Infuse your life with action. Don't wait for it to happen. Make it happen. Make your own future. Make your own hope. Make your own love.
speech graduation courage
Bradley Whitford
University of Wisconsin-Madison Commencement 2004, 2004
My life needed a challenge, so in 1973, at age 50, I determined to get a Ph.D. They don't call them doctors for nothing. Getting a Ph.D. is painful.
speech graduation perseverance
Jean Andrews
University of Texas at Austin Commencement 2003, 2003
As you start your journey, the first thing you should do is throw away that store-bought map and begin to draw your own.
speech graduation independence
Michael Dell
University of Texas at Austin Commencement 2003, 2003
Don't spend so much time trying to choose the perfect opportunity, that you miss the right opportunity.
speech graduation courage
Michael Dell
University of Texas at Austin 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
True opportunity never knocks. I have found that I have to go looking for opportunity — and if I don't find it, I have to create it.
speech graduation ambition
Sumner Redstone
Kellogg School of Management Commencement, 2002, 2002
If you never venture beyond what you know, you've spawned your own limitations. You've erected the walls of your own private prison cell.
speech graduation courage
Sumner Redstone
Kellogg School of Management Commencement, 2002, 2002
You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take.
speech graduation courage
Barbara P. Bush
Wake Forest University Commencement 2001, 2001
Not experiencing any failure in life is rarely a sign of perfection. Rather, it's a sign that your goals are not bold enough.
speech graduation failure
Daniel S. Goldin
MIT Commencement 2001, 2001
Believe that the sort of life you wish to live is, at this very moment, just waiting for you to summon it up. And when you wish for it, you begin moving toward it, and it, in turn, begins moving toward you.
speech graduation courage
Suzan-Lori Parks
Mount Holyoke College Commencement 2001, 2001
You are graduates of one of the two or three greatest universities in America. You have been raised in a tradition of straight thinking and straight talking.
speech graduation independence
Tom Wolfe
Boston University Commencement 2000, 2000
The world needs your energy, your passion — it doesn't need your indifference.
speech graduation passion
Tim Russert
Niagara University Commencement 2000, 2000