Find ways to make work seem like play, or perhaps make play into something that you get paid to do.
speech graduation passion
Clayborne Carson
Niagara University Commencement 2008, 2008
Sometimes we need an event to shock us into the present. Some of us require a catastrophic experience to remind us that we are indeed alive. Others know this from their reading of poetry — a somewhat less traumatic experience.
speech graduation gratitude
Billy Collins
Colorado College Commencement 2008, 2008
Between chutzpah and humility lies success. The biggest killer of a good mind is to stick it in a fat head.
speech graduation humility
Larry Bock
UC Berkeley College of Chemistry Commencement 2007, 2007
Insist that we support science and the arts, especially the arts. They have nothing to do with the actual defense of our country — they just make our country worth defending.
speech graduation arts
Ken Burns
Georgetown University Commencement 2006, 2006
Why take the trip if you're not going to enjoy the ride?
speech graduation carpe diem
Marian Fontana
Massachusetts School of Law Commencement 2006, 2006
If all you ever do is all you've ever done, then all you'll ever get is all you've ever got.
speech graduation growth
Margaret Spellings
Montgomery College Commencement 2006, 2006
Try never to be the smartest person in the room. And if you are, I suggest you invite smarter people — or find a different room.
speech graduation humility
Michael Dell
University of Texas at Austin Commencement 2003, 2003
It doesn't matter that your dream came true if you spent your whole life sleeping. Whatever happens happens now, so live your life where the action is — now.
speech graduation carpe diem
Jerry Zucker
University of Wisconsin-Madison Commencement 2003, 2003
Right at this moment in your life, you have nothing to lose. Everything you have acquired of value is locked inside you. If you have a dream, now is the time to pursue it, before you buy furniture.
speech graduation courage
Jerry Zucker
University of Wisconsin-Madison Commencement 2003, 2003
We come in naked and broke. We may be dressed when we go out, but we're just as broke.
speech graduation mortality
Stephen King
Vassar College Commencement 2001, 2001
We live in an age in which ideas, important ideas, are worn like articles of fashion — and for precisely the same reason articles of fashion are worn, which is to make the wearer look better and to feel a la mode.
speech graduation authenticity
Tom Wolfe
Boston University Commencement 2000, 2000
An intellectual is a person knowledgeable in one field who speaks out only in others. It required no intellectual effort whatsoever. Suddenly he was elevated to a plane from which he could look down upon ordinary people.
speech graduation authenticity
Tom Wolfe
Boston University Commencement 2000, 2000