20 Inspiring Graduation Quotes

1. "In response to those who say to stop dreaming and face reality, I say keep dreaming and make
reality." - Kristian Kan

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2. "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. You are the guy who’ll
decide where to go." - Dr. Seuss

3. "Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. 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

4. "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

5. “Education is the key to unlocking the world, a passport to freedom.” - Oprah Winfrey

6. "We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves
already: we have the power to imagine better.” - JK Rowling

7. "Now go, and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic
mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here. Make good art." - Neil
Gaiman
8. "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
Westheimer

9. “I hope your dreams take you to the corners of your smiles, to the highest of your hopes, to the
windows of your opportunities, and to the most special places your heart has ever known.” -
Anonymous

10. "Share your sparkle wherever you are." - Dodinsky

11. "The fireworks begin today. Each diploma is a lighted match. Each one of you is a fuse." -
Edward Koch

12. "Do not follow where the path may lead. Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail." -
Ralph Waldo Emerson

13. "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who
matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss

14. "What lies behind us, and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

15. "To those of you who received honors, awards and distinctions, I say well done. And to the C
students, I say you too may one day be president of the United States." - George W. Bush

16. "All our dreams can come true...if we have the courage to pursue them." - Walt Disney

17. “Just don’t give up trying to do what you really want to do." - Ella Fitzgerald

18. "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." - Eleanor Roosevelt

19. "You may not always have a comfortable life and you will not always be able to solve all of the
world's problems at once, but don't ever underestimate the importance you can have because
history has shown us that courage can be contagious, and hope can take on a life of its own." -
Michelle Obama

20. "I think it is often easier to make progress on mega-ambitious dreams. I know that sounds
completely nuts. But, since no one else is crazy enough to do it, you have little competition. There
are so few people this crazy that I feel like I know them all by first name. They all travel as if they are
pack dogs and stick to each other like glue. The best people want to work the big challenges." -
Larry Page

Do all the other things, the ambitious things—travel, get rich, get
famous, innovate, lead, fall in love, make and lose fortunes...but as
you do, to the extent that you can, err in the direction of kindness.
George Saunders to Syracuse University in 2013
Sometimes you find out what you are supposed to be doing by doing
the things you are not supposed to do.
Oprah Winfrey to Howard University in 2007
Don’t buy society’s definition of success. Because it’s not working for
anyone. It’s not working for women, it’s not working for men, it’s not
working for polar bears, it’s not working for the cicadas that are
apparently about to emerge and swarm us. It’s only truly working
for those who make pharmaceuticals for stress, diabetes, heart
disease, sleeplessness, and high blood pressure.
Arianna Huffington to Smith College in 2013
Do not worry too much about your lawn. You will soon find if you
haven’t already that almost every adult American devotes
tremendous time and money to the maintenance of an invasive plant
species called turf grass that we can’t eat. I encourage you to choose
better obsessions.
John Green to Butler University in 2013
And how do you know when you’re doing something right? How do
you know that? It feels so. What I know now is that feelings are
really your GPS system for life. When you’re supposed to do
something or not supposed to do something, your emotional
guidance system lets you know. The trick is to learn to check your ego
at the door and start checking your gut instead.
Oprah Winfrey to Stanford University in 2008
I was convinced that the only thing I wanted to do, ever, was to write
novels. However, my parents, both of whom came from impoverished
backgrounds and neither of whom had been to college, took the view
that my overactive imagination was an amusing personal quirk that
would never pay a mortgage or secure a pension. I know that the
irony strikes with the force of a cartoon anvil, now.
J.K. Rowling to Harvard University in 2008
Be bold, be courageous, be your best.
Former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords to Bard College in 2013
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 to Stanford in 2005
Don’t just get involved. Fight for your seat at the table. Better yet,
fight for a seat at the head of the table.
Barack Obama to Barnard College in 2012
Whatever you choose, however many roads you travel, I hope that
you choose not to be a lady. I hope you will find some way to break
the rules and make a little trouble out there. And I also hope that you
will choose to make some of that trouble on behalf of women.
Nora Ephron to Wellesley in 1996
You get to consciously decide what has meaning and what doesn’t.
You get to decide what to worship.
David Foster Wallace to Kenyon College in 2005
A world where men ran half our homes and women ran half our
institutions would be just a much better world.
Sheryl Sandberg to Barnard College in 2011
From my point of view, which is that of a storyteller, I see your life as
already artful, waiting, just waiting and ready for you to make it art.
Toni Morrison to Wellesley College in 2004
There is nothing more beautiful than finding your course as you
believe you bob aimlessly in the current. Wouldn’t you know that
your path was there all along, waiting for you to knock, waiting for
you to become. This path does not belong to your parents, your
teachers, your leaders, or your lovers. Your path is your character
defining itself more and more everyday like a photograph coming
into focus.
Jodie Foster to University of Pennsylvania in 2006
Don’t ever confuse the two, your life and your work. The second is
only part of the first.
Anna Quindlen to Villanova University in 2000
There is no script. Live your life. Soak it all in.
Dick Costolo to University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 2013
But real leadership comes from the quiet nudging of an inner voice. It
comes from realizing that the time has come to move beyond waiting
to doing.
Madeleine Albright to UNC in 2007
I encourage you to live with life. Be courageous, adventurous. Give us
a tomorrow, more than we deserve.
Maya Angelou to UC Riverside in 1977
Thankfully dreams can change. If we’d all stuck with our first dream,
the world would be overrun with cowboys and princesses. So
whatever your dream is right now, if you don’t achieve it, you haven’t
failed, and you’re not some loser. But just as importantly—and this is
the part I may not get right and you may not listen to—if you do get
your dream, you are not a winner.
Stephen Colbert to Northwestern in 2011
The most important thing in your life is to live your life with integrity
and to not give into peer pressure to try to be something that you’re
not.
Ellen DeGeneres to Tulane in 2009
It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so
cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all—in which case,
you fail by default.
J.K. Rowling to Harvard in 2008
The old rules are crumbling and nobody knows what the new rules
are. So make up your own rules.
Neil Gaiman to The University of the Arts in 2012
And when your journey seems too hard, and when you run into a
chorus of cynics who tell you that you’re being foolish to keep
believing or that you can’t do something, or that you should just give
up, or you should just settle—you might say to yourself a little phrase
that I’ve found handy these last eight years: Yes, we can.
Barack Obama to Howard University in 2016
Now the first suggestion is to aim high, but be aware that even before
you have reached your ultimate professional destination, if you
always strive for excellence, you can and should have a substantial
impact on the world in which you live.
Sandra Day O’Connor to Gettysburg College in 2008
Don’t be afraid of fear. Because it sharpens you, it challenges you, it
makes you stronger; and when you run away from fear, you also run
away from the opportunity to be your best possible self.
 Ed Helms to Knox College in 2013
Be compassionate to everyone. Don’t just search for whatever it is
that annoys and frightens you, see beyond those things to the basic
human being. Especially see the child in the man or woman. Even if
they are destroying you, allow a moment to see how lost in their own
delusion and suffering they are.
Alice Walker to Naropa University in 2007
Not only can you not plan the impact you’re going to have, you often
won’t recognize it when you’re having it.
Dick Costolo to University of Michigan in 2013
Real courage is holding on to a still voice in your head that says, ‘I
must keep going.’ It’s that voice that says nothing is a failure if it is
not final. That voice that says to you, ‘Get out of bed. Keep going. I
will not quit.’
Cory Booker to Yale University in 2013
There are few things more liberating in this life than having your
worst fear realized.
Conan O’Brien to Dartmouth College in 2011

If you include one more big word in the sentence, a word that’s 25 characters long, then you’d
have a total of 7 words, 6 spaces and a period as your “sentence” — totaling 200 characters.

1. "There is a good reason they call these ceremonies ' commencement

exercises'. Graduation is not the end; it's the beginning." Orrin Hatch
New Beginnings
2. "Your graduation is a milestone in your life."
College Graduation Quotes

3. "Without a doubt, the best graduation speeches captivate the audience,

heart and soul. They enchant us without smothering. They advise us
without being didactic."Randy Howe, Here We Stand
Words of Encouragement

4. "Graduation is not a single point along the continuum of life. Instead,

graduation is a series of continuing steps where additional education
and life experiences culminate in a life driven by a self-sacrificing desire
to contribute to the well-being of those people who are around
you." Byron Pulsifer
Inspirational Quotes
5. "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.
You are the guy who'll decide where to go."
Dr. Seuss
Graduation Poems

6. Give the ones you love wings to fly, roots to come back and reasons to
stay. Dalai Lama
Quotes about Love and Life

7. Don't make excuses, don't blame the past. The rest of your life can be the
best of your life! Joel Osteen
Quote of The Day
8. "Graduation is only a concept. In real life every day you graduate.
Graduation is a process that goes on until the last day of your life. If you
can grasp that, you'll make a difference." Arie Pencovici
Make A Difference

9. "Never doubt you were born to do great things!" Catherine Pulsifer

Short Graduation Quotes

10."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 Freund
Funny Graduation Quotes

11. "Your parents, proudly here today, and their parents before them,
perhaps proudly here today, understood a simple equation for success:
your children would do better than you had." Anna Quindlen
Good Graduation Songs
12. "Ditch the dream and be a doer, not a dreamer, whether or not you
know what your 'passion' might be. The truth is, it doesn't matter. You
don't have to know. You just have to keep moving forward. You just have
to keep doing something, seizing the next opportunity, staying open to
trying something new." Shonda Rhimes
Moving Foward

13. "I wasn't under any delusion that a single message would change their
world, but I was determined to prepare something that would contribute
to their lives beyond graduation day, something that would help them to
choose a life that matters."Dennis Rainey, Choosing a Life That Matters
Change The World

14. "And they also deserve from us gratitude for undertaking the rigorous
education which they have, for pushing themselves to the limits and now
for going into the world ready to use their talents . . . " Hillary Rodham
Clinton
Gratitude
15. "Graduation is the same thing as taking that first baby step as a child. It
is only the beginning, not the end. Thus, take the advent of graduation
as that first step where life's difficulties or failures only spark new
attempts with the full understanding that nobody can discourage your
progress except you." Byron R. Pulsifer
Progress

16. "The first of many graduations in life. From elementary school to senior
school, each one holds successes for you to enjoy." Catherine Pulsifer
Success

17. "Each one of us has the ability to lead a dynamic life by pursuing our
unique goals and dreams. There are no limits to what you can
accomplish when you know who you are and have faith in what you can
do." Stedman Graham
Dream
18. "Find ways around the obstacles in your life. The power lies within you
and your ability to change the way you think and act. Never forget that,
and never give up."Mike Finley, Graduation: Retirement Can Be the Best Time
in Your Life
Change

19. "Having the right mindset is critical to graduation no matter at what age
you decide to take the leap. The mindset? You must acquire the right
mindset that places you in the right frame of mind to make the right
decisions, which will lead to the right habits, eventually leading you
down the right path as you grow beyond where you are right now." Mike
Finley, Graduation!
Growth

20. "I've had successes and setbacks and sometimes painful ones.
Many of you are at the beginning of your professional, public, and
political careers - you will have successes and setbacks too." Hillary
Rodham Clinton
Motivational
21. "The world rewards those who take responsibility for their own
success." Curt Gerrish
Accountability

22. "If I had only one message to impart that might help you be
successful, it would be simply to start. To find your confidence, get out
of your comfort zone, overcome your fears, and begin the journey to
discover and accomplish what you want to do with your life." Doretha
Dingler, In Pink
Graduation Congratulations Quotes

23. "After years of daily effort and sleepless nights cramming for
exams and finishing term papers, the day finally comes when you put on
your caps and gowns to stand in line to receive the university diploma
certifying that the time has come for you to make your entry into the
real world." Maria C. Siccardi, A Graduation Gift
Effort
24. "Graduation, a conclusion of one chapter, a beginning of
another." Catherine Pulsifer
Encouraging

25. "Commencement. These graduates go out to a new season and our

paths will never cross again in the same way. But while they have
journeyed here in this season, they have impacted my life; and even
though new students will come I will never be the same." Marsha
Woodard, I Choose to Thrive
Quotes about Life

26. "You can complain about the direction of your life all you want,
but until you sit in the driver's seat and begin to drive yourself, you
aren't going to get where you want to go!" Les Brown
Poems about Life
27."So the history we share should give you hope. And the future we share
should give you hope. You're graduating into a job market that's
improving. You live in a time when advances in technology and
communications puts the world at your fingertips. Your generation is
uniquely poised for success unlike any before it."President Obama
Commencement Speech 2013, Pursuing Excellence and Setting an Example
Hope

28. "Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your
own sunshine."Anthony J. D'Angelo
Smile

29. "If you choose to walk in love and keep a positive, faith-filled
focus, your trials will actually graduate you to a higher level of operative
grace-life following that season." Patricia King, Dream Big
Love
30. ". . .isn't about being smarter than anybody else- it's about
working harder than anybody else." Barack Obama
Smart

31. "If you get knocked down seven times, you get up eight. You're going to
have to learn how to adapt." Dr. Tim Wallace
Perseverance

32. "The man realized that what counted was not where a person
lived, but how a person lived." Spencer Johnson, M.D., Peaks and Valleys
Motivational Poems

33. "But there comes a point of diminishing returns, when more stuff
does not bring more happiness." Susan V. Vogt, Blessed by Less
Happiness
34. "You can accomplish wonders through focus and persistence. Over
time, the fruits of your efforts will multiply to yield a luxuriant carpet of
achievement." Gina Mohammed, Ph. D.
Focus

35. "I found that I could find the energy . . . that I could find the
determination to keep on going. I learned that your mind can amaze
your body, if you just keep telling yourself, I can do it . . . I can do it . . . I
can do it!" Jon Erickson
Determination

36. "Don't allow yourself to become one who, nearing death, regrets
what you might have done if only you had taken a few risks We each
have a purpose in life." Gillian Stokes
Regret
37."Never before, since the beginning of time, has there ever been anybody
exactly like you; and never again throughout all the ages to come will
there ever be anybody exactly like you again." Dale Carnegie, How To Enjoy
Your Life And Your Job
Being Yourself Quotes

38. "Be brave. Take risks. Nothing can substitute experience." Paulo
Coelho
Experiene

39. "Make each day your masterpiece." John Wooden

Good Day

40. "If we all did the things that we are capable of doing, we would
literally astound ourselves." Thomas Edison
Great Quotes about Life
41. "As a lot of us have found out, graduation only means that you are ready
to keep learning, to keep your skills advanced and growing because you
never know when you will find yourself out on the street." Byron Pulsifer
Learning

42. Everything is in your mind. Your ability to succeed, to fail, to win,

to loose is just a matter of attitude. Scott Oteri, Become A Winner
Attitude

43. "Men (women) who know exactly what they want of life, and are
determined to get it, do not stop with wishing. They intensify their
wishes into a burning desire, and back that desire with continuous effort
based on a sound plan." Andrew Carnegie
Wish
44. "The secret of unleashing your true power is setting goals that are
exciting enough that they truly inspire your creativity and ignite your
passion." Anthony Robbins
Goals

45. "I will reach for the stars no matter how hard it seems, and fly like
a bird with the knowledge this journey brings." Semetra C. Vanison
Knowledge

46. "Before you set off on the great adventure of life, you have to
decide where you want to end up. The good news is there have never
been more opportunities to achieve your goals than there are
today." Brian Tracy, Master Your Time, Master Your Life
High School Graduation Quotes
47. "You'll never achieve real success unless you like what you're
doing." Dale Carnegie
Achievement

48. "Moment by moment you are building the story of your life. You
control your thoughts and acts as an author of a novel controls the
thoughts and actions of the characters in his story. No matter what
happens to you in the pages of time, you have the power to react like a
hero!" Wilfred Peterson
Time

49. "There is nothing a person can't do, and there should be nothing a
human being didn't care about. It was the most positive encouragement
I could have hoped for."Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Positive

50. Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn
around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work
around it. Michael Jordan