisdom, Diversity, Learning English, Self Education

What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness. Those moments when another human being was there, in front of me, suffering, and I responded . . . sensibly. Reservedly. Mildly.

- George Saunders

topic: Graduation, Kindness, Regret

According to me, your life is going to be a gradual process of becoming kinder and more loving. Hurry up. Speed it along. Start right now.

- George Saunders

topic: Graduation, Becoming, Life Is

To those of you who received honours, awards and distinctions, I say well done. And to the C students, I say you, too, can be president of the United States.

- George W. Bush

source: "Bad results?" by Nikki Sheehan, www.theguardian.com. June 11, 2001.

topic: Funny, Graduation, Humor, Inspirational Graduation, Inspirational School

My father, who was from a wealthy family and highly educated, a lawyer, Yale and Columbia, walked out with the benefit of a healthy push from my mother, a seventh grade graduate, who took a typing course and got a secretarial job as fast as she could.

- George Weinberg

topic: Graduation, Mother, Jobs, Typing, Seventh Grade

Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

topic: Inspirational, Inspiring, Graduation, Inspirational Learning, Inspiring Education

There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

topic: Graduation, Hope, Carpe Diem, Breaking Rules, Organic Architecture

When I graduated from Santa Monica High in 1927, I was voted the girl most likely to succeed. I didn't realize it would take so long.

- Gloria Stuart

source: "Gloria Stuart, actress in 'Titanic,' dies at 100" by Sarah Halzack, www.washingtonpost.com. September 27, 2010.

topic: Graduation, Girl, Long, Monica, Santa Monica

Each year India and China produce four million graduates compared with just over 250,000 in Britain.

- Gordon Brown

topic: Graduation, Years, India

We are living in 1937, and our universities, I suggest, are not half-way out of the fifteenth century. We have made hardly any changes in our conception of university organization, education, graduation, for a century - for several centuries.

- H. G. Wells

topic: Inspirational, Funny, Graduation, Half Way

Opportunity dances with those already on the dance floor.

- H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

topic: Inspirational, Funny, Graduation, Inspirational Dance, Motivational Dance

Think big thoughts but relish small pleasures.

- H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

topic: Inspirational, Positive, Graduation, Good Thoughts, Inspirational Graduation

I went to my son's graduation this weekend, and I heard a great quote I've never heard before from Albert Einstein. It was that the greatest danger to the world is not the bad people but it's the good people who don't speak out.

- Hamilton Jordan

topic: Inspirational, Funny, Graduation

Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye.

- Helen Keller

topic: Inspirational, Graduation, Confidence, Inspirational Addiction Recovery, Inspirational Confidence

What is worse than having no sight is being able to see but having no vision.

- Helen Keller

topic: Graduation, Sight, Vision

College isn't the place to go for ideas.

- Helen Keller

topic: Graduation, Witty, Educational, Going To College, College Days

This man used to go to school with his dog. Then they were separated. His dog graduated!

- Henny Youngman

topic: Inspirational, Funny, Graduation

The man who will use his skill and constructive imagination to see how much he can give for a dollar, instead of how little he can give for a dollar, is bound to succeed.

- Henry Ford

topic: Inspirational, Success, Graduation, Marketing And Sales, Inspirational Team

A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.

- Henry Ford

topic: Inspirational, Success, Graduation, Young Entrepreneurs, Make You Think Twice

It's easier to go down a hill than up it but the view is much better at the top.

- Henry Ward Beecher

topic: Motivational, Graduation, Perseverance, Will Power

Even though I didn't get a business degree, I enjoyed learning about economics.

- Herb Ritts

topic: Graduation, Degrees, Economics

Life is not easy for anyone. Sometimes you don't see the challenges on the outside, but every single one of us has both those and everything that goes on inside as well. Give it your all. Dare to be all you can be.

- Hillary Clinton

topic: Graduation, Giving, Challenges, Inspiring Graduation, Give It Your All

I cannot stress enough that the answer to a lot of your life's questions is often in someone else's face. Try putting your iPhones down every once in a while and look at people's faces.

- Ira Glass

topic: Inspirational, Graduation, Stress

It takes a while. It's gonna take you a while. It's normal to take a while. You just have to fight your way through that.

- Ira Glass

topic: Graduation, Fighting, Way

I think young writers should get other degrees first, social sciences, arts degrees or even business degrees. What you learn is research skills, a necessity because a lot of writing is about trying to find information.

- Irvine Welsh

topic: Graduation, Art, Writing, Social Science, Arts Degrees

It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might has well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default.

- J. K. Rowling

topic: Inspirational, Success, Graduation, Failure In Life, Inspirational Harry Potter

Without ambition no conquests are made, and no business created. Ambition is the root of all achievement.

- James A. Champy

topic: Graduation, Ambition, Roots

I've learned that I can pretty much do anything I've wanted to as long as I was methodical and diligent about it. It may not sound very exciting really, but it works.

- Jamie Hyneman

topic: Inspirational, Graduation, Long, Methodical

You can't make a cloudy day a sunny day, but can embrace it and decide it's going to be a good day after all.

- Jane Lynch

topic: Inspirational, Graduation, Good Day, Sunny Day, Cloudy

Stay fluid and roll with those changes. Life is just a big extended improvisation.

- Jane Lynch

topic: Inspirational, Graduation, Life Changing

People in my family and camp who grew up listening to rap music love 'We Are Young.' I've heard it play at weddings. I've heard it in graduation parties. It's a big idea and big song.

- Janelle Monae

topic: Graduation, Song, Party, Graduation Party

Listening to others, especially those with whom we disagree, tests our own ideas and beliefs. It forces us to recognize, with humility, that we don't have a monopoly on the truth.

- Janet Yellen

source: "The Best Career Advice From 2014 Commencement Speeches" by Jill Jacinto, www.businessinsider.com. May 23, 2014.

topic: Graduation, Humility, Ideas, Listening To Others

Time is not measured by the passing of years but by what one does, what one feels, and what one achieves.

- Jawaharlal Nehru

source: Jawaharlal Nehru (1960). “India's Spokesman: From Speeches and Addresses”

topic: Graduation, Time, Years, Graduation Day, Convocation

Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself.

- Jean-Paul Sartre

topic: Graduation, Freedom, Responsibility

What I want to talk to you about today is the difference between gifts and choices. Cleverness is a gift, kindness is a choice. Gifts are easy-they're given after all. Choices can be hard. You can seduce yourself with your gifts if you're not careful, and if you do, it'll probably be to the detriment of your choices.

- Jeff Bezos

topic: Graduation, Kindness, Differences

I have never been jealous. Not even when my dad finished fifth grade a year before I did.

- Jeff Foxworthy

topic: Funny, Graduation, Hilarious, Jealousy Envy, Love And Jealousy

When you feel discouraged or simply lazy, as is bound to happen sometimes, remember the millions of people in the world who have not had your privilege. Remember the poor and obscure lives of those countless millions who suffer from every sort of deprivation and frequently find themselves the unwilling victim of wars, and a variety of cruelties, perpetuated by man on man. Is it not significant that the first bid for self realization, among the poor and downtrodden, is to assert their right to education?

- Jehan Sadat

topic: Graduation, War, Men, Downtrodden, Victims Of War

If I learned one thing, it is that self-doubt is one of the most destructive forces. It makes you defensive instead of open, reactive instead of active. Self-doubt is consuming and cruel. And my hope today is that we can all collectively agree to ban it. . . . Think to the moments of your life when you forgot to doubt yourself. When you were so inspired that you were just living and creating and working. Pay attention to those moments because they're trying to reach you through those lenses of doubt and trying to show you your potential."

- Jennifer Lee

topic: Graduation, Thinking, Self

One of the most difficult speeches to prepare is an address to a graduation class, which is why I don't often do them.

- Jerry Moran

topic: Graduation, Class, Speech

If my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it, I know I can achieve it.

- Jesse Jackson

source: Jesse Jackson, Roger D. Hatch, Frank E. Watkins (1987). “Straight from the heart”, Fortress Pr

topic: Inspiring, Graduation, Softball, Over Confidence, Imagination And Dreams

Be present. I would encourage you with all my heart just to be present. Be present and open to the moment that is unfolding before you. Because, ultimately, your life is made up of moments. So don't miss them by being lost in the past or anticipating the future.

- Jessica Lange

topic: Inspiring, Graduation, Heart, Anticipating The Future

My personal advice is to go to school first and get a liberal arts education, and then if you want to pursue acting, go to graduate school.

- Jillian Bach

topic: Graduation, Art, School, Liberal Arts Education, Liberal Arts

I have no problems with private schools. I graduated from one and so did my mother. Private schools are useful and we often use public funds to pay for their infrastructures and other common needs.

- Jim Clyburn

topic: Graduation, Mother, School

I didn't get my degree at NYU; I got it later, they gave me an honourary one.

- Jim Jarmusch

topic: Graduation, Nyu, Degrees

My final coaching point of the day: It's my contention that in any given moment one lives one's life in one of two ways, either under a threat or for a challenge. In performing when it counts, it's one or the other, under a threat or for a challenge. If, as Einstein says, "Imagination will take you everywhere," then living your life under a threat will take you nowhere.

- Jim Steen

source: Jim Steen's commencement address at Kenyon College, www.graduationwisdom.com. 2011.

topic: Inspirational, Graduation, Two

If you fear making anyone mad, then you ultimately probe for the lowest common denominator of human achievement.

- Jimmy Carter

topic: Inspirational, Funny, Graduation, Common Denominator, Lowest Common Denominator

That diploma you hold in your hands today is really just your learner's permit for the rest of the drive through life. Remember, you don't have to be smarter than the next person, all you have to do is be willing to work harder than the next person.

- Jimmy Iovine

source: Jimmy Iovine's Commencement Address at University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California, news.usc.edu. May 17, 2013.

topic: Graduation, Hard Work, Hands, Diploma, Graduation Speech

There is nothing more beautiful than finding your course as you believe you bob aimlessly in the current. And wouldn't you know that your path was there all along, waiting for you to knock, waiting for you to become. This path does not belong to your parents, your teachers, your leaders, or your lovers. Your path is your character defining itself more and more every day.

- Jodie Foster

topic: Graduation, Beautiful, Teacher

Catholic school graduates exhibit a wide variety of qualities that will not only help them in their careers but also in their family and community lives.

- Joe Baca

topic: Inspirational, Funny, Graduation, Catholic School

Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men.

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

topic: Motivational, Success, Graduation, Man Of My Dreams, Inspirational Dream

Our fearlessness shall be our secret weapon.

- John Green

topic: Graduation, Hipster, Secret, Fault In Our Stars

I don't look to find an educated person in the ranks of university graduates, necessarily. Some of the most educated people I know have never been near a university.

- John Keegan

topic: Graduation, People, Looks, Educated Person

It's what you learn after you know it all that counts.

- John Wooden

topic: Motivational, Inspiring, Graduation, Inspirational Learning, Sports Coaching

Love what you do. Get good at it. Competence is a rare commodity in this day and age. And let the chips fall where they may.

- Jon Stewart

topic: Graduation, Fall, Age, Commencement, Daily Show

The unfortunate, yet truly exciting thing about your life, is that there is no core curriculum. The entire place is an elective.

- Jon Stewart

topic: Graduation, Curriculum, Life Is

When one considers our nation's educational foundations - Harvard, Yale, Princeton and most of our respected institutions were originally Christian - it becomes evident why we, as Christians, maintain a passion about remaining true to the foundations of Scripture.

- Jonathan Falwell

topic: Graduation, Christian, Educational, Princeton

Every successive generation becomes a living memorial of our public schools, and a living example of their excellence.

- Joseph Story

topic: Graduation, School, Memorial

Dreams come a size too big so we can grow into them.

- Josie Bissett

topic: Graduation, Dream, Size

Don't just be yourself. Be all of yourself. Don't just live. Be that other thing connected to death. Be life. Live all of your life. Understand it, see it, appreciate it. And have fun.

- Joss Whedon

topic: Graduation, Being Yourself, Fun

Believe anything is possible and then work like hell to make it happen.

- Julianna Margulies

topic: Inspirational, Graduation, Believe

Use your knowledge, and your heart, to stand up for those who can't stand, speak for those who can't speak, be a beacon of light for those whose lives have become dark.

- Julie Andrews

source: "Julie Andrews To CU-Boulder Grads: ‘Be An Ambassador For The Kind Of World That You Want To Live In’". The Boulder Daily Camera with Brittany Anas, www.huffingtonpost.com. May 10, 2013.

topic: Graduation, Heart, Dark, Beacons Of Light

I'm not retiring. I am graduating. Today is my graduation day. Retirement means that you'll just go ahead and live on your laurels and surf all day in Oceanside. It ain't going to happen.

- Junior Seau

source: "Seau to meet with Patriots, may end retirement" by The Associated Press, www.espn.com. August 18, 2006.

topic: Graduation, Retirement, Mean

I have actually five honorary degrees.

- Katherine Dunham

topic: Graduation, Degrees, Honorary

I think women as well as men are concerned about jobs and the economy and spending and, and other issues. They're concerned that when their kids graduate from college they have an economy and they have a future in this country and they, they have the same opportunity that we've had and our grandparents have had.

- Ken Buck

source: "Meet the Press" with David Gregory, www.nbcnews.com. October 17, 2010.

topic: Graduation, Country, Jobs

Life is not about warming yourself by the fire, life is about building the fire. And generosity is the match...If you want happiness for an hour, take a nap, but if you want happiness for a lifetime, help somebody.

- Larry Lucchino

topic: Graduation, Fire, Naps

I think it is often easier to make progress on mega-ambitious dreams. I know that sounds completely nuts. But, since no one else is crazy enough to do it, you have little competition. There are so few people this crazy that I feel like I know them all by first name. They all travel as if they are pack dogs and stick to each other like glue. The best people want to work the big challenges.

- Larry Page

topic: Graduation, Dream, Dog, Mega, Big Challenges

At the School of Visual Arts in New York, you can get your degree in Net art, which is really a fantastic way of thinking of theater in new ways.

- Laurie Anderson

topic: Graduation, Art, New York, Visual Art

A month before graduation I got an off-Broadway job. Then I did some commercials, including one for MCI. You can only see half of me, but it paid well. Thank God for commercials.

- Lee Pace

source: "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

topic: Graduation, Jobs, Thank God, Half Of Me

It is soooooo necessary to get the basic skills, because by the time you graduate, undergraduate or graduate, that field would have totally changed from your first day of school.

- Leigh Steinberg

topic: Inspirational, Funny, Graduation, First Day Of School, Undergraduate

What mark will I leave behind? How will anyone know I have been here? What sign will tell the future traveler I existed? 'I am here! Today... I exist'. I believe the deepest impression is made in those moments when I can say 'I care, I love'.

- Leonard Nimoy

topic: Graduation, Believe, Care

If you are willing to discipline yourself, the physical universe won't need to discipline you.

- Leonard Orr

topic: Graduation, Discipline, Needs

Pursue whatever it is that you want to do with your life. It is the only secret to happiness that I know except for maybe true love, that and maybe having the amazing health insurance plan that our congressmen have.

- Lewis Black

topic: Graduation, Secret, Want

I make my weaknesses my strengths and my stengths stronger.

- Lisa Fernandez

topic: Graduation, Stronger, Weakness

I just listened to that inner voice. By the way, it's always a good move to listen to that inner voice... if it doesn't lead to a crime

- Lisa Kudrow

source: FaceBook post by Lisa Kudrow from Jun 24, 2011

topic: Graduation, Moving, Voice

Everything that's difficult you should be able to laugh about.

- Louis C. K.

topic: Graduation, Laughing, Able

Life's too short to be an asshole, as an employer or as an employee.

- Louis C. K.

topic: Graduation, Too Short, Employers

Life is like college; may I graduate and earn some honors.

- Louisa May Alcott

topic: Life, Graduation, Education

When I was a graduate student, the leading spirits at Harvard were interested in the history of ideas.

- M. H. Abrams

topic: Graduation, Ideas, Students

Real leadership comes from the quiet nudging of an inner voice. It comes from realizing that the time has come to move beyond waiting to doing.

- Madeleine Albright

topic: Graduation, Real, Moving

I stand for freedom of expression, doing what you believe in, and going after your dreams.

- Madonna Ciccone

topic: Inspirational, Graduation, Dream, Freedom Of Expression, Independence And Freedom

You may never know what results come of your actions, but if you do nothing, there will be no results.

- Mahatma Gandhi

topic: Inspirational, Motivational, Graduation

I went to military college in Canada and graduated as an officer in the Navy but also as an engineer.

- Marc Garneau

topic: Graduation, Military, College

Choice of evils debates always produce extremism - people choose what they hope is the lesser evil, then call it good and demonize the other choice. It will be a challenge for your generation to synthesize - to move beyond Us versus Them, to We.

- Margaret Atwood

topic: Inspirational, Graduation, Moving, Lesser Evil

When faced with the inevitable, you always have a choice.... As I learned during my liberal arts education, any symbol can have, in the imaginative context, two versions, a positive and a negative. If you spill your milk, you're left with a glass which is either half empty or half full.... You may not be able to alter reality, but you can alter your attitude towards it, and this, paradoxically, alters reality. Try it and see.

- Margaret Atwood

topic: Inspirational, Graduation, Art, Liberal Arts Education

Grow up and let anyone try to content with the adult you.

- Margaret Cho

topic: Graduation, Growing Up, Trying

Pausing allows you to take a beat to take a breath in your life. As everybody else is rushing around like a lunatic out there, I dare you to do the opposite.

- Maria Shriver

topic: Graduation, Opposites, Rushing, Pausing, Rushing Around

I'm only asking you to stop every so often and turn off your mobile device, put down the Angry Birds and the Words with Friends and take a moment. Stop to look up and look around. Pause and check in with yourself - and spend a moment there.

- Maria Shriver

topic: Inspirational, Graduation, Bird, Words With Friends, Angry Birds