Top 5 Wisest Graduation Speeches Of All Time
- At May 27, 2012
- By Kristin Paperman
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It’s graduation season again! Whether students are leaving kindergarten, 6th grade, 8th grade, high school, or college, graduating is a pivotal marker of progress and the beginning of something new.
Graduations let us recognize accomplishments and take time to celebrate our successes. Before we send students off on their next adventure, we usually offer them some words of inspiration and wisdom.
Let’s take a moment to congratulate the graduates from the class of 2012. Here are some of the wisest graduation speeches of all time.
Charlie Munger, VP of Berkshire Hathaway
USC Law Commencement Address, 2007
“You’re not going to get very far in life based on what you already know. You’re going to advance in life by what you’re going to learn after you leave here.”
Conan O’Brien, Late night talk show host
Dartmouth College Commencement Address, 2011
“There are few things more liberating in this life than having your worst fear realized. Whether you fear it or not, true disappointment will come but with disappointment comes clarity, conviction, and true originality.”
Ellen DeGeneres, Daytime talk show host
Tulane University Commencement Address, 2009
“For me, the most important thing in your life is to live your life with integrity, and not to give into peer pressure, to try to be something that you’re not. To live your life as an honest and compassionate person. To contribute in some way.”
Bono, Singer/Musician for U2
University of Pennsylvania Commencement Address, 2004
“Big ideas are expensive. The University has had its share of big ideas. Benjamin Franklin had a few, so did Justice Brennen and in my opinion so does Judith Rodin…So my question I suppose is: What’s the big idea? What’s your big idea? What are you willing to spend your moral capital, your intellectual capital, your cash, your sweat equity in pursuing outside of the walls of the University of Pennsylvania?”
Steve Jobs, Former CEO of Apple
Stanford Commencement Address, 2005
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something—your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”
Congratulations, Class of 2012!
