Credit: Thought.is

50 Of The Most Powerful And Inspiring Commencement Speeches Of All Time

Before you embark on life, get inspired by some pieces of wisdom from our the best commencement speeches of all time.
Bianca Sparacino
May 26, 2016
“But I will tell you something very simple and obvious, which is that 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. The difficult thing is acting on them. I leave you with that simple advice. If you are trying to figure out what to do in the future, for 5,000 years people have built statues to men and women who have had those characteristics.”
— Fareed Zakaria, Commencement Address at Bates College, 2009
Tagged: Commencement, Graduation, Speech
“When you are 80 years old, and in a quiet moment of reflection narrating for only yourself the most personal version of your life story, the telling that will be most compact and meaningful will be the series of choices you have made. In the end, we are our choices.”
— Jeff Bezos, Commencement Address at Princeton University, 2010
Tagged: Speech, Aging, Commencement Speeches, Age, When You're Old, Thinking Back On Your Life
“The reason you came to college is you didn't know very much. Now you know a little more. But the challenge is to keep building on it. So try something completely different - I don't care, learn something trivial. Learn it well. Sing karaoke, if you dare. Learn to fix something in the house. Help out at a homeless shelter. Start a rock 'n' roll band. Practice a little daring. ”
— Tony Snow, Commencement Address at The Catholic University of America, 2007
Tagged: Commencement, Graduation, Speech
“Go make your big beautiful dent, and as you do so come down on the side of boldness. If you err, may it be for too much audacity, and not too little. For you really are enough.You have untold strengths and resources inside. You have your glorious self.”
— Sue Monk Kidd, Commencement Address at Scripps College, 2010.
Tagged: Change the World, Commencement Speeches, Self-Worth, You Rule
“You don’t need to change yourself. Ever. You need to come home to yourself. And that changes everything.”
— John Jacob Scherer, Commencement Address at Roanoke College, 2010
Tagged: Commencmenet Speeches , Change, Finding Yourself
“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. What you need is to have a box, a dream box, in a life that is as full as the potential you have today.”
— Elias A. Zerhouni, Commencement Address at Massachusettes Institute of Technology, 2004
Tagged: Graduation, Commencement, Speech, Big Dreams, Dream Big
“You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls – family, health, friends and spirit – are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for balance in your life.”
— Brian Dyson, Commencement Address at Georgia Tech, 1996
Tagged: Commencement Speeches, life advice, Advice, Friends And Family, work life balance
“I have learned to go fully in the face of my dreams. I would recommend you do the same. Now is the time in your life to be selfish. To explore. To take chances. Remember being selfish is not the same as being self-indulgent. You have the gift of time. Use it to do what you love. Believe anything is possible and then work like hell to make it happen.”
— Julianna Margulies, Commencement Address at Sarah Lawrence College, 2010
Tagged: Commencement, Graduation, Speech
“Remember, true opportunity never knocks. I have found that I have to go looking for opportunity – and if I don’t find it, I have to create it.”
— Sumner Redstone, Commencement Address at DeVry University, 2010
Tagged: Commencement, Speech, Getting Ahead, Hard Work, Looking For Opportunity
“There's a story about going to a class of young children and asking these young kids, "Who can write an opera? A symphony? Be a high ranking leader, a politician, an astronaut, a doctor, a president?"And what happens? The whole class, they put their hands up because they don't know what can't be done. They haven't learned that yet. It's all possible. Ask the same questions of that same class five years later, 10 years later, 20 years later and what happens? The hands start going down. Why is that? Because they've been poisoned by this thing called "I can't." They think they already know what's not possible and that's the killer.I've always tried to be that little kid with his hand in the air. It really works to be that naïve, to really think you can do anything.”
— Robert Rodriguez, Commencement Address at University of Texas, 2009
Tagged: Commencement, Graduation, Speech
“Creativity is not something you are, it’s something you do. You have to work at it. The mundane aspects of life will creep up on you constantly, whether they’re the pressures of work or the distractions of American Idol and Facebook. You’ve spent years in this program building great strengths in creative disciplines. You have to be vigilant to keep reviving that spirit.”
— Tom Brinck, Commencement Address at the Art Institute of California, 2011
Tagged: Graduation, Commencement, Speech
“Do not give into this world and let the world set your measure of what is great; let the world set your standards. You have genius, you have greatness, you have glory, you have power inside of you that must be unleashed into the community. Do not settle. Do not yield. You have a truth that must be told.”
— Cory Booker, Commencement Address at Pitzer College, 2010
Tagged: Graduation, Commencement, Speech
“You get to make your own luck. 80% of success in your career will come from just showing up. The world is run by those who show up, not those who wait to be asked.”
— Steve Blank, Commencement Address at Philadelphia University, 2011
Tagged: Graduation, Commencement Speeches, Work Ethic
“I do not wish you an easy path, because—trust me—you would be oh-so-quickly bored by that. You’d like it today and hate it tomorrow. Instead, I wish you a path filled with impediment and ambiguity and struggle and joy. With plenty of time to be alone, and then plenty of time to be with others, where you take what you learned in your solitude and apply it to the world like a cool hand on a feverish forehead. I hope that your path has as many twists and turns as it does straightaways. I hope that it is as rough and interesting as it is smooth and predictable. I hope that it satisfies you. I also hope that it astonishes you. And I hope that for all your life, your spirit grows.”
— Julia Keller, Commencement Address at Dominican University, 2010
Tagged: Graduation, Commencement, Speech
“It’s not what happens to you. It’s what you do with what happens to you.”
— Chris Waddell, Commencement Address at Middlebury College, 2011
Tagged: Commencement, Graduation, Speech
“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, Commencement Address at Rice University, 2011
Tagged: Graduation, Speech, Commencement, Advice, Good Advice, Widsom
“We all tend to filter the world around us through what we know. So try and go beyond what you already know, fill your mind with the new, nourish it with different interests, open it to the extraordinary.Life is too short to let the world we experience be restricted by our own limited vision.”
— Sergio Marchionne, Commencement Address at University of Toledo, 2011
Tagged: Seeing Seeing, Commencement Speeches, See More, Perspective
“Being smart is not enough to achieve results. Plenty of smart people get beaten by others who are more hungry, take calculated risks, work harder, have better people skills, can execute better, or have more common sense. Recognize what you need in that total package to succeed.”
— David Cote, Commencement Address at University of New Hampshire, 2011
Tagged: Commencement, Speech, Graduation
“Life is sometimes hard. Things go wrong, in life and in love and in business and in friendship and in health and in all the other ways that life can go wrong. And when things get tough, this is what you should do.Make good art.I'm serious. Husband runs off with a politician? Make good art. Leg crushed and then eaten by mutated boa constrictor? Make good art. IRS on your trail? Make good art. Cat exploded? Make good art. Somebody on the Internet thinks what you do is stupid or evil or it's all been done before? Make good art. Probably things will work out somehow, and eventually time will take the sting away, but that doesn't matter. Do what only you do best. Make good art.”
— Neil Gaiman, Commencement Address at The University of the Arts Philadelphia, 2012
Tagged: Graduation, Commencement, Speech
“Don't ever forget that a small group of thoughtful people can change the world. It's the only thing that ever has.”
— Aaron Sorkin, Commencement Address at Syracuse University, 2012
Tagged: Graduation, Commencement Speeches, Words Of Encouragemnet