I just wanted him to keep staring at the bird, because we both know that it could fly away at any moment.
speech graduation love
Marian Fontana
Massachusetts School of Law Commencement 2006, 2006
Where do the mermaids stand? Answer that question, and you could build a school, a nation, or a whole world on it.
speech graduation authenticity
Barbara P. Bush
Wake Forest University Commencement 2001, 2001
That's the power of truth and learning and excellence — the search for what it is that ignites the human spirit, overcoming the unexpected and discovering the unknown. That's what life is all about.
speech graduation curiosity
Daniel S. Goldin
MIT Commencement 2001, 2001
Never be so canny as to ignore the uncanny.
speech graduation wonder
Seamus Heaney
University of Pennsylvania Commencement 2000, 2000
Even Terminus, the god of limits, refused to recognize that limits are everything. The open sky above his head testified to his yearning to escape the ground beneath his feet.
speech graduation ambition
Seamus Heaney
University of Pennsylvania Commencement 2000, 2000
Your job is to witness. To witness, to understand, to comprehend, and to celebrate. To celebrate with your lives.
speech graduation wonder
Ray Bradbury
Caltech Commencement 2000, 2000
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.
speech graduation humility
Carl Sagan
Pale Blue Dot Speech 1996, 1996
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light.
speech graduation humility
Carl Sagan
Pale Blue Dot Speech 1996, 1996
We human beings are grand because we have the power to understand. We ask questions about nature and most remarkably, we can construct mathematical models which explain how it works.
speech graduation curiosity
Margaret J. Geller
Harvard University Phi Beta Kappa Commencement 1995, 1995
Our curiosity combined with our uncanny ability to find explanations defines us.
speech graduation curiosity
Margaret J. Geller
Harvard University Phi Beta Kappa Commencement 1995, 1995
We are magicians. We are alchemists, sorcerers and wizards. We are a very strange bunch. But there is great fun in being a wizard.
speech graduation creativity
Billy Joel
Berklee College of Music Commencement 1993, 1993
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