Whatever you choose, however many roads you travel, I hope that you choose not to be a lady. I hope you will find some way to break the rules and make a little trouble out there.
speech graduation courage
Nora Ephron
Wellesley College 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.
speech graduation ambition
Andy Rooney
Colgate University Commencement 1996, 1996
Being educated is an end in itself. It sets you apart from most of the people on the planet.
speech graduation education
Andy Rooney
Colgate University Commencement 1996, 1996
I still get up at 5:30 every morning because I like my life so much that I hate to waste any of it by sleeping more than is necessary.
speech graduation passion
Andy Rooney
Colgate University Commencement 1996, 1996
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
The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.
speech graduation responsibility
Carl Sagan
Pale Blue Dot Speech 1996, 1996
Our conscience must catch up to our reason, otherwise we are lost.
speech graduation responsibility
Vaclav Havel
Harvard University Commencement 1995, 1995
Pride is precisely what will lead the world to hell. I am suggesting an alternative: humbly accepting our responsibility for the world.
speech graduation humility
Vaclav Havel
Harvard University Commencement 1995, 1995
The world is in the hands of us all. And yet some have a greater influence on its fate than others. The more influence a person has, the greater the demands placed on their sense of responsibility.
speech graduation responsibility
Vaclav Havel
Harvard University Commencement 1995, 1995
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