A commencement speech gets one job: leave the room with a sentence they'll still know at forty. The sentences that survive that long are almost always mirrored — they take what school taught and flip it toward what life requires. Borrow freely; deliver slowly.
Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.
Don't count the days; make the days count.
It is not in the stars to hold our destiny, but in ourselves.
Try not to become a person of success, but rather a person of value.
The point of graduation is not to prove you made it; it is to begin proving what you will make of it.
You are not graduating because the learning is over; the learning is beginning because you are graduating.
Success in school was answering questions; success in life is questioning answers.
Your diploma proves what you finished; your character decides what you start.
The diploma may get you into the room; humility keeps you learning once you are there.
Do not ask only where your degree can take you; ask where your integrity can take your degree.
First you choose your habits; then your habits choose your future.
Do not let your dreams be louder than your habits; make your habits strong enough to carry your dreams.
The question is not only what you will do after graduation; the question is who you will become after graduation.
Don't chase the life that impresses others; build the life that expresses you.
Do not chase a life that only gets bigger; build a life that gets deeper.
Do not become so busy building a resume that you forget to build a soul.
Don't just take the path that pays you the most; take the one that makes you the most.
Do not spend your life trying to be chosen; spend your life becoming someone who chooses well.
You do not discover your voice by copying greatness; you discover your voice by telling the truth only you can tell.
You do not become ready and then begin; you begin, and readiness starts catching up.
Comparison will spend your twenties; curiosity will invest them.
Your future is not hidden from you; part of it is hidden inside the decisions you keep postponing.
The dream is not too big because you are small; the dream is big enough to make you grow.
Your life is not measured by how high you climb; it is measured by what rises because you climbed.
You are not leaving school because you are done becoming; you are leaving because becoming is now your assignment.
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