The work itself is the reward, and if I choose challenging work, it'll pay me back with interest. At least I'll be interested, even if nobody else is.
speech graduation passion
Meryl Streep
Vassar College Commencement 1983, 1983
That choice, between the devil and the dream, comes up every day in different little disguises. I'm sure it comes up in every field of endeavor and every life.
speech graduation authenticity
Meryl Streep
Vassar College Commencement 1983, 1983
Integrate what you believe into every single area of your life. Take your heart to work, and ask the most and best of everybody else too.
speech graduation authenticity
Meryl Streep
Vassar College Commencement 1983, 1983
Not from above, but from below. Not in the light that blinds, but in the dark that nourishes, where human beings grow human souls.
speech graduation growth
Ursula K. Le Guin
Mills College Commencement 1983, 1983
BE BOLD, BE BOLD, BE BOLD. Keep on reading. And remember when you hear yourself saying you don't have time anymore to read — then you're getting old. That means they got to you, after all.
speech graduation courage
Susan Sontag
Wellesley College Commencement 1983, 1983
The most useful suggestion I can make is that you go on being students for the rest of your lives. Don't move to a mental slum.
speech graduation curiosity
Susan Sontag
Wellesley College Commencement 1983, 1983
This attitude of opposition is not justified as a strategy, as a means to an end, a way of changing the world. It is, rather, the best way of being in the world.
speech graduation independence
Susan Sontag
Wellesley College Commencement 1983, 1983
That choice, between the devil and the dream, comes up every day in different little disguises.
speech graduation courage
Meryl Streep
Vassar College Commencement 1983, 1983
I have lived like an animal in the street, but I am going to die like an angel, loved and cared for.
speech graduation love
Mother Teresa
Niagara University Commencement 1982, 1982
Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won't come in.
speech graduation wisdom
Alan Alda
Connecticut College Commencement 1980, 1980
Be as smart as you can, but remember that it is always better to be wise than to be smart.
speech graduation wisdom
Alan Alda
Connecticut College Commencement 1980, 1980
The center of the self, itself, is this secret, obsessive, often silly, nearly continuous voice — the voice that is the surest sign we are alive.
speech graduation self discovery
William H. Gass
Washington University Commencement 1979, 1979