Graduation Quotes - Page 8

• 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

  Inspirational, Freedom, Sacrifice

  "David Foster Wallace's Kenyon Commencement Speech" by Carolyn Kellogg, latimesblogs.latimes.com. September 19, 2008.

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• 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

  Dream, Beach, Jobs

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

  Jon Stewart

  Curriculum, Life Is, Exciting

  Jon Stewart's Commencement Address at the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA, www.wm.edu. May 20, 2004.

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• It's not your blue blood, your pedigree or your college degree. It's what you do with your life that counts.

  Millard Fuller

  Life, Humorous, Wrestling

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• 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

  Mistake, Memorable, People

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

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

  Joseph Story

  School, Memorial, Excellence

  Joseph Story (1835). “The Miscellaneous Writings: Literary, Critical, Juridical, and Political of Joseph Story, Now First Collected”, p.73

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

  Neil Gaiman

  Interesting, World, Graduates

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

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• 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, Squares, Mind

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• People will frighten you about a graduation.... They use words you don't hear often: And we wish you Godspeed." It is a warning, Godspeed. It means you are no longer welcome here at these prices."

  Bill Cosby

  Mean, People, Wish

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

  Wendy Wasserstein

  Encouraging, Dream, Powerful

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• Keep true to the dreams of your youth.

  Friedrich Schiller

  Inspiring, Dream, Lost Youth

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• Hitch your wagon to a star.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Love, Inspirational, Life

  Quoted in Moncare D. Conway, The Golden Hour (1862)

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• The horizon leans forward, offering you space to place new steps of change.

  Maya Angelou

  Space, Offering, Steps

  Poem at 1992 Presidential Inaugural Ceremonies, delivered 21 January 1993

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• 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

  College, World, Speech

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

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

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Motivational, Success, Leadership

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• It makes little difference how many university courses or degrees a person may own. If he cannot use words to move an idea from one point to another, his education is incomplete.

  Norman Cousins

  Inspirational, Funny, Education

  Norman Cousins (1967). “Present Tense; an American Editor's Odyssey”

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• Choose a career you love and you will never have to go to work.

  Denis Waitley

  Fathers Day, Work, Careers

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• If you feel that you have both feet planted on level ground, then the university has failed you.

  Robert F. Goheen

  Education, Learning, College

  1961 Baccalaureate address. Reported in Time magazine, 23 Jun.

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• It is a warning, Godspeed. It means you are no longer welcome here at these prices.

  Bill Cosby

  Mean, Warning, Welcome

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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

  Senior, Memorable, Nerves

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• Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

  Marianne Williamson

  Life, Confidence, Fear

  A Return to Love ch. 7 (1992). Frequently misattributed to Nelson Mandela.

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• Oh, the places you will go.

  Dr. Seuss

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

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

  Euripides

  Life, Positive, Being Yourself

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

  Benjamin Franklin

  Success, Smart, Keys

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• Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never -- in nothing, great or small, large or petty -- never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense.

  Winston Churchill

  Life, Inspiring, Being Strong

  Speech at Harrow School, Harrow, England, 29 Oct. 1941

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