Don't be deceived by life's outcomes. Life's outcomes, while not entirely random, have a huge amount of luck baked into them. Above all, recognize that if you have had success, you have also had luck — and with luck comes obligation. You owe a debt to the unlucky.
speech graduation humility
Michael Lewis
Princeton University Baccalaureate 2012, 2012
In time you will find it easy to assume that you deserve the extra cookie. For all I know, you may. But you'll be happier, and the world will be better off, if you at least pretend that you don't.
speech graduation humility
Michael Lewis
Princeton University Baccalaureate 2012, 2012
Never become so enamored of your own smarts that you stop signing up for life's hard classes. Keep your conclusions light and your curiosity ferocious. Keep groping in the darkness with ravenous desire.
speech graduation curiosity
Melissa Harris-Perry
Wellesley College Commencement 2012, 2012
You are imperfect. Your knowledge is never complete. Your skills are never infallible. Yet you have to act. You cannot let yourself become paralyzed by fear — yet you cannot blind yourself to failure either.
speech graduation courage
Atul Gawande
Williams College Commencement 2012, 2012
You can't do it alone. As you navigate through the rest of your life, be open to collaboration. Other people and other people's ideas are often better than your own.
speech graduation relationships
Amy Poehler
Harvard University Class Day 2011, 2011
Sometimes I'd save them the trouble and raise the questions myself, in my own head, lying awake at night, doubting whether I had what it took to succeed.
speech graduation resilience
Michelle Obama
Spelman College Commencement 2011, 2011
The purpose in life is not to find yourself. It's to lose yourself.
speech graduation purpose
David Brooks
Rice University Commencement 2011, 2011
You can't do it alone. Be open to collaboration. Other people and other people's ideas are often better than your own. Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life.
speech graduation relationships
Amy Poehler
Harvard College Class Day 2011, 2011
You cannot win your life. And like improv, you cannot win your life.
speech graduation humility
Stephen Colbert
Northwestern University Commencement, 2011, 2011
Success, like happiness, can't be pursued. It must ensue as the unintended byproduct of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself.
speech graduation success
Chris Waddell
Middlebury College Commencement 2011, 2011
Nobody remembers the naysayers. In the end, all that endures are the builders, and in the end even the builders are forgotten and all that endures are the ripples of what they built — and that's a good thing.
speech graduation legacy
Bill Clinton
Yale University Class Day 2010, 2010
Wealth and fame are an illusion. The only times I've been truly miserable is when I was lying to myself or to others.
speech graduation authenticity
Glenn Beck
Liberty University Commencement 2010, 2010