The elevation of appearance over substance, of celebrity over character, of short-term gain over lasting achievement is precisely what your generation needs to help end.
Barack Obama
Arizona State University Commencement 2009, 2009
Great necessities call out great virtues. We live in a time of great necessities — a time when we cannot avoid the burdens of global leadership.
Robert M. Gates
University of Georgia Commencement 2009, 2009
Nations of technically trained people who don't know how to criticize authority, useful profit-makers with obtuse imaginations.
Martha Nussbaum
Connecticut College Commencement 2009, 2009
Sometimes it is important to wake up and stop dreaming. When a really great dream shows up, grab it!
Larry Page
University of Michigan Commencement 2009, 2009
I believe that if people are not laughing at your ambitions and your goals, then your dreams are not big enough.
Jarl Mohn
USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism Commencement 2009, 2009
A lot of other folk will tell you that the sky is falling. I will not tell you that the sky is falling. I will say that those are pennies from heaven. Because I've seen this movie before and I know how it turns out.
Chris Gardner
UC Berkeley Commencement 2009, 2009
Trust yourself. Dig deep down and ask yourselves, who do you want to be? Not what, but who.
Arnold Schwarzenegger
University of Southern California Commencement 2009, 2009
You can't be paralyzed by fear of failure or you will never push yourself. You push yourself because you believe in yourself and in your vision.
Arnold Schwarzenegger
University of Southern California Commencement 2009, 2009
Standing up for one's own integrity makes you no friends. It is costly. Yet defiance of the mob, in the service of that which is right, is one of the highest expressions of courage I know.
Gabrielle Giffords
Scripps College Commencement 2009, 2009
Find the courage to do things you are not ready to do. Doing something you are not ready to do isn't comfortable. But in pushing through this discomfort you will learn a lot more about yourself.
Marissa Mayer
Illinois Institute of Technology Commencement 2009, 2009
Recognize that you are the change you seek. You are the great agents of change in the world. You can adapt, you can embrace, you can respond in ways that will better your life and better the life of your society. You cannot ignore them. You cannot fight them. But what you can do is adapt and make the world a better place.
Fareed Zakaria
Bates College Commencement 2009, 2009
Not knowing is just as important, if not more important, because you do not know yet what can't be done.
Robert Rodriguez
University of Texas at Austin Commencement 2009, 2009