Graduation is a big milestone for so many of us, marking the end of one chapter and the beginning of another. To celebrate this momentous occasion, here are 100 quotes about graduation from some of the world’s most influential figures.
Through these words, we can capture the feelings of joy, accomplishment, and anticipation that come with this important life event.
From poignant reflections to humorous musings, these words offer insight into our journey through school and inspire us to greet what comes next with enthusiasm and courage.
It’s an exciting time – let’s take a look at these quotes and reminisce on all that has brought us here!
- Do all the other things, the ambitious things – travel, get rich, get famous, innovate, lead, fall in love, make and lose fortunes…but as you do, to the extent that you can, err in the direction of kindness. -George Saunders
- If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you. -Fred DeVito
- Your life is your adventure. And the adventure ahead of you is a journey to fulfill your own purpose and potential. -Kerry Washington
- A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. -Sun Tzu
- Success doesn’t rush. The greatest reward is the journey. –Jeff Moore
- Everything’s always ending. But everything’s always beginning, too. -Patrick Ness
- Yes, there will be pitfalls, mountains, and glass ceilings, but you’re going to get across it. -Debbie Allen
- Before you act, listen. Before you react, think. Before you spend, earn. Before you criticize, wait. Before you quit, try. –William Arthur Ward
- Everyone learns more from your actions than from what you say. -Barb Bailey
- Despite difficulties, always keep optimism. ‘I can overcome these difficulties.’ That mental attitude itself will bring inner strength and self-confidence. -Dalai Lama
- Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. –Steve Jobs
- There is nothing more beautiful than finding your course as you believe you bob aimlessly in the current. Wouldn’t you know that your path was there all along, waiting for you to knock, waiting for you to become. This path does not belong to your parents, your teachers, your leaders, or your lovers. Your path is your character defining itself more and more everyday like a photograph coming into focus. -Jodie Foster
- If you want to be the best, you have to do things other people aren’t willing to do. -Michael Phelps
- If you can do what you do best and be happy, you are further along in life than most people. -Leonardo DiCaprio
- Your inexperience is an asset in that it will make you think in original, unconventional ways. -Natalie Portman
- Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements. –Napoleon Hill
- There is no passion to be found in playing small, in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living. -Nelson Mandela
- The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. -Eleanor Roosevelt
- My wish for you is that this life becomes all that you want it to. Your dreams stay big, your worries stay small and that you never need to carry more than you can hold. –Rascal Flatts
- Purpose is what drives you. It offers the deepest sense of fulfillment. -Joanna Barsh
- I have learned that learning is a passion that must not diminish with years. That applies to memory as well. It needs to be shared, lest it remains stifled, icy, silent. -Elie Wiesel
- To accomplish great things we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe. –Anatole France
- You are educated. Your certification is in your degree. You may think of it as the ticket to the good life. Let me ask you to think of an alternative. Think of it as your ticket to change the world. -Tom Brokaw
- You are never too old to set another goal or dream a new dream. -C.S. Lewis
- Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world. -Nelson Mandela
- It’s amazing what you can get if you quietly, clearly, and authoritatively demand it. -Meryl Streep
- If you don’t go after what you want, you’ll never have it. If you don’t ask, the answer is always no. If you don’t step forward, you’re always in the same place. -Nora Roberts
- The fireworks begin today. Each diploma is a lighted match, each one of you is a fuse. -Ed Koch
- There are no regrets in life – just lessons. -Jennifer Aniston
- Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal. –Henry Ford
- I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance. Never settle for the path of least resistance. -Lee Ann Womack
- Before you go out and press that fast forward button, I’m hoping, I’m praying, that you’ll have the courage to first press the pause button. -Maria Shriver
- Education makes a people easy to lead, but difficult to drive: easy to govern, but impossible to enslave. -Henry Peter Brougham
- You miss 100% of the shots you never take. -Wayne Gretzky
- So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable. –Christopher Reeve
- 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. -Stephen Colbert
- What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the human soul. -Joseph Addison
- There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind. –C.S. Lewis
- Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened. -Dr. Seuss
- Wherever you go, go with all your heart. -Confucius
- The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future. –Plato
- If you can believe it, the mind can achieve it. -Ronnie Lott
- Now I usually try not to give advice. Information, yes, advice, no. But, what has worked for me may not work for you. Well, take for instance what has worked for me. Wigs. Tight clothes. Push-up bras. -Dolly Parton
- What we learn with pleasure we never forget. -Alfred Mercier
- Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it. -Henry David Thoreau
- You must have some vision for your life. Even if you don’t know the plan, you have to have a direction in which you choose to go. -Oprah Winfrey
- Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you. –Nathaniel Hawthorne
- What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us. -Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there. –Will Rogers
- Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else. -Judy Garland
- It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves. – William Shakespeare
- The important thing is not to stop questioning. –Albert Einstein
- Great things are done by a series of small things brought together. -Vincent Van Gogh
- The difference between triumph and defeat, you’ll find, isn’t about willingness to take risks. It’s about mastery of rescue. -Atul Gawande
- Life is my college. May I graduate well, and earn some honors! -Louisa May Alcott
- You already have everything you need inside of you right now, today. -Alicia Keys
- Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today. -Malcolm X
- The only thing you can do in this life is pursue your passions, celebrate your bloopers, and never stop following your fear. -Grace Helbig
- To be really great in little things, to be truly noble and heroic in the insipid details of everyday life, is a virtue so rare as to be worthy of canonization. –Harriet Beecher Stowe
- All our dreams can come true… if we have the courage to pursue them. –Walt Disney
- You may never know what results come of your action, but if you do nothing there will be no result. -Mahatma Gandhi
- There may be days when you’ll say to yourself, ‘I can’t. I literally can’t even.’ But you can! You can even! -Katie Couric
- 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
- Life is meant to have meaning and to be lived with purpose. -Dr. Ignatius K Otchere-Asamoah
- You have to be singular, inflexible, unyielding in your own work so that even the struggle, that very struggle to achieve becomes its own reward. -Martin Scorsese
- Instruction ends in the schoolroom, but education ends only with life. -Frederick W. Robertson
- Whatever you choose for a career path, remember the struggles along the way are only meant to shape you for your purpose. -Chadwick Boseman
- I’ve learned it’s important not to limit yourself. You can do whatever you really love to do, no matter what it is. -Ryan Gosling
- The most rewarding things in life are often the ones that look like they cannot be done. -Arnold Palmer
- Accept responsibility for your life. Know that it is you who will get you where you want to go, no one else. –Les Brown
- If you are successful, it is because somewhere, sometime, someone gave you a life or an idea that started you in the right direction. Remember also that you are indebted to life until you help some less fortunate person, just as you were helped. –Melinda Gates
- The noblest question in the world is: What good may I do in it? -Benjamin Franklin
- Don’t be afraid. Be focused. Be determined. Be hopeful. Be empowered. -Michelle Obama
- The unfortunate, yet truly exciting thing about your life, is that there is no core curriculum. The entire place is an elective. –Jon Stewart
- Be allergic to failure and addicted to success. -Daniel Roberts
- One of the more powerful outbreaks of happiness and meaning in your life will occur when you pair your passion and the world’s need. -Sue Monk Kidd
- An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest. -Benjamin Franklin
- All those adults that you used to think were in charge and knew what they were doing? It turns out they don’t have all the answers. A lot of them aren’t even asking the right questions. So, if the world’s going to get better, it’s going to be up to you. -Barack Obama
- Fight for what makes you optimistic about the world. Find it, insist on it, dig into it, go after it. -Jennifer Garner
- Nothing is impossible. The word itself says I’m possible. -Audrey Hepburn
- Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. –Gandhi
- Your education is a dress rehearsal for a life that is yours to lead. -Nora Ephron
- The old rules are crumbling and nobody knows what the new rules are. So make up your own rules. –Neil Gaiman
- Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there. -Will Rogers
- Whether you think you can or you can’t, you are right. –Henry Ford
- Do what you have to do resolutely, with all your heart. -Buddha
- As long as you are breathing, it is never too late. Because people will tell you you’re too old, people will tell you it’ll never work. You have come too far to quit. -Missy Elliot
- The future is always uncertain, but we who celebrate what you have done, who celebrate all of your achievements, are certain of one thing on this day: You will not let us down. -Tom Hanks
- Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm. -Winston Churchill
- Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education. -Martin Luther King Jr.
- Dream big and dare to fail. -Norman Vaughan
- The best way to predict your future is to create it. –Abraham Lincoln
- You don’t go to university so you can punch a clock. You go to university so you can be in a position to make a difference. -Janet Napolitano
- When we show up, act boldly, and practice the best ways to be wrong, we fail forward. No matter where we end up, we’ve grown from where we began. -Stacey Abrams
- It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default. –J.K. Rowling
- Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world right in the eye. –Helen Keller
- Graduates, we need you to save the world. -Pierce Brosnan
- Whatever the world looks like in 10 years and 20 years, part of that is up to you. I urge you to let this current moment push you to improve yourself in all areas of your life. -Beyoncé
- Don’t underestimate the power of your dreams. -Corinna Kong
- You get in life what you have the courage to ask for. -Oprah Winfrey
Graduation marks an important milestone in everyone’s life. It is the time to pause and reflect on all the hard work, dedication, and commitment it took to get to this point.
As these 100 quotes illustrate, graduating can be a source of both pride and trepidation; a reminder of what goals have been achieved and what new paths may lie ahead.
It is vital that we take the time to appreciate all our accomplishments during this time, after all, there will never be another moment quite like this!
Check out these 100 Thoughtful Graduation Gift Ideas For Him or Her.