Top 99 Graduation Quotes of All Time

A short, finished list rather than an endless feed: 99 of the best graduation quotes ever written, picked out of the full graduation archive on QuoteForever. You will find Stephanie Ruhle, Mike Leach, Bruce Eric Kaplan and Stephen Colbert among them.

Read the list top to bottom, or use it as a starting point - every author name links to everything else they said, and every quote has its own page you can share or turn into an image.

1

You are about to start the greatest improvisation of all. With no script. No idea what's going to happen, often with people and places you have never seen before. And you are not in control. So say 'yes.' And if you're lucky, you'll find people who will say 'yes' back.

2

Getting ahead in a difficult profession requires avid faith in yourself. That is why some people with mediocre talent, but with great inner drive, go so much further than people with vastly superior talent.

3

I received $100 per week when I started working at the Globe after graduation.

4

Don't ever dare to take your college as a matter of course - because, like democracy and freedom, many people you'll never know have broken their hearts to get it for you.

5

God will not look you over for medals degrees or diplomas, but for scars.

6

Upon graduation, believe it or not, I had no job. I had no interviews. I had no prospects. I had no worries. What I did have, I had passion. I had enormous passion. I had passion for financial markets. I had fallen in love with financial markets.

7

After graduation, I was floundering in L.A., doing stand-up comedy and working in a shoe store in the Valley.

8

When I graduated college I had a series of just humiliating jobs that I couldn't believe I was at.

9

I went through withdrawal when I got out of graduate school. It's what you learn, what you think. That's all that counts.

10

For good nurture and education implant good constitutions.

11

It's very interesting, if you look at a study that was done by the Brookings Institute back in 2009, they determined that if Americans do three things, they can avoid poverty. Three things. Work, graduate from high school, and get married before you have children.

12

At 20, I realized that I could not possibly adjust to a feminine role as conceived by my father and asked him permission to engage in a professional career. In eight months I filled my gaps in Latin, Greek and mathematics, graduated from high school, and entered medical school in Turin.

13

When my mother took her turn to sit in a gown at her graduation, she thought she only had two career options: nursing and teaching. She raised me and my sister to believe that we could do anything, and we believed her.

14

I was going to be an architect. I graduated with a degree in architecture and I had a scholarship to go back to Princeton and get my Masters in architecture. I'd done theatricals in college, but I'd done them because it was fun.

15

One week before my 17th birthday, I had a blind date with June Rose, a television actress on network soap operas, a model, and a regular on the popular Dick Clark's Saturday night 'American Bandstand' show from New York. We were married five years later, one week after my graduation from Columbia.

16

My mother was keen that I complete my graduation and never ever wanted me to be in the movies, as my father had made five films that lost money. One of the films he made was 'Agneepath,' which was hugely hyped but underwhelming at the box office, and I remember that my dad had to sell my grandmother's flat to pay off the loan.

17

God wants us to know that life is a series of beginnings, not endings. Just as graduations are not terminations, but commencements. Creation is an ongoing process, and when we create a perfect world where love and compassion are shared by all, suffering will cease.

18

For many, graduation marks the end of formal student life - the end of long spring breaks and of thinking that a 10 A.M. class is far too early.

19

After graduating in the summer of 1980, I knew I wanted my life to count.

20

I have no problems with private schools. I graduated from one and so did my mother. Private schools are useful and we often use public funds to pay for their infrastructures and other common needs.

21

I'm not impressed by someone's degree... I'm impressed by them making movies.

22

Some go on to trade schools or get further training for jobs they are interested in. Some go into the arts, some are craftsmen, some take a little time out to travel, and some start their own businesses. But our graduates find and work at what they want to do.

23

College atheletes used to get a degree in bringing your pencil.

24

I didn't even walk for graduation - I did graduate, though. I got this homeschool deal. I didn't have to go to school because I was depressed, and my mom wrote all these essays for me. I didn't write one of them. She literally got me my diploma.

25

It was only when I finished the course and left my graduation diploma on the bus that I realised I'd become an actor.

26

At Columbia Law School, my professor of constitutional law and federal courts, Gerald Gunther, was determined to place me in a federal court clerkship, despite what was then viewed as a grave impediment: On graduation, I was the mother of a 4-year-old child.

27

I was in Mumbai pursuing my graduation in mass media; I was not sure what to do. I tried my hand at a couple of different things. I joined an acting school after that and eventually things fell in place.

28

If someone comes to you with, 'It's my kid's graduation,' you don't tell them, 'Sorry, you can't go to that.' You just don't do that. You figure out some other way.

29

After my graduation from Sydenham College with a degree in Commerce, I was spotted by late Sunil Dutt, my idol, to act in films.

30

I got a lot of very bad hate on social media from some people from my school. I think people thought I changed because they saw me on TV. They weren't close enough to know that I was still the same human being... When I walked at graduation, I got booed. It was kind of stupid.

31

I was a radio jockey after graduation. I was 22, the youngest RJ in Delhi at that time.

32

By the time he arrived in Texas - via the red 1947 Studebaker Dad's parents gave him as a graduation gift - he was ready for the challenge of making his way in the oil business.

33

I grew up very differently than a lot of other people in my hometown in Mississippi. But I can't imagine my life any other way. I flew home and surprised my best friend at his graduation, and I remember turning to my mom and saying, 'My graduation was so much cooler than this.' I had Melissa Joan Hart give my commencement speech.

34

After the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971, primary education was made free. We are now thinking to make education in the public sector free up to graduation level. We are also thinking of providing a light meal at primary and secondary schools in order to increase the student retention level.

35

Graduation is an important day. It is a significant achievement.

36

I was given a new coat as a high school graduation gift.

37

I missed out on a few proms, homecomings, might miss my graduation. I wouldn't want it any other way... it's worth it.

38

No graduation speaker will ever tell you that the future is anything but uncertain. It never is. But graduations need not only be obsessed with looking ahead; a graduation can be a day on which we turn back and trace our steps to see how we ended up where we are.

39

I did freelance cartooning off and on from college graduation in 1991 through ABC News hiring me in 2003. I did a weekly comic strip for 'Roll Call' for about nine years. I sold cartoons and caricatures to 'The Los Angeles Times' and 'The Washington Post.' I drew as much as I could. It's really tough to make a living doing it.

40

My first jobs after graduation in 1955 were as a project engineer for G.E. and later with the U.S. government in Washington, D.C., where I met and married my wife, Dolores Celini.

41

I would say the most memorable thing that has ever happened to me has to be when I got my First class honours Law degree at my University graduation. All my family from all over the world were there when I collected my degree. I will never forget that day.

42

At a very young age, my beloved mother passed away from leukemia, forcing my father to become a single dad. Rather than coddle me, shelter me, or do things for me, he taught me to 'Make the Case' for everything in life - from my first job to a graduation trip I wanted.

43

After graduation from high school, I attended the university entrance examination, and fortunately, I was accepted by the Department of Pharmacy and became a student at the Medical School of Peking University.

44

I was the girl that didn't go to prom or my graduation because I was too busy working with producers and making music.

45

I have a 4-year-old and a 14-year-old, and think I missed a recital and a graduation, and they were like 'It's OK mommy, we'll take pictures.' It was my upset, though... they were just fine! I just give them a kiss and a hug and let them know that I love them every day.

46

There were a couple of months when I was approaching graduation where I started to think of graduating from college as the afterlife. Because it's this kind of crazy thing that you always know you're going to finish school inevitably, but nobody ever really tells you what happens afterwards.

47

After graduation in June of 1984, I moved to Manhattan. My first stop was a psychiatrist, who in less than our first fifty-minute session again diagnosed me with depression.

48

After graduation, I wanted to work for 'Sassy', which I loved, but it had folded. So I wound up at 'Seventeen' for three years on staff and two as a contributor, and I wrote these great stories that nobody ever believes 'Seventeen' does. Serious stories for teens about social justice issues - gun control, migrant farm workers.

49

The government sets targets for increased four-year high school graduation rates as part of its agenda for improving Americans' health.

50

I had a chance to win $2 million, a week after high school graduation, and if I turned pro, the sponsor was going to financially support me.

51

I pretty much bailed on high school. I mean, I graduated, but I wasn't even there for my own graduation.

52

Every time I attend an FBI graduation for new agents or new analysts at Quantico, a significant number of those graduates are former state and local officers, and I have the privilege of shaking their hands, presenting them with their credentials, and welcoming them to the FBI family.

53

I have the cliche 'struggling actor' story. I was waiting tables in New York, went out to L.A. soon after graduation to get some jobs, but it didn't work out. I wanted to cut my teeth in professional theater, so I came back to New York. It made my journey a longer one, but I really wanted to excel in the theater.

54

I received my draft notice right after graduation from college and had three months before going into the Army in September to think about it.

55

I was into movies before my graduation results got out. In fact, I was on location of a movie when they came.

56

We had an argument, and he told me to be home at midnight, and I said no. And so when I did come home, the door was locked. And I had gotten a set of luggage for graduation that day, and it was on the front porch, packed. He thought that he was going to prove a point and I was going to say, 'Oh, I'm sorry, Daddy, I'm sorry'.

57

When I was at Tech, no public school was ahead of us in graduation rates. We got our guys to compete in the classroom, and if they're competing in class and in football, that's an attitude they take into life.

58

School desegregation is associated with higher graduation rates, greater employability, higher earnings, and decreased rates of incarceration.

59

The day after my high school graduation in 1952, I headed to Alaska. I was 17. I started out greasing equipment, then became a heavy-crane operator. I made and saved good money there for two years.

60

Just after graduation in 1966, like many of my contemporaries, I applied for research training at the National Institutes of Health. Perhaps because his wife was a poet, Ira Pastan agreed to take me into his laboratory, despite my lack of scientific credentials.

61

I have a good cry once in a while; it's such a great release. Or it could be a cry of joy - watching your child being born or your child walking across a graduation stage.

62

Truancy rates are directly correlated to low graduation rates.

63

I studied journalism at Binghamton University, even interning for NBC's longtime anchor Carol Jenkins. Before graduation, I told my parents I wanted to pursue broadcast journalism.

64

One of the first times I ever performed in front of a big group of people was at my kindergarten graduation. I did, like, a Michael Jackson impersonation as, like, a five year old. I had the suit and blazer, the glove and the fedora, and I just performed a whole Michael Jackson song. I'm sure it was 'Smooth Criminal.'

65

It's my goal to make martial arts compulsory for girls in school. In China, you have to do two years of martial arts' training without which you cannot get a graduation degree.

66

I did my first film when I was in the final year of my graduation. At that time, I was still a kid, and I couldn't read the industry very well.

67

When I was growing up, we were in a high income bracket, one of the highest. I was one of the first in high school to get a car. And I didn't have to wait for it to be a graduation present, either. We've probably got one of the nicest houses in Sacramento.

68

A few months after graduation I was working in films. It took off pretty quick.

69

Mentors provide professional networks, outlets for frustration, college and career counseling, general life advice, and most importantly, an extra voice telling a student they are smart enough and capable enough to cross the stage at graduation and land their first paycheck from a career pathway job.

70

I applied to only one college - the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania - and was fortunate to be accepted. After graduation, I headed to Wall Street and worked as I had dreamed.

71

Almost 50 years old now, some 30 years after graduation, I look at my Caltech classmates and conclude that math whizzes do not take over the world.

72

High levels of homeownership have been shown to foster greater involvement in school and civic organizations, higher graduation rates, and greater neighborhood stability.

73

The mission of Patrick Henry College was to attract and cultivate academic stars from the ranks of home-schooled evangelicals, then send them off on graduation day to 'shape the culture and take back the nation,' in the words of a common home-schooling rallying cry.

74

What I like about graduation speeches is that they're an opportunity for someone to make sense of their life and to impart that wisdom to someone else. It's like a sanctioned self-help moment.

75

I love graduation speeches. I have always loved them; I will always love them.

76

I left for New York three days after graduation.

77

Adults tell students that it gets better, that the world changes after school, that being 'different' will pay off sometime after graduation. But no one explains to them why.

78

I decided to move out of the apartment I was sharing with my best friend before graduation and move back home. My parents had recently separated, and I wanted to move back home with my mom and my siblings.

79

Upon graduation from high school, following my brother by a couple of years, I joined the U.S. Air Force.

80

When I was in college, my graduation thesis was called 'Female Directors.' I interviewed all of the important female directors from Mexico. There were four. That was it.

81

It's not how much you spend, it's how you spend it. We have been putting a lot of money into education in the state of Nevada, and it's gotten us to 50th in the country in graduation rates. We needed more accountability in our system.

82

While we should certainly be investing in our own STEM education, we should take advantage of the thousands of international students who come here to study and are ready to fill these gaps immediately upon graduation.

83

Bullying is something every kid in public, parochial, or private school has witnessed by graduation. While unfortunate, it is part of growing up.

84

Upon graduation, I hit a wall. All of my good friends from UCLA were taking on jobs they were passionate about, and I felt left behind. It took a bit of soul searching, but in the end, I finally had the guts to pursue acting.

85

After graduation, I moved to Los Angeles to do more theater, not realizing there is very little theater in L.A. It was a lucky mistake, though, because after just 2 1/2 months of waiting tables, my TV and film career really took off.

86

I loved school, was an exceptional student, and found a passion for math and science that led me to Vanderbilt University, where I discovered the world of electrical engineering. I did well in college, loved the work I was doing, and soon found myself climbing the corporate ladder after graduation. I was one of the lucky ones.

87

I had spent four months in Cedar City, Utah, right after graduation as an intern at the Utah Shakespearean Festival. It's a town that has many people living the polygamous lifestyle.

88

After graduation, I discovered that I'd hit the limit of what I could learn from the women in my family. On top of that, in the workforce, all of the things that mattered in college suddenly weren't enough.

89

I always thought I would move to New York after graduation, but, instead, I moved to Los Angeles. I realized I was more scared of that choice than I was of New York, and I thought, at 22, I should get it over with.

90

Post my graduation, I really thought that acting was something I wanted to do. I simply took a chance and started auditioning, and I loved it.

91

I don't remember at all what was said at my college graduation, and I think that's the case for many people.

92

I started training at a local gym in New Jersey, and the day of my high school graduation, I packed up everything in my car and moved to Coconut Creek, Florida, where I trained with one of the best gyms in the world, American Top Team.

93

I would like to be coaching in the right situation if it's a team effort and doesn't have a bunch of mini-agendas. I want something where the school wants to win and values graduation and everybody wants to work together.

94

I dropped out of college before graduation. I opted to begin work as an actress.

95

I have studied and graduated out of Delhi. I moved to Mumbai after graduation.

96

I have a good grounding in yoga. I have been doing it from my graduation days.

97

I'm very thankful I went to college, because I've seen the difference that it makes for me in the professional world. After graduation, I was building a name for myself in the Chicago theater scene, but there was always this pull to L.A.

98

I did my graduation in hospitality in Jaipur. When I was working, I started getting offers in modeling and did a few South films.

99

I did schooling and graduation from Delhi and then went to the National School of Drama.

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