Responsibility

Either way, what we do matters. What we do affects the outcome.

Home is not where you are from. Home is where you are needed.

Construction is far more difficult because it requires the capacity to imagine something new and better, and the willingness to exert ourselves toward building it, even at the risk of failure.

It is okay to encourage others to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. But if you do, just remember that some people have no boots.

Providing care is every bit as important as providing cash.

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.

What gnaws at you? And what will you do about it?

If this day means anything, it means that you are now in the contingent of the responsible.

We're the lucky ones, and we can never forget that we didn't get where we are today all on our own. We got here because of so many people who toiled and sweat and bled and died for us. We owe them.

Education is still the key to real and lasting freedom — it is still true today. So it is now up to us to cultivate that hunger for education in our own lives and in those around us.

That fairness that my parents and I take for granted, that many Americans take for granted, is in many ways resting on your shoulders to uphold. You represent those who will make laws and effect change.

You take words, and you turn them into the infrastructure that keeps our world stable. A lot of you will become the quiet heroes of our country.