The real questions are: Am I getting better as a person? And is what I'm doing bringing me and the ones around me happiness?
growth happiness authenticity
John McEnroe
Stanford University Commencement, 2023
Whether you think the world is out to hurt you or help you — you're right.
empathy relationships wisdom
Mark Rober
MIT Commencement 2023, 2023
If you can get curious about what scares or infuriates you, especially if it's part of yourself, you can get way less scared.
speech graduation curiosity
Mary Karr
Syracuse University Commencement 2015, 2015
Most adults are pretending. Status, intelligence, beauty, wealth, achievement. The older you get, the more you see people pretending in little ways all the time.
speech graduation authenticity
Victor Hwang
Austin Community College Commencement 2014, 2014
On the air I am capable of asking anybody anything. But take away the mic and I can become uncomfortable, self-conscious, and insecure.
speech graduation authenticity
Terry Gross
Bryn Mawr College Commencement 2014, 2014
Self-doubt is one of the most destructive forces. It makes you defensive instead of open, reactive instead of active. Self-doubt is consuming and cruel and my hope is today that we can all collectively agree to ban it.
speech graduation courage
Jennifer Lee
University of New Hampshire Commencement 2014, 2014
The person under 25 is less a rough draft than a finely honed instrument, tailor-made for one of life's greatest periods of challenge and change.
speech graduation growth
Ronan Farrow
Dominican University of California Commencement 2012, 2012
Be proud of this new generation. They aren't like you, but they are what America now needs.
speech graduation legacy
Neil Howe
University of Mary Washington Commencement 2012, 2012
A generation is not 'youth.' Youth is just an age bracket. It's like an empty hotel room that different generations move into — with their own baggage — and then soon leave. Sometimes that room swells with sweet music, sometimes it throbs with death metal, sometimes it's utterly silent. But it's never the same.
speech graduation history
Neil Howe
University of Mary Washington Commencement 2012, 2012
I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.
speech graduation solitude
Kirk Schneider
San Francisco State University Commencement 2010, 2010
Fear is the most corrosive force in human life. It deforms us and crushes the best in us.
speech graduation courage
Michael Ignatieff
Niagara University Commencement 2006, 2006
The measure of success is what you think about what you've done. Not the doing well, nor the failure — but what you think about it.
speech graduation success
Mark S. Lewis
University of Texas Commencement 2000, 2000