A sense of humor will be your life preserver in what could definitely be a veil of tears. Relish it. Cultivate it. It is vital to your existence.
Lewis Black
UC San Diego Thurgood Marshall College Commencement 2013, 2013
You are now entering a world filled to the brim with idiots. Since there are so many idiots out there, you may actually start to think you're crazy. You are not. They are idiots.
Lewis Black
UC San Diego Thurgood Marshall College Commencement 2013, 2013
Money and power by themselves are a two-legged stool — you can balance on them for a while, but eventually, you're going to topple over.
Arianna Huffington
Smith College Commencement 2013, 2013
A much simpler way to get to the top is to sleep your way to the top. And I mean that literally.
Arianna Huffington
Smith College Commencement 2013, 2013
The best way to make people feel that you're listening to them is to listen to them.
Sal Khan
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Commencement 2012, 2012
Imagine yourself in 50 years. You're in your early 70s, near the end of your career. You start to reflect on your life and think of all the things you wished you had done differently. And just while that's happening, a genie appears and gives you a second chance. You blink your eyes and find yourself right here, right now. The genie was serious.
Sal Khan
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Commencement 2012, 2012
I hope if you learn anything from me today, if you remember anything that I say today, I hope you'll remember about the power of the pause. Pausing today and throughout your entire life allows you to take a breath. It allows you to take a beat. It allows you to be in the moment.
Maria Shriver
USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism Commencement 2012, 2012
You are not special. You are not exceptional.
David McCullough Jr.
Wellesley High School Commencement 2012, 2012
If everyone is special, then no one is. If everyone gets a trophy, trophies become meaningless.
David McCullough Jr.
Wellesley High School Commencement 2012, 2012
The great and curious truth of the human experience is that selflessness is the best thing you can do for yourself. The sweetest joys of life, then, come only with the recognition that you're not special. Because everyone is.
David McCullough Jr.
Wellesley High School Commencement 2012, 2012
The true test of a human being's character is how he treats people in his life that he cannot use.
Lee Corso
Florida State University Commencement 2012, 2012
Even if greed were good, greed is not enough.
Jefferson Smith
University of Oregon Commencement 2012, 2012