You’ve done it, you’ve graduated. Whether you recall your preschool, high school, undergraduate or graduate level graduation, it’s likely that you’ve either seen or personally gone through the experience: hearing graduation quotes and speeches from notable speakers and classmates, wearing a cap and gown, taking in the bittersweet moments of a chapter closed and the final transcendent moment of cascading across a stage, in front of classmates, family, and friends to acknowledge and celebrate both the end and start of a journey.
The words you hear at graduation are typically meant to offer wisdom, remembrance of your experience and knowledge to hold with you, not only at that moment but in your career and life to come. And they are often applicable for years.
We’ve gathered some of the best, 50 most-remembered graduation quotes to inspire you — no matter where you are in your career or personal journey — here, plus five from 2020 virtual graduation speeches.
Graduation quotes about success
1. “Just remember, you can’t climb the ladder of success with your hands in your pockets.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger
2. “To accomplish great things, we must not only act but also dream, not only plan but also believe.” – Anatole France
3. “Now the first suggestion is to aim high, but be aware that even before you have reached your ultimate professional destination, if you always strive for excellence, you can and should have a substantial impact on the world in which you live.” – Sandra Day O’Connor
4. “Success is like a mountain that keeps growing ahead of you as you hike it… Err in the direction of kindness.” – George Saunders
5. “Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill
6. “When you take risks, you learn that there will be times when you succeed and there will be times when you fail, and both are equally important.” – Ellen DeGeneres
Graduation quotes about failure
7. “You will have failures in your life, but it is what you do during those valleys that will determine the heights of your peaks.” – Rahm Emanuel
8. “Nobody else is paying as much attention to your failures as you are… To everyone else, it’s just a blip on the radar screen, so just move on.” – Jerry Zucker
9. “Real courage is holding on to a still voice in your head that says, ‘I must keep going.’ It’s that voice that says nothing is a failure if it is not final. That voice that says to you, ‘Get out of bed. Keep going. I will not quit.’” – Cory Booker
10. “I learned many great lessons from my father, not the least of which was that you can fail at what you don’t want, so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love.” – Jim Carrey
11. “It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all — in which case, you fail by default.” – J.K. Rowling
Graduation quotes about challenges
12. “Don’t be afraid of fear. Because it sharpens you, it challenges you, it makes you stronger; and when you run away from fear, you also run away from the opportunity to be your best possible self”. – Ed Helms
13. “The only thing you can do in this life is to pursue your passions, celebrate your bloopers and never stop following your fear.” – Grace Helbig
Graduation quotes about trusting yourself
14. “For the most important decisions in your life, trust your intuition, and then work with everything you have, to prove it right.” – Tim Cook
15. “The most important thing in your life is to live your life with integrity and to not give into peer pressure to try to be something that you’re not.” – Ellen DeGeneres
16. “The old rules are crumbling and nobody knows what the new rules are. So make up your own rules.” – Neil Gaiman
17. “You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. You can’t get there by bus, only by hard work and risk and by not quite knowing what you’re doing, but what you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover will be yourself.” – Alan Alda
18. “As you start your journey, the first thing you should do is throw away that store-bought map and begin to draw your own.” – Michael Dell
19. “The person who you’re with most in life is yourself and if you don’t like yourself you’re always with somebody you don’t like.” – Mark Lewis
20. “So, I say to you, forget about the fast lane. If you really want to fly, just harness your power to your passion. Honor your calling. Everybody has one. Trust your heart and success will come to you.” – Oprah Winfrey
21. “If you hear a voice within you say “you cannot paint,” then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.” – Vincent Van Gogh
Graduation quotes about change
22. “This is your time and it feels normal to you but really there is no normal. There’s only change, and resistance to it and then more change.” – Meryl Streep
23. “Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do if the stars only came out once every thousand years. No one would sleep that night, of course… We would be ecstatic, delirious, made rapturous by the glory of God. Instead, the stars come out every night, and we watch television.” – Paul Hawken
24. “Graduation is not the end; it’s the beginning.” – Senator Orrin Hatch
25. “There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.” – C.S. Lewis
26. “The fireworks begin today. Each diploma is a lighted match. Each one of you is a fuse.” – Edward Koch
27. “When you leave here, don’t forget why you came.” – Adlai E. Stevenson
Graduation quotes about life
28. “Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.” – John Dewey
29. “Your life is your story, and the adventure ahead of you is the journey to fulfill your own purpose and potential.” – Kerry Washington
30. “What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
31. “There are no regrets in life. Just lessons.” – Jennifer Aniston
32. “Take pride in how far you’ve come. Have faith in how far you can go. But don’t forget to enjoy the journey.” – Michael Josephson
33. “Your imagination is your preview of life’s coming attractions.” – Albert Einstein
34. “Don’t always worry what your next line is going to be.” – Richard Costolo
35. “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” – Steve Jobs
36. “Now go, and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for you being here. Make good art.” – Neil Gaiman
37. “You have to dance a little bit before you step out into the world each day because it changes the way you walk.” – Sandra Bullock
38. “It doesn’t matter that your dream came true if you spent your whole life sleeping.” – Jerry Zucker
Motivational graduation quotes
39. “Kid, you’ll move mountains.” – Dr. Seuss
40. “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” – Arthur Ashe
41. “Every person you meet knows something you don’t; learn from them.” – H Jackson Brown Jr.
42. “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain
43. “If you want something you’ve never had, you must be willing to do something you’ve never done.” – Thomas Jefferson
44. “And now go, and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here.” – Neil Gaiman
45. “When people tell you not to believe in your dreams, and they say “Why?”, say “Why not?” – Billie Jean King
46. “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.” – Henry David Thoreau
47.“In response to those who say to stop dreaming and face reality, I say keep dreaming and make a reality.” – Kristian Kan
48. “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” – Dr. Seuss
Graduation quotes about hard work
49. “All that stands between the graduate and the top of the ladder is the ladder.” – Author Unknown
50. “The most rewarding things in life are often the ones that look like they cannot be done.” – Arnold Palmer
Graduation quotes from 2020 commencement speeches
51. “As scary and uncertain as these times may be, they are also a wake up call, and they are an incredible opportunity for your generation, because you don’t have to accept what was considered normal before. You don’t have to accept the world as it is. You can make it into the world as it should be, and could be. You can create a new normal. One that is fairer and gives everybody opportunity, and treats everybody equally, and builds bridges between people instead of dividing them.” – President Obama
52. “To all those who feel different, if you are part of a group that’s called ‘other’, a group that does not get the chance to be center stage…build your own stage and make them see you.” – Beyoncé Knowles-Carter
53. “Expect the unexpected, but celebrate anyway.” – Taylor Swift
54. “Although there is much to be sad about, there is also much to be celebrated. You are watching what is a pivotal moment in this country’s evolution.” – Lady Gaga
55. “Promise yourself today that you will savor and make the best of every moment of what lies ahead. Embracing challenge, living humbly, and dedicating your talents to a higher human purpose.” – Condoleezza Rice
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