Smith attributed this quote to his father, though it is widely associated with Henry Ford. Regardless of its origin, Smith made it the emotional capstone of his speech, repeating it three times for emphasis. The elegance of the statement lies in its symmetry: believing you can and believing you can't are both self-fulfilling prophecies. Smith connected this to the arc of his own improbable career. As a college student, he had insulted a physics professor by suggesting the man 'suffered from a mental deficiency he may have inherited from his maternal canine parent' — only to discover the professor was the Dean of the Science Department. Despite this and many other missteps, he had achieved everything he dreamed of: busting polluters, globe-trotting as an environmentalist, teaching, and writing. For DeVry graduates — many of whom may have been told that a technical degree from a non-elite institution wouldn't take them far — the message was particularly empowering. The diploma proved they could. The question was whether they would continue to believe it.