Quotes Collection

Timeless wisdom from legendary speeches. Browse by speaker or search for any quote.

356 speakers · 1298 quotes

CP

Colin Powell

Northeastern University Commencement 2012, 2012

"It ain't where you start in life, it's where you end up and what you did along the way."

3 quotes
RR

Ronald Reagan

Eureka College Commencement 1957, 1957

"Those who discovered and pioneered this land had to have rare qualities of courage and imagination, nor did these qualities stop there. Even the modern-day immigrants have been possessed of courage beyond that of their neighbors — the courage to tear up centuries-old roots and leave their homelands, to come to this land where even the language was strange."

3 quotes
SR

Sumner Redstone

Kellogg School of Management Commencement, 2002, 2002

"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."

3 quotes
DR

David Remnick

Syracuse University Commencement 2014, 2014

"What gnaws at you? And what will you do about it?"

3 quotes
SR

Shonda Rhimes

Dartmouth College Commencement 2014, 2014

"Dreams do not come true just because you dream them. It's hard work that makes things happen. It's hard work that creates change."

3 quotes
SR

Susan Rice

Stanford University Commencement 2010, 2010

"If you want change, you have to make it. If we want progress, we have to drive it."

3 quotes
AR

Adrienne Rich

Douglass College Commencement 1977, 1977

"You cannot afford to think of being here to receive an education: you will do much better to think of being here to claim one."

3 quotes
R

Rihanna

Harvard University Humanitarian of the Year Award 2017, 2017

"When I was five or six years old, I remember watching TV and I would see these commercials... 'you can give 25 cents, save a child's life.' And I would think to myself, I wonder how many 25 cents I could save up to save all the kids in Africa. And I would say to myself, 'when I grow up, when I can get rich, I'mma save kids all over the world.'"

4 quotes
MR

Mark Rober

MIT Commencement 2023, 2023

"Pick what you think is the best path and just move forward."

5 quotes
JR

John Roberts

Niagara University Commencement 2005, 2005

"Wealth isn't measured in bling and Bentleys. It's measured in the richness of the human spirit. It's measured not in what we take from this world, but what we give to it."

3 quotes
RR

Robert Rodriguez

University of Texas at Austin Commencement 2009, 2009

"Not knowing is just as important, if not more important, because you do not know yet what can't be done."

3 quotes
AR

Andy Rooney

Colgate University Commencement 1996, 1996

"Ambition and satisfaction are at war. If you're ambitious, you aren't satisfied, and if you're satisfied, you aren't ambitious."

3 quotes
RR

Roger Rosenblatt

Brigham Young University Commencement 1998, 1998

"The positions I am about to describe are not only exalted and high paying; they also require little or no work, experience, training or knowledge. Thus they are exceptionally well suited to graduating seniors."

3 quotes
PR

Phil Rosenthal

Hofstra University Commencement 2011, 2011

"We're all going to get cancelled one day. So do the show you want to do."

3 quotes
JR

J.K. Rowling

Harvard University Commencement 2008, 2008

"Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life."

6 quotes
MR

Maya Rudolph

Tulane University Commencement 2015, 2015

"Say Yes. Say Yes, And… and create your own destiny."

3 quotes
TR

Tim Russert

Niagara University Commencement 2000, 2000

"To whom much is given, much is expected."

3 quotes
JR

James Ryan

Harvard Graduate School of Education Commencement 2016, 2016

"An answer can only be as good as the question asked."

3 quotes