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

50 quotes

Before you embark on life, get inspired by some pieces of wisdom from our the best commencement speeches of all time.

“Don’t spend so much time trying to choose the perfect opportunity, that you miss the right opportunity. Recognize that there will be failures, and acknowledge that there will be obstacles. But you will learn from your mistakes and the mistakes of others, for there is very little learning in success.”

— Michael Dell, graduationwisdom.com

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, businessinsider.com

Tagged: Speech, Aging, Commencement Speeches, Age, When You're Old

“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…”

— Tony Snow, publicaffairs.cua.edu

Tagged: Commencement, Graduation, Speech

“You don’t need to change yourself. Ever. You need to come home to yourself. And that changes everything.”

— John Jacob Scherer, graduationwisdom.com

Tagged: Commencmenet Speeches , Change, Finding Yourself

“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, graduationwisdom.com

Tagged: Change the World, Commencement Speeches, Self-Worth, You Rule

“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, news.mit.edu

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 s…”

— Brian Dyson, graduationwisdom.com

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…”

— Julianna Margulies, graduationwisdom.com

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, graduationwisdom.com

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 don…”

— Robert Rodriguez, graduationwisdom.com

Tagged: Commencement, Graduation, 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, steveblank.com

Tagged: Graduation, Commencement Speeches, Work Ethic

“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 cre…”

— Tom Brinck, graduationwisdom.com

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 t…”

— Cory Booker, graduationwisdom.com

Tagged: Graduation, Commencement, Speech

“It’s not what happens to you. It’s what you do with what happens to you.”

— Chris Waddell, middlebury.edu

Tagged: Commencement, Graduation, Speech

“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…”

— Julia Keller, scribd.com

Tagged: Graduation, Commencement, 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, graduationwisdom.com

Tagged: Graduation, Speech, Commencement, Advice, Good Advice

“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 crush…”

— Neil Gaiman, uarts.edu

Tagged: Graduation, Commencement, Speech

“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, graduationwisdom.com

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, unh.edu

Tagged: Commencement, Speech, Graduation

“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, syr.edu

Tagged: Graduation, Commencement Speeches, Words Of Encouragemnet