If you want to change the world, you must be your very best in the darkest moment.
Admiral William H. McRaven
University of Texas at Austin Commencement 2014, 2014
If you want to change the world don't ever, ever ring the bell.
Admiral William H. McRaven
University of Texas at Austin Commencement 2014, 2014
The world will tell you that it's time to grow up and leave those foolish, youthful diversions behind. But don't fall for that. I'm here to tell you those foolish diversions are the real nectar of life. Put up a fight. Be a fool.
Ed Helms
Cornell University Commencement 2014, 2014
You cannot let a fear of failure or a fear of comparison or a fear of judgment stop you from doing the things that will make you great. You cannot succeed without the risk of failure. You cannot have a voice without the risk of criticism. You cannot love without the risk of loss. You must take these risks.
Charlie Day
Merrimack College Commencement 2014, 2014
Don't do what makes you happy. Do what makes you great. Do what's uncomfortable and scary and hard but pays off in the long run. Be willing to fail. Let yourself fail. Fail in the way and the place where you would be proud to fail.
Charlie Day
Merrimack College Commencement 2014, 2014
Optimism is often dismissed as false hope. But there is also false hopelessness. That's the attitude that says we can't defeat poverty and disease. We absolutely can.
Bill Gates
Stanford University Commencement 2014, 2014
Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm.
James Patterson
University of Florida Commencement 2013, 2013
Nobody cares how tough your upbringing was. Nobody cares if you suffered some discrimination. And moreover, you have to remember that whatever you've gone through, it pales in comparison to the hardships previous generations endured — and they overcame them.
Barack Obama
Morehouse College Commencement 2013, 2013
This is not preparation for life. This is life.
Wynton Marsalis
University of Vermont Commencement 2013, 2013
There is no solution to a problem that does not embrace all that we have created as a species.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Rice University Commencement 2013, 2013
Your life will not be defined by the society that we have left you. Every generation must define itself, and so make the world that suits itself.
Stephen Colbert
University of Virginia Valedictory Exercises 2013, 2013
Do not take no for an answer. Not when you're applying for jobs. Not when you actually get a job. The food court at the mall is littered with people who didn't fight for it. Fight for it.
Sharyn Alfonsi
University of Mississippi Meek School of Journalism Commencement 2013, 2013