Graduation quotes page 2
“Nothing is impossible, the word itself says: «I'm possible!»”
Audrey Hepburn (1929–1993) British actress
Laozi (-604) semi-legendary Chinese figure, attributed to the 6th century, regarded as the author of the Tao Te Ching and fou…
Source: yt
“Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.”
Jim Rohn (1930–2009) American motivational speaker
“Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.”
Jim Rohn (1930–2009) American motivational speaker
“We aim above the mark to hit the mark.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
“We know what we are, but know not what we may be.”
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) English playwright and poet
“The opportunity of your life, it's you.”
Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer
Original: (it) L'occasione della tua vita, sei tu.
Source: prevale.net
“Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys.
Make your lives extraordinary”
Tom Schulman (1950) American film director, screenwriter
“The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking spaces.”
Will Rogers (1879–1935) American humorist and entertainer
“Our lives are defined by opportunities, even the ones we miss.”
Eric Roth (1945) American screenwriter
Source: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Screenplay
“The key to life is accepting challenges. Once someone stops doing this, he's dead.”
Bette Davis (1908–1989) film and television actress from the United States
Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American author
As quoted in Diamond Power : Gems of Wisdom from America's Greatest Marketer (2003) by Barry Farber, p. 53
“The highest result of education is tolerance”
Helen Keller (1880–1968) American author and political activist
“Act as if it were impossible to fail.”
Dorothea Brande (1893–1948) American writer and editor
“Life is like college; may I graduate and earn some honors.”
Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888) American novelist
“A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.”
David Brinkley (1920–2003) American journalist
“The road to success is always under construction”
Lily Tomlin (1939) American actress, comedian, writer, and producer
“Always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later.”
Og Mandino (1923–1996) American author
“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goals.”
Henry Ford (1863–1947) American industrialist
“The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.”
Sydney J. Harris (1917–1986) American journalist
Ellen DeGeneres (1958) American stand-up comedian, television host, and actress
Source: Seriously... I'm Kidding
“Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”
Will Rogers (1879–1935) American humorist and entertainer
Variant: Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there.
“Everything you need to know you have learned through your journey.”
Paulo Coelho book The Alchemist
Source: The Alchemist
“Don't live down to expectations. Go out there and do something remarkable.”
Wendy Wasserstein (1950–2006) American playwright
“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement; nothing can be done without hope.”
Helen Keller book Optimism
Optimism (1903)
Variant: Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist
Original from Zig Ziglar https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Zig_Ziglar <br class="br">Misattributed
“The only impossible journey is the one you never begin.”
Anthony Robbins (1960) Author, actor, professional speaker
Harry Truman (1884–1972) American politician, 33rd president of the United States (in office from 1945 to 1953)
Interview http://books.google.com/books?id=r03gAAAAMAAJ&q=%22I+have+found+the+best+way+to+give+advice+to+your+children+is+to+find+out+what+they+want+and+then+advise+them+to+do+it%22&pg=PA104#v=onepage with Margaret Truman, sitting in for host Edward R. Murrow, on Person to Person, CBS Television ( 27 May 1955 http://www.tv.com/shows/person-to-person/may-27-1955-1040725/)
“If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way”
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
“Make the most of yourself…. for that is all there is of you.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
“If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door”
Milton Berle (1908–2002) American comedian and actor
Variant: If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.
Christopher Reeve (1952–2004) actor, director, producer, screenwriter
Speech at the Democratic National Convention (26 August 1996) http://www.chrisreevehomepage.com/sp-dnc1996.html
Earl Nightingale (1921–1989) American motivational speaker
“If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.”
Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) African-American educator, author, orator, and advisor
“Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You're off to Great Places!
You're off and away!”
Dr. Seuss (1904–1991) American children's writer and illustrator, co-founder of Beginner Books
Source: Oh, The Places You'll Go!
“Dreams are extremely important. You can’t do it unless you imagine it.”
George Lucas (1944) American film producer
“The whole secret of a successful life is to find out what is one's destiny to do, and then do it.”
Henry Ford (1863–1947) American industrialist
“Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever.”
Lance Armstrong book Every Second Counts
Source: Every Second Counts
Dr. Seuss (1904–1991) American children's writer and illustrator, co-founder of Beginner Books
Oh, the Places You'll Go! (1990)
Source: Oh, The Places You'll Go!
“You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.”
Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British stateswoman and politician
This quote is widely attributed to Margaret Thatcher on various websites, and also appears in a number of books, including The Concise Columbia Dictionary of Quotations, Columbia University Press (1989), ed. Robert Andrews, p. 320 : ISBN 0231069901. 9780231069908 , but without any further source information such as date, location or any other context. <br class="br">One valid Thatcher quote which may be the basis for the version above appears in the Second Carlton Lecture http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/105799 (‘Why Democracy Will Last’), delivered at the Carlton Club, London (November 26, 1984) : Mr. Chairman, each generation has to stand up for democracy. It can’t take anything for granted and may have to fight fundamental battles anew. You know that marvellous quotation from Goethe : ‘That which thy fathers bequeathed thee / Earn it anew if thou would possess it.’ <br class="br">Thatcher also expressed this thought in a Speech to Atlantic Bridge (May 14, 2003) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/111266, delivered at the St. Regis Hotel, New York City : My friends, every generation has to fight anew the battle for liberty. <br class="br">Disputed
“A problem is a chance for you to do your best.”
Duke Ellington (1899–1974) American jazz musician, composer and band leader
Source: Music is My Mistress
“Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly.”
John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America
“It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste”
Henry Ford (1863–1947) American industrialist
“Every great dream begins with a dreamer.”
Harriet Tubman (1820–1913) African-American abolitionist and humanitarian
“The best way to predict your future is to create it”
Peter F. Drucker (1909–2005) American business consultant
“Be brave. Take risks. Nothing can substitute experience.”
Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist
“You never know what's coming for you.”
Eric Roth (1945) American screenwriter
Source: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Screenplay
“Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself. Go forward and make your dreams come true.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
“You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore”
André Gide (1869–1951) French novelist and essayist
“If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.”
Jodi Picoult book Small Great Things
Source: Small Great Things
Robert Orben (1928) American magician and writer
Pete Goering (May 20, 2007) "A few tips for the graduates", The Topeka Capital-Journal, p. 1.
Attributed
“Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer
The Life of Pope http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/5101 <br class="br">Lives of the English Poets (1779–81)
Harold Geneen (1910–1997) American businessman
Managing, Chapter Three (Experience and Cash), p. 39.
“The business of business is business.”
Alfred P. Sloan (1875–1966) American businessman
Widely attributed to Milton Friedman, and sometimes cited as being in his work Capitalism and Freedom (1962) this is also attributed to Alfred P. Sloan, sometimes with citation of a statement of 1964, but sometimes with attestations to his use of it as a motto as early as 1923.
Disputed
Khalil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese artist, poet, and writer
As quoted in Become a Conscious Creator: A Return to Self-Empowerment (2007) by Lisa Ford, p. 44
“A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) pre-eminent leader of Indian nationalism during British-ruled India
In Ethical Religion, (Madras: S. Ganesan, 1922), p. 62 http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015002732066?urlappend=%3Bseq=66 <br class="br">1920s <br class="br">Variant: A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.
“What does not change / is the will to change”
Charles Olson (1910–1970) American writer
Part I, 1
The Kingfishers (1950)
“The future was not what it used to be.”
K. A. Bedford book Time Machines Repaired While-U-Wait
Source: Time Machines Repaired While-U-Wait (2008), Chapter 13 (p. 156)
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) pre-eminent leader of Indian nationalism during British-ruled India
Variant on aphorism "Study as if you were to live forever. Live as if you were to die tomorrow" pre-dating Gandhi, variously attributed to Isidore of Seville (c. 560 – 636), in FPA Book of Quotations (1952) by Franklin Pierce Adams, to Edmund Rich (1175–1240) in American Journal of Education (1877), or to Alain de Lille in Samuel Smiles's Duty https://books.google.com/books?id=33UzAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA363&dq=live+die+tomorrow+learn+forever&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjd3s_2m57MAhWFMGMKHe-sAl8Q6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=live%20die%20tomorrow%20learn%20forever&f=false (1881). <br class="br">The 1995 book "The good boatman: a portrait of Gandhi," states that Gandhi subscribed "to the view that a man should live thinking he might die tomorrow but learn as if he would live forever." <br class="br">In his 2010 Boyer lecture Glyn Davis (Professor of Political Science and Vice-Chancellor of Melbourne University) attributes the quote to Desiderius Erasmus. "He [Erasmus] reworked Pliny to urge 'live as if you are to die tomorrow, study as if you were to live forever'. Many students obey the first clause - the best heed both." <br class="br">There is a similar quote by Johann Gottfried Herder: "Mensch, genieße dein Leben, als müssest morgen du weggehn; Schone dein Leben, als ob ewig du weiletest hier." ["Man, enjoy your life as if you were to depart tomorrow; spare your life as if you were to linger here forever."] (Zerstreute Blätter, 1785). <br class="br">Disputed
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German writer, artist, and politician
Attributed to Zig Ziglar
Misattributed
“If you believe that you will believe anything.”
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769–1852) British soldier and statesman
In reply to a man who greeted him in the street with the words "Mr. Jones, I believe?", as quoted in Wellington — The Years of the Sword (1969) by Elizabeth Longford.
“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.”
Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895) English biologist and comparative anatomist
A favourite comment, inscribed on his memorial at Ealing, quoted in Nature Vol. XLVI (30 October 1902), p. 658
1890s
“All our dreams can come true — if we have the courage to pursue them.”
Walt Disney (1901–1966) American film producer and businessman
Source: How to Be Like Walt : Capturing the Magic Every Day of Your Life (2004), Ch. 3 : Imagination Unlimited, p. 63; Unsourced variant: All your dreams can come true if you have the courage to pursue them.
“Men are what their mothers made them.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
Fate
1860s, The Conduct of Life (1860)
“What lies behind us and what lies before us are but tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”
Henry S. Haskins (1875–1957)
Source: Meditations in Wall Street (1940), p. 131
“The business of business is business.”
Milton Friedman (1912–2006) American economist, statistician, and writer
Widely attributed to Friedman, and sometimes cited as being in his work Capitalism and Freedom (1962) this is also attributed to Alfred P. Sloan, sometimes with citation of a statement of 1964, but sometimes with attestations to his use of it as a motto as early as 1923.
Disputed
“What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the human soul.”
Joseph Addison (1672–1719) politician, writer and playwright
No. 215 (6 November 1711).
The Spectator (1711–1714)
“There is no knowledge that is not power.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
Old Age
1870s, Society and Solitude (1870)
“You can never plan the future by the past.”
Edmund Burke (1729–1797) Anglo-Irish statesman
Letter to a Member of the National Assembly (1791)
A Letter to a Member of the National Assembly (1791)
“Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion. You must first set yourself on fire.”
Fred Shero (1925–1990) Former ice hockey player and coach
Jim
Jackson
Walking Together Forever: The Broad Street Bullies, Then and Now
2004
31 &32
Sports Publishing L.L.C.
1-58261-389-3
“Dream by making and make by dreaming.”
Dejan Stojanovic (1959) poet, writer, and businessman
Seagull from Afar http://www.poetrysoup.com/famous/poem/21382/Seagull_from_Afar_ <br class="br">From the poems written in English
“Learn as if you were to live forever; live as if you were to die tomorrow.”
John Wooden (1910–2010) American basketball coach
They Call Me Coach (1972)
“A ship in a harbor is safe, but that is not what a ship is built for.”
Sarah Palin (1964) American politician
Taken from a quote of Grace Hopper. [Tropp, Henry S., Fall 1984, Grace Hopper: The Youthful Teacher of Us All, Abacus, 2, 1, p. 18, 0724-6722]
Invoked by Palin at her introduction by Senator John McCain as his choice for the Republican Vice Presidential nomination on .
2014
“It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.”
Ursula K. Le Guin Hainish Cycle
Source: Hainish Cycle, The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), Chapter 15 “To the Ice” (p. 220)
“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”
Thomas Edison (1847–1931) American inventor and businessman
As quoted in An Enemy Called Average (1990) by John L. Mason, p. 55.
Date unknown
“Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.”
Truman Capote (1924–1984) American author
From "Self-Portrait" (1972)
Truman Capote: Conversations (1987)
“I have no plans, and no plans to plan.”
Mario Cuomo (1932–2015) American politician, Governor of New York
On his presidential plans New York Times (14 September 1986)
“A champion is someone who gets up when he can't.”
Jack Dempsey (1895–1983) American boxer
Dempsey's definition of a champion. http://www.hennessysports.com/Article.asp?art=214
“It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.”
Edmund Hillary (1919–2008) New Zealand mountaineer
Though widely attributed to Hillary on the internet and in several Books (e.g. That's Life : Wild Wit & Wisdom (2003) by Bonnie Louise Kuchler, p. 20), this appears to have originated from George Mallory. Source: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2016/08/18/conquer/
Ref: en.wikiquote.org - Edmund Hillary / Disputed
“Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world”
Nelson Mandela (1918–2013) President of South Africa, anti-apartheid activist
" Lighting your way to a better future : Speech delivered by Mr N R Mandela at launch of Mindset Network http://db.nelsonmandela.org/speeches/pub_view.asp?pg=item&ItemID=NMS909&txtstr=education%20is%20the%20most%20powerful," July 16, 2003 at db.nelsonmandela.org. ; Cited in: Nelson Mandela, S. K. Hatang, Sahm Venter (2012) Notes to the Future: Words of Wisdom. p. 101. <br class="br">2000s <br class="br">Context: Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world and is a powerful part of that world changing arsenal.
“Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.”
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer
“If you believe in yourself, anything is possible.”
Miley Cyrus (1992) American actor and singer-songwriter
“An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest. ”
Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) American author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, …
“You educate a man; you educate a Man. You educate a woman; you educate a Generation. ”
Brigham Young (1801–1877) Latter Day Saint movement leader
“No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world.”
Robin Williams (1951–2014) American actor and stand-up comedian