Success leads to the greatest failure, which is arrogance and pride. Failure can lead to the greatest success, which is humility and learning. In order to fulfill yourself, you have to forget yourself. In order to find yourself, you have to lose yourself.
speech graduation humility
David Brooks
Dartmouth College Commencement 2015, 2015
We cannot always bend the world into the shapes we want, but we can try. We can make a concerted and real and true effort. Always just try, because you never know.
speech graduation courage
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Wellesley College Commencement 2015, 2015
You cannot flourish without a larger purpose. And that's lucky in a way, because our society cannot flourish without your reaching for a larger purpose, either.
speech graduation purpose
Atul Gawande
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Commencement 2014, 2014
Your life's course will not be determined by doing the things that you are certain you can do. It will be determined by whether you try the things that are hard.
speech graduation courage
Sheryl Sandberg
City Colleges of Chicago Commencement 2014, 2014
Be uncomfortable. Open doors. Empathize with strangers. Try new things out. Seek serendipity. Take chances with new friends. And pay it forward to people you don't know.
speech graduation courage
Victor Hwang
Austin Community College Commencement 2014, 2014
I believe we're shaped by our failures, by our weaknesses and setbacks, at least as much as we are by our successes. In many cases, those failures make ultimate success possible.
speech graduation failure
Terry Gross
Bryn Mawr College Commencement 2014, 2014
It was actually very liberating. All of it helped teach me who I was by teaching me who I wasn't.
speech graduation self discovery
Terry Gross
Bryn Mawr College Commencement 2014, 2014
There is no straight path from your seat today to where you are going. Don't try to draw that line. You will not just get it wrong, you'll miss big opportunities.
speech graduation growth
Sheryl Sandberg
Harvard Senior Class Day 2014, 2014
Get into something and see where it takes you. If you really seem to like it, get good at it.
speech graduation curiosity
Mary Carillo
Elon University Commencement 2014, 2014
There's a way that the force of disappointment can be alchemized into something that will paradoxically renew you. You either learn it or you're undone by it.
speech graduation resilience
Martin Scorsese
NYU Tisch School of the Arts Commencement 2014, 2014
Every step is a first step. Every brushstroke is a test. Every scene is a lesson. Every shot is a school. So let the learning continue.
speech graduation growth
Martin Scorsese
NYU Tisch School of the Arts Commencement 2014, 2014
When you are free from self-doubt, you fail better. Because you don't have your defenses up, you can accept the criticism. You don't become so preoccupied with that failure that you forget how to learn from it.
speech graduation failure
Jennifer Lee
University of New Hampshire Commencement 2014, 2014