College is a time when many students are still trying to figure out what they want to do professionally. Graduation quotes can help students feel inspired and mentally ready for a life outside of school. They inspire students to think about what they want out of life and what they need to do to achieve it. A good graduation quote may give a student the encouragement and perspective they need to feel great about their plans. In this article, we share commencement quotes from authors, actors, athletes, politicians, and more.
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Inspirational graduation quotes
Here are some graduation quotes to inspire you or your new grad post-college.
20 quotes from authors
Here are some inspirational quotes from well-known authors:
“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Life the life you have imagined.”—Henry David Thoreau
“You’re general, but you’re also specific. A citizen and a person, and the person you are is like nobody else on the planet.”—Toni Morrison
“Live with life. Be courageous, and adventurous. Give us a tomorrow, more than we deserve.”—Maya Angelou
“Don’t ever confuse the two, your life and your work. The second is only part of the first.”—Anna Quindlen
“It is impossible to live without failing at something unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all.”—J.K. Rowling
“It takes courage to grow up and become who you are.”—E. E. Cummings
“Go make your big beautiful dent, and as you do so come down on the side of boldness. If you err, may it be for too much audacity, and not too little. For you are enough. You have untold strengths and resources inside. You have your glorious self.”—Sue Monk Kidd
“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.”—Dr. Seuss
“What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us.”—Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”—Mark Twain
“Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.”—Truman Capote
“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.”—Robert Louis Stevenson
“Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.”—Oscar Wilde
“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.”—Robert Frost
“Life is made of ever so many partings welded together.”—Charles Dickens
“People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.”—George Bernard Shaw
“Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don’t turn up at all.”—Sam Ewing
“There are no traffic jams on the extra mile.”—Zig Ziglar
“We need to accept that we won’t always make the right decisions, that we’ll screw up royally sometimes—understanding that failure is not the opposite of success, it’s part of success.”—Arianna Huffington
“Obstacles can’t stop you. Problems can’t stop you. Most of all, other people can’t stop you. Only you can stop you.”—Jeffrey Gitomer,
20 quotes from celebrities
Here are some inspirational quotes from well-known celebrities:
“Your perspective is unique. It’s important and it counts. Try not to compare it to anyone else.”—Glenn Close
“You have to have insane confidence in yourself even if it’s not real. I’m giving you permission to root for yourself and while you’re at it, root for those around you, too.”—Mindy Kaling
“But there’s always the knowledge, and this is from experience, that the work itself is the reward, and if I choose challenging work, it’ll pay me back with interest. At least I’ll be interested, even if nobody else is.”—Meryl Streep
“Sometimes you find out what you are supposed to be doing by doing the things you are not supposed to do.”—Oprah Winfrey
“Fight for what makes you optimistic about the world. Find it, insist on it, dig into it, go after it.”—Jennifer Garner
“You will stumble and fall, you will experience both disaster and triumph, sometimes in the same day. But it’s really important to remember that like a hangover, neither triumphs nor disasters last forever.”—Helen Mirren
“You have to dance a little bit before you step out into the world each day because it changes the way you walk.”—Sandra Bullock
“That clock you hear is the sound of your own heart. Sink your teeth into this life, and don’t get let go.”—Lin-Manuel Miranda
“If you’re willing to stand for what you believe in … you won’t need advice from me, because you will be able to handle whatever comes.”—Whoopi Goldberg
“Your life is your story, and the adventure ahead of you is the journey to fulfill your own purpose and potential.”—Kerry Washington
“Fall forward. Every failed experiment is one step closer to success. You’ve got to take risks.”—Denzel Washington
“Life is an improvisation. You have no idea what’s going to happen next and you are mostly just making things up as you go along.”—Stephen Colbert
“For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.”—Audrey Hepburn
“A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do.”—Bob Dylan
“It is better to be a failure at something you love than to be a success at something you hate.”—George Burns
“Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.”—John Lennon
“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”—Walt Disney
“If you look at what you have in life, you’ll always have more. If you look at what you don’t have in life, you’ll never have enough.”—Oprah Winfrey
“You can’t get there by bus, only by hard work and risk and by not quite knowing what you’re doing. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover will be yourself.”—Alan Alda,
“Success isn’t always about greatness. It’s about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come.”—Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson
20 quotes from athletes
Here are some inspirational quotes from well-known athletes:
“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”—Arthur Ashe
“It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.”—Babe Ruth
“I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”—Michael Jordan
“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”—Wayne Gretzky
“There may be people that have more talent than you, but there’s no excuse for anyone to work harder than you do.”—Derek Jeter
“He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.”—Muhammad Ali
“When people tell you not to believe in your dreams, and they say ‘Why?’ say ‘Why not?’ “—Billie Jean King
“If you aren’t going all the way, why go at all?”—Joe Namath
“A champion is someone who gets up when he can’t.”—Jack Dempsey
“You’re never a loser until you quit trying.”—Mike Ditka
“The most rewarding things in life are often the ones that look like they cannot be done.”
—Arnold Palmer“Nothing is going to be handed to you. You have to make things happen.”—Florence Griffith-Joyner
“If you aren’t fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm.”—Vince Lombardi
“Only he who can see the invisible can do the impossible.”—Frank L. Gaines
“One man practicing sportsmanship is far better than 50 preaching it.”—Knute Rockne
“When you’ve got something to prove, there’s nothing greater than a challenge.”—Terry Bradshaw
“It’s not the will to win that matters—everyone has that. It’s the will to prepare to win that matters.”—Paul “Bear” Bryant
“Set your goals high, and don’t stop till you get there.”—Bo Jackson
“The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person’s determination.”—Tommy Lasorda
“What makes something special is not just what you have to gain, but what you feel there is to lose.”—Andre Agassi
20 quotes from political figures
Here are some inspirational quotes from well-known political figures:
“Real courage is holding on to a still voice in your head that says, ‘I must keep going.’ It’s that voice that says nothing is a failure if it is not final. That voice that says to you, ‘Get out of bed. Keep going. I will not quit.’ “—Cory Booker
“In the end, all that endures are the builders, and in the end even the builders are forgotten, and all that endures are the ripples of what they built, and that’s good—that’s a good thing.”—Bill Clinton
“You cannot dream of becoming something you do not know about. You have to learn to dream big. Education exposes you to what the world has to offer, to the possibilities open to you.”—Sonia Sotomayor
“Our greatness comes when we appreciate each other’s strengths, when we learn from each other, when we lean on each other.”—Michelle Obama
“Be aware that even before you have reached your ultimate professional destination, if you always strive for excellence, you can and should have a substantial impact on the world in which you live.”—Sandra Day O’Connor
“Always aim high, work hard, and care deeply about what you believe in.”—Hillary Clinton
“I urge you to set aside your labels and explore what your principles say about the world you wish to serve. Because beliefs are our anchors.”—Stacey Abrams
“Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education.”—Martin Luther King Jr.
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”—Eleanor Roosevelt
“Cynicism has never won a war, or cured a disease, or started a business, or fed a young mind, or sent men into space. Cynicism is a choice. Hope is a better choice.”—Barack Obama
“Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.”—Malcolm X
“Real leadership comes from the quiet nudging of an inner voice. It comes from realizing that the time has come to move beyond waiting to do.”—Madeleine Albright
“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.”—Bobby Kennedy
“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.”—Winston Churchill
“Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.”—Thomas Jefferson
“The best way to predict the future is to create it.”—Abraham Lincoln
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”— Nelson Mandela
“Do not pray for easier lives, pray to be stronger men.”—John F. Kennedy
“We may not be able to prepare the future for our children, but we can at least prepare our children for the future.”—Franklin D. Roosevelt
“A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car, but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad.”—Theodore Roosevelt
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