“You can take your diploma, walk off this stage, and chase only after the big house and the nice suits, but I hope you don't. Not because you have an obligation to those who are less fortunate, although I believe you do have that obligation. Not because you have a debt to all those who helped you get here, although I do believe you have that debt. It's because you have an obligation to yourself. Because our individual salvation depends on collective salvation. Because thinking only about yourself, fulfilling your immediate wants and needs, betrays a poverty of ambition.”

—  Barack Obama

Wesleyan Graduation Ceremony, Middletown, Connecticut (25 May 2008) http://www.politico.com/pdf/PPM42_remarks_of_obama.pdf
2008

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 30, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "You can take your diploma, walk off this stage, and chase only after the big house and the nice suits, but I hope you d…" by Barack Obama?
Barack Obama photo
Barack Obama 1158
44th President of the United States of America 1961

Related quotes

Christopher Walken photo

“I was foolish because I believed in you. You are a fool because you believe in yourself!”

J. California Cooper (1931–2014) American playwright, novelist. short story writer

Source: In Search of Satisfaction

Stephen Chbosky photo
George MacDonald photo
Flannery O’Connor photo
Charlotte Brontë photo
Charlize Theron photo

“I was raised with the idea that you can feel sorry for yourself, but then, get over it, because it doesn't get you anywhere. … There was always this awareness that you have to be responsible for yourself in order to have what you want.”

Charlize Theron (1975) film actress and producer, former fashion model

Reader's Digest.com interview http://www.rd.com/face-to-face-with-charlize-theron/article18057.html
Context: I was raised with the idea that you can feel sorry for yourself, but then, get over it, because it doesn't get you anywhere. … There was always this awareness that you have to be responsible for yourself in order to have what you want. And that meant "Be responsible with this little motorcycle that we're going to give you, because you're only five. If you're not, you're going to hurt yourself" -- which I did. My mom wasn't like, "Poor baby." She was like, "You do wheelies. That's what's going to happen." My mom's philosophy was, "If you get yourself in trouble, you've got to get yourself out of trouble."

Eleanor Roosevelt photo

“Remember always that you not only have the right to be an individual you have an obligation to be one.”

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States
Sören Kierkegaard photo
Napoleon Hill photo

Related topics