Commencement Speech Quotes

• The commencement speech is not, I think, a wholly satisfactory manifestation of our culture.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Thinking, Culture, Speech

  16 Copy quote

• Sometimes you find out what you are supposed to be doing by doing the things you are not supposed to do.

  Oprah Winfrey

  Inspirational, Graduation, Sometimes

  7 Copy quote

• Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking.

  Steve Jobs

  Inspirational, Life, Graduation

  Commencement Address at Stanford University, delivered 12 June 2005, Palo Alto, CA

  71 Copy quote

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• Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

  Steve Jobs

  Inspirational, Motivational, Positive

  Commencement Address at Stanford University, delivered 12 June 2005, Palo Alto, CA

  534 Copy quote

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• Make glorious and fantastic mistakes.

  Neil Gaiman

  Graduation, Mistake, Graduates

  Neil Gaiman's Commencement Address at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, www.uarts.edu. May 17, 2012.

  8 Copy quote

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• Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here.

  Neil Gaiman

  Graduation, Interesting, World

  Neil Gaiman (2016). “The View from the Cheap Seats: Selected Nonfiction”, p.418, Hachette UK

  19 Copy quote

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• There is no such thing as failure. Failure is just life trying to move us in another direction.

  Oprah Winfrey

  Success, Graduation, Business

  Commencement address in Harvard, news.harvard.edu. May 30, 2013.

  29 Copy quote

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

  Eric Idle

  Inspirational, Graduation, Simple

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

  16 Copy quote

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• Life is an improvisation. You have no idea what's going to happen next and you are mostly just making things up as you go along.

  Stephen Colbert

  Inspirational, Graduation, Education

  "Top 10 Commencement Speeches: Best of All Time" by Meena Jang, www.hollywoodreporter.com. March 8, 2015.

  15 Copy quote

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• Always be a first-rate version of yourself.

  Audrey Hepburn

  Inspirational, Graduation, Bullying

  "Personal Quotes/ Biography". www.imdb.com. Judy Garland.

  60 Copy quote

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• 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

  Graduation, Integrity, Passion

  36 Copy quote

• Nothing is as important as passion. No matter what you want to do with your life, be passionate.

  Jon Bon Jovi

  Inspirational, Passion, Important

  66 Copy quote

• If you aren't fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm.

  Vince Lombardi

  Motivational, Positive, Graduation

  Vince Lombardi (2012). “What it Takes to be Number One”, p.92, Thomas Nelson Inc

  18 Copy quote

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• There are few things more liberating in this life than having your worst fear realized.

  Conan O'Brien

  Inspirational, Graduation, Dartmouth

  Commencement Address at Dartmouth College, 2011.

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• Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.

  Steve Jobs

  Inspirational, Motivational, Inspiring

  Commencement Address at Stanford University, delivered 12 June 2005, Palo Alto, CA

  2875 Copy quote

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  Everyone you will ever meet knows something you don't.

  Bill Nye

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Learning

  Bill Nye (2015). “Unstoppable: Harnessing Science to Change the World”, p.370, St. Martin's Press

  189 Copy quote

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• 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

  Inspirational, Success, Graduation

  106 Copy quote
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  Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.

  Judy Garland

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  "Business Etiquette for the Nineties: Your Ticket to Career Success". Book by Lou Kennedy, 1992.

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  Those who matter don't mind, and those who mind don't matter.

  Bernard Baruch

  Inspirational, Funny, Life

  258 Copy quote
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  Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.

  Steve Jobs

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  Commencement Address at Stanford University, delivered 12 June 2005, Palo Alto, CA

  235 Copy quote

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  Go, and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here.

  Neil Gaiman

  Inspirational, Graduation, Mistake

  Neil Gaiman's Commencement Address at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, www.uarts.edu. May 17, 2012.

  179 Copy quote

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  Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.

  Steve Jobs

  Love, Inspirational, Life

  Commencement Address at Stanford University, delivered 12 June 2005, Palo Alto, CA

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• There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.

  Beverly Sills

  Inspirational, Motivational, Positive

  "Conquering an Enemy Called Average". Book by John Mason, 1996.

  111 Copy quote

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• You cannot climb the ladder of success dressed in the costume of failure.

  Zig Ziglar

  Motivational, Attitude, Failure

  103 Copy quote

• 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

  Graduation, College, World

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

  47 Copy quote

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