Latest Quotes

“When we experience our fear, when we say the words 'I am scared,' we have the choice, the ability to acknowledge that being 'scared' is not who we are. It is not our identity.”

— Paul Glaser, Commencement Address at Stanford School Of Medicine, 2004

“I want you to be potent; to do good when you can and to hold your wit and your intelligence like a shield against other people's wantonness. And above all, to laugh and enjoy yourself in a life of your own choosing and in a world of your own making. I want you to be strong and aggressive and tough a…”

— Alan Alda, Commencement Address at Connecticut College, 1980

“Don’t believe them when they tell you how bad you are and how terrible your ideas are, but also, don’t believe them when they start telling you how wonderful you are and how great your ideas are. Just believe in yourself and believe in your work and you’ll do just fine.”

— Michael Uslan, Commencement Address at Indiana University, 2006

“My favorite animal is the turtle. The reason is that in order for the turtle to move, it has to stick its neck out. There are going to be times in your life when you’re going to have to stick your neck out. There will be challenges and instead of hiding in a shell, you have to go out and meet them.”

— Ruth Westheimers, Commencement Address at Trinity College University, 2004

“I've always liked the story of the college student who got a C on his final paper because his idea was implausible. The idea ... an overnight delivery service. The student ... Fred Smith. You may know him better as the CEO of FedEx. So, don't let anyone else take the measure of your worth and capabi…”

— Margaret Spellings, Commencement Address at Montgomery College, 2006

“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, Commencement Address at Stanford University, 2005

“The way to be happy is to like yourself, and the way to like yourself is to do only things that make you proud.”

— Mark S. Lewis, Commencement Address at University of Texas, 2000

“Know yourself and to your own self be true. You may find some day three or four years from now that you simply don't like engineering, or teaching, or architecture, or government, or the company you started with. You have little in common with the people you work with, and relative to your peers, yo…”

— David L. Calhoun, Commencement Address at Virginia Tech, 2005

“Get a life. A real life, not a manic pursuit of the next promotion the bigger paycheque, the larger house. Do you think you'd care so very much about those things if you blew an aneurysm one afternoon, or found a lump in your breast? Get a life in which you notice the smell of salt water pushing its…”

— Anna Quindlen, Commencement Address at Villanova University, 2000

“As you begin your new journey, you can try to remove everything that you find distasteful in the world, or you can just pour in more love. It's the only thing that the more you give away, the more you have. So take all that warm, fuzzy stuff you've been hiding and spread it around a little. And then…”

— Jerry Zucker, Commencement Address at University of Wisconsin, 2003

“You are our link to a new generation. You must reassess, re-examine and clarify your priorities and not just be satisfied with the status quo. Whether you go into research, business, law, medicine, public service or education, neither you nor society can continue to survive or prosper simply by impl…”

— Yvonne Thorton, Commencement Address at Tuskegee University, 2003

“I'm not telling you to make the world better, because I don't think that progress is necessarily part of the package. I'm just telling you to live in it. Not just to endure it, not just to suffer it, not just to pass through it, but to live in it. To look at it. To try to get the picture. To live re…”

— Joan Didion, Wise Words: Didion’s Commencement Address at UC Riverside in 1975

“You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.”

— Khalil Gibran, The Prophet

“That’s what careless words do. They make people love you a little less.”

— Arundhati Roy, The God Of Small Things

“Cosmos is a Greek word for the order of the universe. It is, in a way, the opposite of Chaos. It implies the deep interconnectedness of all things. It conveys awe for the intricate and subtle way in which the universe is put together.”

— Carl Sagan, Cosmos

“Design doesn't need to be delightful for it to work, but that's like saying food doesn't need to be tasty to keep us alive.”

— Frank Chimero, The Shape Of Design

“Projects that seem cold or excessively composed are more indicative of a lack of understanding than a mark of professionalism.”

— Frank Chimero, The Shape Of Design

“First-time parents, by definition, are clueless. They intensely study, and worry, about every little thing. With a second child, they adapt, cutting corners to manage life with two little beasts. By the third or fourth, the editing becomes hyper-precise: it’s not about options, but efficiency.”

— Jenny Anderson, How to parent your first kid like it’s not your first time

“Software is the staging ground for the future, affording us the time and space to get our ethics right, before the stakes are raised.”

— Farmer & Farmer, A Staging Ground For The Future

“People who proudly declare that they don't read make me nervous. You should read, frequently and fractally.”

— Allen Tan, tanmade.com