College Graduation Quotes and Sayings
These college graduation quotes provide you with some choices when you’re looking for the right words for the graduate in your life.
Please review all the quotes below, like John Dewey’s, ” Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.”
Whether you are looking for inspiration and great wishes for yourself or a loved one, here are some famous graduation quotes and sayings that can move souls!
Best College Graduation Quotes
1.) To accomplish great things, we must not only act but also dream, not only plan but also believe.
Anatole France
2.) There is a good reason they call these ceremonies commencement exercises. Graduation is not the end; it’s the beginning.
Orrin Hatch
3.) Don’t just get involved. Fight for your seat at the table. Better yet, fight for a seat at the head of the table.
Barack Obama
4.) It is not the size of the arena in which you find yourself that counts; it is what you do with it.
Dr. Irene C. Kassorla
5.) Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.
John Dewey
6.) There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.
C.S. Lewis
7.) Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine.
Anthony J. D’Angelo
8.) We may live in an age of instant messaging, instant gratification, and Instagram, but there is no way to short-circuit the path to success.
Tory Burch
9.) Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.
Arthur Ashe
10.) There are no regrets in life. Just lessons.
Jennifer Aniston
11.) Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world.
Nelson Mandela
Funny College Graduation Quotes
12.) Without education, we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously.
G.K. Chesterton
13.) So how do you know what is the right path to choose to get the result that you desire? And the honest answer is this. You won’t.
Jon Stewart
14.) Minds are like parachutes – they only function when open.
Thomas Dewar
15.) You are graduating from college. That means that this is the first day of the last day of your life. No, that’s wrong. This is the last day of the first day of school. Nope, that’s worse. This is a day.
Andy Samberg
16.) The college graduate is presented with a sheepskin to cover his intellectual nakedness.
Robert M. Hutchins
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Humorous Wishes
17.) Remember that there’s no one way of doing things … If you just get a hammer and hit it really hard, whatever it is, I guarantee you it’ll open.
Fred Armisen
18.) Share your sparkle wherever you are.
Dodinsky
19.) Now that you’ve graduated, just remember: Bosses don’t usually accept notes from your mother.
Melanie White
20.) You can become someone who is worthy of respect and someone who can pursue what he wants irrespective of what others say or do.
Unknown
21.) The advantage of a classical education is that it enables you to despise the wealth that it prevents you from achieving.
Russell Green
22.) Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off, and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself.
Bill Gates
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College Graduate Sayings
23.) Your life is your story, and the adventure ahead of you is the journey to fulfill your own purpose and potential.
Kerry Washington
24.) The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you.
B.B. King
25.) Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.
Henry David Thoreau
26.) 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
27.) Just about a month from now, I’m set adrift, with a diploma for a sail and lots of nerve for oars.
Richard Halliburton
28.) An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.
Benjamin Franklin
29.) Coach said. The quality of a man’s life is in direct proportion to his commitment to excellence, regardless of his chosen field of endeavor.
Sherman Alexie
30.) Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, and catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, Dream, Discover.
Mark Twain
31.) Your education is a dress rehearsal for a life that is yours to lead.
Nora Ephron
32.) The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.
Dr. Seuss – More Dr. Seuss Verses and Quotes on Graduating
Good College Graduation Quotes
33.) Graduation is only a concept. In real life, every day, you graduate. Graduation is a process that goes on until the last day of your life. If you can grasp that, you’ll make a difference.
Arie Pencovici
34.) Don’t be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated; you can’t cross a chasm in two small jumps.
David Lloyd George
35.) Take pride in how far you have come, and have faith in how far you will go.
Christian Larson
36.) Just because you don’t know what you want yet, it doesn’t mean that there’s nothing to want.
Emily Henry
37.) The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible.
Arthur C. Clarke
38.) So many of our dreams first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.
Christopher Reeve
39.) Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.
Robert Louis Stevenson
40.) Nothing is predestined: The obstacles of your past can become the gateways that lead to new beginnings.
Ralph Blum
41.) The aim of a college education is to teach you to know a good man when you see one.
William James
42.) My father always told me, Find a job you love, and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.
Jim Fox
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Graduation Quotes For Daughter
Here are some good college graduation quotes for your daughter.
43.) If you can imagine it, you can achieve it; if you can dream it, you can become it.
William Arthur Ward
44.) Always be a first-rate version of yourself instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.
Judy Garland – Learn more about Judy Garland
45.) The very purpose of our life is happiness, which is sustained by hope…. Hope means keeping going, thinking, ‘I can do this.’ It brings inner strength, self-confidence, and the ability to do what you do honestly, truthfully, and transparently.
The Dalai Lama
46.) This above all: To thine own self be true.
William Shakespeare
47.) What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to a human soul.
Joseph Addison
48.) Be Bold. Be Brilliant, and Be You.
Unknown
49.) Being smart and rich are lucky, but being curious and compassionate will save your ass. Being curious and compassionate can take you out of your ego and edge your soul towards wonder.
Mary Karr
50.) Don’t live down to expectations. Go out there and do something remarkable.
Wendy Wasserstein
51.) Love what you do. Get good at it. Competence is a rare commodity in this day and age.
Jon Stewart
52.) The horizon leans forward, offering you space to place new steps of change.
Maya Angelou
53.) The person who gets the farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The sure-thing boat never gets far from shore.
Dale Carnegie
For Son
Here are some great college graduation quotes for your son.
54.) The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future.
Plato
55.) Nothing happens unless first a dream.
Carl Sandburg
56.) Go for it now. The future is promised to no one.
Wayne Dyer
57.) First, say to yourself what you would be, and then do what you have to do.
Epictetus
58.) You cannot get to the top by sitting on your bottom.
Proverb
59.) Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
60.) A teacher affects eternity: he can never tell where his influence stops.
Henry Adams
61.) The one real object of education is to have a man in the condition of continually asking questions.
Bishop Mandell Creighton
62.) Take it all one day at a time, and enjoy the journey.
Kristi Bartle
63.) Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.
Henry Ford
64.) Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.
Lanston Hughes
For Friends
65.) You are BRAVER than you believe, STRONGER than you seem, and SMARTER than you think.
A.A. Milne
66.) Greatness is not in where we stand but in what direction we are moving. We must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it – but sail we must, and not drift nor lie at anchor.
Oliver Wendell Holmes
67.) Learning is the only thing the mind never exhausts, never fears, and never regrets.
Leonardo da Vinci
68.) It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
Aristotle
69.) At commencement, you wear your square-shaped mortarboards. My hope is that from time to time you will let your minds be bold and wear sombreros.
Paul Freund
70.) 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
71.) Education is the process by which the individual relates himself to the universe, gives himself citizenship in the changing world, shares the race’s mind, and enfranchises his own soul.
John H. Finley
72.) Don’t be afraid of fear. Because it sharpens you, it challenges you, it makes you stronger, and when you run away from fear, you also run away from the opportunity to be your best possible self.
Ed Helms
73.) You will find the key to success under the alarm clock.
Benjamin Franklin
Inspirational Graduation Quotes
74.) The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
Eleanor Roosevelt
75.) Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.
Steve Jobs
76.) Don’t ever underestimate the importance you can have because history has shown us that courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own.
Michelle Obama
77.) What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
78.) Live with life. Be courageous and adventurous. Give us a tomorrow, more than we deserve.
Maya Angelou
79.) The meaning of life is to find your gift; the purpose of life is to give it away.
Joy J
80.) Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education.
Martin Luther King Jr.
81.) Your imagination is your preview of life’s coming attractions.
Albert Einstein
82.) The old rules are crumbling, and nobody knows what the new rules are. So make up your own rules.
Neil Gaiman
Words of Wisdom
83.) Follow your passion. It will lead you to your purpose.
Oprah Winfrey
84.) 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
85.) Your life is your story, and the adventure ahead of you is the journey to fulfill your own purpose and potential.
Kerry Washington
86.) 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
87.) Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.
Malcolm X
88.) Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.
Winston Churchill
89.) My dear terrified graduates, you are about to enter the most uncertain and thrilling period of your lives. Lin-Manuel Miranda
90.) Here is what I’ve learned: we may live in an age of instant messaging, instant gratification, and Instagram, but there is no way to short-circuit the path to success. It takes hard work, tenacity, and patience.
Tory Burch
91.) 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 doing.
Madeleine Albright
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Words of Advice
92.) 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 every day, like a photograph coming into focus.
Jodie Foster
93.) 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
94.) Now go, and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for you being here. Make good art.
Neil Gaiman
95.) Now the first suggestion is to aim high, but 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
96.) 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
97.) The best way to create the future is to live it.
Abraham Lincoln
98.) 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
Gain insights on graduation with Funny Graduation Quotations.
Lighthearted Quotes For Grads
99.) You can’t climb the ladder of success with your hands in your pockets.
Arnold Schwarzenegger
100.) I learned many great lessons from my father, not the least of which was that you can fail at what you don’t want, so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love.
Jim Carrey
101.) The unfortunate yet truly exciting thing about your life is that there is no core curriculum. The entire place is an elective.
Jon Stewart
102.) Creativity is intelligence having fun.
Albert Einstein
103.) The fireworks begin today. Each diploma is a lighted match. Each one of you is a fuse.
Edward Koch
104.) 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
105.) So long as your desire to explore is greater than your desire to not screw up you’re on the right track.
Ed Helms
106.) To those of you who received honors, awards, and distinctions, I say well done. And to the C students, I say you, too, may one day be president of the United States.
George W. Bush
Inspiring College Graduation Quotes
107.) It is good to have a journey toward the end, but it is the journey that matters in the end.
Ernest Hemingway
108.) If we’d all stuck with our first dream, the world would be overrun with cowboys and princesses. So whatever your dream is right now, if you don’t achieve it you haven’t failed, and you’re not some loser.
Stephen Colbert
109.) Fall forward. Every failed experiment is one step closer to success. You’ve got to take risks.
Denzel Washington
110.) From my point of view, which is that of a storyteller, I see your life as already artful, waiting, just waiting and ready for you to make it art.
Toni Morrison
On Life
111.) If you suffer, thank God! It is a sure sign that you are alive.
Elbert Hubbard, A Thousand and One Epigrams
112.) Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.
Soren Kierkegaard, Journal
113.) The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.
William James
114.) If you can’t live longer, live deeper.
Italian Proverb
115.) We are always getting ready to live but never living.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journals
116.) These are three ingredients in the good life: learning, earning, and yearning.
Christopher Morley, Parnassus on Wheels
117.) Each day should be passed as though it were our last.
Publilius Syrus, Sententiae
118.) Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.
Steve Jobs
119.) The less of routine, the more of life.
Amos Bronson Alcott, Table-Talk
120.) Four things do not come back: the spoken word, the sped arrow, the past life, and the neglected opportunity.
Arab Proverb
Final Thoughts on College Graduation Quotes
Graduation is one of the significant milestones in anyone’s life. It is the commencement of perhaps the most important phase in your life when you plan to become a giver and contributor in this world. It is a great moment for everyone around you, especially your parents.
Express yourself with the right words, and consider featuring a great quote from the list above.
By Mike O’Halloran
Mike is an author and founder of Greeting Card Poet.
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