Helping others ends up helping you more than anyone. Getting out of your own concerns and caring about someone else's life for a while reminds you that you are not the center of the universe.
speech graduation empathy
Natalie Portman
Harvard University Commencement 2015, 2015
I don't know jack diddly squat about nothing. I'm just a really good-looking rocker that stumbled into a tremendous acting career.
speech graduation humility
Jack Black
Montverde Academy Commencement 2015, 2015
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
As you get older, you realize that no one has all the answers. It turns out that life is an exercise in living with the certainty of uncertainty.
speech graduation wisdom
Jason Kilar
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Commencement 2015, 2015
Perhaps this self you've been treasuring for so long is itself the work of many hands.
speech graduation humility
Zadie Smith
New School University Commencement 2014, 2014
Listening to others, especially those with whom we disagree, tests our own ideas and beliefs. It forces us to recognize, with humility, that we don't have a monopoly on the truth.
speech graduation empathy
Janet Yellen
New York University Commencement 2014, 2014
We are not so good. We are humans, and, as such, we are, without our quite knowing it, always living at least partly in the dark.
speech graduation humility
David Remnick
Syracuse University Commencement 2014, 2014
Anyone who tells you they are doing it all perfectly is a liar.
speech graduation authenticity
Shonda Rhimes
Dartmouth College Commencement 2014, 2014
Whatever success I have achieved, whatever positions of leadership I have held have depended less on Ivy League degrees or SAT scores or GPAs, and have instead been due to that sense of connection and empathy.
speech graduation empathy
Barack Obama
Morehouse College Commencement 2013, 2013
Though there is much of life that you must face alone, you cannot make it out here in this world by yourself. Don't leave your support system when you are in distress.
speech graduation relationships
Wynton Marsalis
University of Vermont Commencement 2013, 2013
Your diploma is really not a ticket to show off what you know. You know what it really is? It's permission to admit to yourself how much you still have yet to learn.
speech graduation humility
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Rice University Commencement 2013, 2013
The real hero's journey is the journey from strength to weakness.
speech graduation humility
John Green
Butler University Commencement 2013, 2013