Graduation Commencement Quotes

• At commencement you wear your square-shaped mortarboards.My hope is that from time to time you will let your minds be bold, and wear sombreros.

  Paul A. Freund

  Cute, Graduation, Squares

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• Sooner or later we all discover that the important moments in life are not the advertised ones, not the birthdays, the graduations, the weddings, not the great goals achieved. The real milestones are less prepossessing. They come to the door of memory unannounced, stray dogs that amble in, sniff around a bit and simply never leave. Our lives are measured by these.

  Susan B. Anthony

  Love, Life, Birthday

  113 Copy quote

• Don't live down to expectations. Go out there and do something remarkable.

  Wendy Wasserstein

  Graduation, Encouraging, Dream

  52 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.

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• 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

• You are the guy who'll decide where to go.

  Dr. Seuss

  Graduation, Encouraging, Being Single

  Dr. Seuss (2017). “Oh, The Places You’ll Go”, p.7, HarperCollins UK

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• 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

  Life, Graduation, Confidence

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

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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

• 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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• Try not to become a man of success, but a man of value. Look around at how people want to get more out of life than they put in. A man of value will give more than he receives. Be creative, but make sure that what you create is not a curse for mankind.

  Albert Einstein

  Inspirational, Motivational, Success

  "Einstein and the Poet: In Search of the Cosmic Man". Book by William Hermanns, p. 143, 1983.

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• You are educated. Your certification is in your degree. You may think of it as the ticket to the good life. Let me ask you to think of an alternative. Think of it as your ticket to change the world.

  Tom Brokaw

  Motivational, Graduation, Education

  45 Copy quote
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  Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.

  Robert Louis Stevenson

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

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• My favorite animal is the turtle. The reason is that in order for the turtle to move, it has to stick its neck out.

  Ruth Westheimer

  Graduation, Moving, Animal

  "‘Other People’s Rejection Letters’: 8 Of The Craziest Rejection Letters" by Bill Shapiro, www.huffingtonpost.com. May 11, 2010.

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

  Arnold Schwarzenegger

  Failure, Funny Graduation, Pockets

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

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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.

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• Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

  Steve Jobs

  Inspirational, Death, Sorry

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

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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

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• There is a good reason they call these ceremonies 'commencement exercises'. Graduation is not the end; it's the beginning.

  Orrin Hatch

  Graduation, Senior, Exercise

  57 Copy quote

• 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.

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• If you haven't found it yet, keep looking.

  Steve Jobs

  Motivational, Inspirational Life, Hard Work

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

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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.

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• Work hard, be kind, and amazing things will happen.

  Conan O'Brien

  Inspirational, Funny, Motivational

  Conan O'Brien's Commencement Address at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, www.dartmouth.edu. June 12, 2013.

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• Think of it as your ticket to change the world.

  Tom Brokaw

  Graduation, Thinking, Tickets

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• I learned many great lessons from my father, not the least of which, was that you can fail at what you don't want so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love

  Jim Carrey

  Father, Doing What You Love, Lessons

  "Jim Carrey's inspiring commencement speech" by Lisa Respers France, www.cnn.com. May 28, 2014.

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• Just about a month from now I'm set adrift, with a diploma for a sail and lots of nerve for oars.

  Richard Halliburton

  Graduation, Senior, Memorable

  66 Copy quote