Graduation Quotes
Graduation quotes are often used in speeches during the graduation ceremony. These quotes inspire and teach life lessons. They are often passed down from generation to generation. Use them to add some inspirational value to your speech, or maybe even engrave your quote on a gift.
Graduation Quotes from Famous Writers
Some of the most popular graduation quotes were first spoken by inspirational writers, such as Erma Bombeck, Mark Twain, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Dr. Seuss. These quotes help inspire students to perservere as they face struggles beyond high school and give other advice about leading a successful life.
- ''You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose." - Dr. Seuss in Oh the Places You Will Go
- "Your education is a dress rehearsal for a life that is yours to lead." - Nora Ephron from her speech to Wellesley College, Class of 1996
- "You cannot but learn more of the world's heft, as you take it now into your hands." - John Updike in a commencement address to University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1993
- "To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight." - E.E. Cummings
- "It is so easy to waste our lives: our days, our hours, our minutes; it is so easy to exist instead of live." - Anna Quindlen in her commencement speech at Villanova University in 2000
- "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor." - Mark Twain
- "Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant." - Robert Louis Stevenson
- "Doors will slam in your face. You must pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and knock again; it's the only way to achieve your goals in life." - Michael Uslan from his commencement speech at Indiana University, 2006
- "Life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone's total control, and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes." - J.K. Rowling in her commencement speech at Harvard University, 2006
Famous People Quotes
Famous politicians, movie stars, and news personalities are often quoted at various events. Many of them have been invited to give graduation speeches, and excerpts from those speeches have gone on to play a role in multiple graduation speeches. These quotes provide graduates with wisdom as they face the future and give them positive advice to follow, often including lessons they have learned throughout their lives.
- "Graduation is not the end; it's the beginning." - Orrin Hatch
- "The fireworks begin today. Each diploma is a lighted match. Each one of you is a fuse." - Edward Koch
- "When you leave here, don't forget why you came." - Adlai Stevenson
- "The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet." - Aristotle
- "An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest." - Benjamin Franklin
- "What I know now is that feelings are really your GPS system for life." - Oprah Winfrey at Standford University, 2008
- "Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value." - Albert Einstein
- "Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else." - Judy Garland
- "All our dreams can come true...if we have the courage to pursue them." - Walt Disney
- "Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose." - Steve Jobs at Stanford University, 2005
Other Quote Resources
For more graduation quote ideas, the following websites offer extensive lists of some of the most popular graduation quotes and a wealth of other quotes that are designed to advise and inspire.
- Famous Quotes and Quotations offers a list of the top 10 graduation quotes. In addition, check out the lists of inspirational quotes, leadership quotes and success quotes to find other quotes appropriate for a graduation speech.
- Think Exist organizes quotes by topic, author and keyword. Use its list of graduation quotes or search for a quote by keyword based on what you want to say in your graduation speech.
- All Great Quotes contains quotes on nearly 200 different topics. Search topics such as be yourself, graduation and life to find the perfect quote to use in a graduation message.
- Brainy Quotes' sections on wisdom, success, life and happiness offer an extensive list of quotes appropriate for graduation. Special quote lists from popular speakers and authors, such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Abraham Lincoln are also available.
Graduation quotes typically offer graduates advice about life and the future and seek to inspire them as they move on in life. Most graduation quotes were not designed specifically for graduates, but have been used so frequently in graduation speeches that they have come to be associated with that milestone.
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