Be Your Own Story

Toni Morrison Commencement address at Wellesley College Wellesley, Massachusetts USA May 28, 2004 Toni Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, 1993 ———————————- I have to confess to all of you, Madame President, Board of Trustees, members of the faculty, relatives, friends, students. I have had some conflicted feelings about accepting this invitation to [...]

Listen To Your Heart

Commencement address at Williams College Williamstown, Massachusetts USA June 5, 2005 by Tom Friedman, an award-winning author and foreign affairs columnist of The New York Times. It is an honor to stand before you this morning — you the class of 2005. I’ve been a journalist all my life. It’s been a great ride. And [...]

Stay Hungry (Steve Jobs)

Commencement Speech at Stanford, 2005 by Steve Jobs Thank you. I’m honored to be with you today for your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. Truth be told, I never graduated from college and this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you [...]

Get A Life (Anna Quindlen)

Commencement Speech by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anna Quindlen at Villanova University I’m a novelist. My work is human nature. Real life is all I know. Don’t ever confuse the two, your life and your work. You will walk out of here this afternoon with only one thing that no one else has. There will be [...]

Bill Gates’ Address to Harvard grads

(Bill Gates was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree recently, alongside the Harvard graduating class of 2007. This was his commencement speech to the graduates:) President Bok, former President Rudenstine, incoming President Faust, members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers, members of the faculty, parents, and especially, the graduates: I’ve been [...]

ANNA QUINDLEN

COMMENCEMENT SPEECH MOUNT HOLYOKE COLLEGE MAY 23, 1999 I look at all of you today and I cannot help but see myself twenty-five years ago, at my own Barnard commencement. I sometimes seem, in my mind, to have as much in common with that girl as I do with any stranger I might pass in [...]

Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Text of Address at Harvard Class Day Afternoon Exercises,Thursday, June 8, 1978 I am sincerely happy to be here with you on this occasion and to become personally acquainted with this old and most prestigious University. My congratulations and very best wishes to all of today’s graduates. Harvard’s motto is “Veritas.” Many of you have [...]

Why Does Memory Matter?

Alice GreenwaldCommencement address at Sarah Lawrence College Bronxville, New York, USA May 18, 2007 Alice Greenwald is director of the World Trade Center Memorial Museum in New York City. ———————————- Good morning! Thirty-four years ago I was standing under a tent on Westlands Lawn on a rainy day in late May, wearing a great dress [...]

John F. Kennedy

Commencement Address at American University Washington, D.C.June 10, 1963 President of the United States, 1960-63. Growing up in the shadow of the Second World War and the Cold War, Mr Kennedy intensely aspired to “a world of law and free choice, banishing the world of war and coercion.” ———————————- “President Anderson, members of the faculty, [...]

Gallileo and the Search for Truth

Daniel S. Goldin Commencement address at Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, Massachusetts June 8, 2001 During his tenure as NASA administer from 1992 to 2001, Mr Goldin improved the costs and safety of space missions. He also began the Origins Program, to determine if life exists beyond Earth. ———————————- President Vest, members of the Board [...]