More from Will Ferrell

No matter how cliché it may sound, you will never truly be successful until you learn to give beyond yourself. Empathy and kindness are the true signs of emotional intelligence.

WF

Will Ferrell

University of Southern California Commencement 2017, 2017

0:00

Video starts at 0:00 — the moment this quote was spoken

The Story Behind This Quote

After cataloguing his Hollywood achievements — running naked in Old School, racing in his underwear in Talladega Nights, eating gum off the ground in Elf — Ferrell turned serious. His definition of success, he said, was not any of that. It was his sixteen-and-a-half-year marriage to his wife Vivica. It was his three sons Magnus, Matthias, and Axel. It was his involvement with Cancer for College, a charity giving scholarships to cancer survivors, started by his fraternity brother Craig Pollard — a two-time cancer survivor who dreamed up the idea while they were at the Delta Tau Delta house at USC. The real measure of a life, Ferrell argued, was not what you accumulated but what you gave.

Collect Your Favorite Quotes

Save quotes that inspire you. Build your personal collection of wisdom in Minditly — available on both platforms.