Inspiring Quotes for Graduating Seniors: A Collection to Empower Your Future

"Accept no one’s definition of your life. Define yourself."

- Harvey Fierstein

"Today’s accomplishments were yesterday’s impossibilities."

- Robert H. Schuller

"Your education has prepared you for what lies ahead."

- Conan O’Brien

"What we learn with pleasure we never forget."

- Alfred Mercier

"The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible."

- Arthur C. Clarke

"It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great."

- Jimmy Dugan

"Persistence is the most powerful force on earth, it can move mountains."

- Albert Einstein

"Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement; nothing can be done without hope and confidence."

- Helen Keller

"All dreams are within reach. All you have to do is keep moving towards them."

- Viola Davis

"That’s a great motto for all of us — find somebody to be successful for. Raise their hopes. Rise to their needs."

- Barack Obama

"Look back on the journey that brought you here. What moments challenged you most?"

- Kerry Washington

"Just because you don’t know what you want yet, it doesn’t mean that there’s nothing to want."

- Emily Henry

"You educate a man; you educate a man. You educate a woman; you educate a generation."

- Brigham Young

"You’ll be on your way up! You’ll be seeing great sights! You’ll join the high fliers who soar to high heights."

- Dr. Seuss

"Make a career of humanity. Commit yourself to the noble struggle for equal rights."

- Martin Luther King

"Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You."

- Dr. Seuss

"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose."

- Dr. Seuss

"The only impossible journey is the one you never begin."

- Anthony Robbins

"Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today."

- Malcolm X

"It always seems impossible until it’s done."

- Nelson Mandela

"A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new."

- Albert Einstein

"I am a firm believer that you don’t achieve greatness on your own. There is always someone there to lend a hand."

- Greg Louganis

"Becoming isn’t about arriving somewhere or achieving a certain aim. I see it instead as forward motion, a means of evolving."

- Michelle Obama

"All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them."

- Walt Disney

"Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in."

- Bill Bradley

"Congratulations! Today is your day. You’re off to Great Places! You’re off and away!"

- Dr. Seuss

"Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today."

- Malcolm X

"It is you, the young and fearless at heart, the most diverse and educated generation in our history, who the nation is waiting to follow."

- Barack Obama

"If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours."

- Henry David Thoreau

"A great accomplishment shouldn’t be the end of the road, just the starting point for the next leap forward."

- Harvey Mackay

"Success is loving life and daring to live it."

- Maya Angelou

"Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out."

- Robert Collier

"What could we accomplish if we knew we could not fail?"

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great."

- John D. Rockefeller

"Nothing is impossible. The word itself says, ‘I’m possible!’"

- Audrey Hepburn

"Be so good they can’t ignore you."

- Steve Martin

"Life begins at the end of your comfort zone."

- Neale Donald Walsch

"Success is not the absence of failure; it’s the persistence through failure."

- Aisha Tyler

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Do not follow where the path may lead. Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Before you act, listen. Before you react, think. Before you spend, earn. Before you criticize, wait. Before you quit, try."

- William Arthur Ward

"Don’t live down to expectations. Go out there and do something remarkable."

- Wendy Wasserstein

"Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there."

- Will Rogers

"If you think you are too small to be effective, you have never been in the dark with a mosquito."

- Betty Reese

"Keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things…your curiosity will lead you down the path of success."

- Walt Disney

"People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well neither does bathing; that’s why we recommend it daily."

- Zig Ziglar

"The elevator to success is out of order. You’ll have to use the stairs…one step at a time."

- Joe Girard

"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

"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

"Believe you can and you’re halfway there."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

"It is absolutely still possible to make a difference."

- Michelle Obama

"I am here to tell you that whatever you think your dream is now, it will probably change. And that’s okay."

- Conan O’Brien

"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

"Success is only meaningful and enjoyable if it feels like your own."

- Michelle Obama

"It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste."

- Henry Ford

"Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal."

- Henry Ford

"When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us."

- Alexander Graham Bell

"Try to learn something about everything and everything about something."

- T. H. Huxley

"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

"It is good to have a journey toward the end, but it is the journey that matters, in the end."

- Ernest Hemingway

"Be the hardest working person you know. Because if you’re not, someone else will be."

- Ian Brennan

"Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice, and most of all, love of what you are doing."

- Javier Báez

"You may not always have a comfortable life and you will not always be able to solve all of the world’s problems at once, but 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

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."

- Anne Frank

"It is not true that people stop pursuing dreams because they grow old; they grow old because they stop pursuing dreams."

- Gabriel García Márquez

"The future is not in the hands of fate, but in ours."

- Jules Jusserand

"You are capable of more than you know. Choose a goal that seems right for you and strive to be the best, however hard the path."

- E.O. Wilson

"Your time is now. Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can."

- Arthur Ashe

"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

"Education is something we have to keep pursuing day after day."

- Premier Brian Gallant

"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose."

- Dr. Seuss

"Every person you meet knows something you don’t. Learn from them."

- H. Jackson Brown Jr.

"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

"Believe you can, and you're halfway there."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"Instruction ends in the schoolroom, but education ends only with life."

- Frederick W. Robertson

"Persistence can change failure into extraordinary achievement."

- Arnold Palmer

"You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step."

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams."

- Oprah Winfrey

"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

"Let us never be betrayed into saying we have finished our education; because that would mean we had stopped growing."

- Julia H. Gulliver

"Take pride in how far you’ve come. Have faith in how far you can go. But don’t forget to enjoy the journey."

- Michael Josephson

"The important thing is not to stop questioning."

- Albert Einstein

"An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest."

- Benjamin Franklin

"The noblest question in the world is: What good may I do in it?"

- Benjamin Franklin

"Your time is limited, don't waste it living someone else's life."

- Steve Jobs

"Don't watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going."

- Sam Levenson

"A great accomplishment shouldn't be the end of the road, just the starting point for the next leap forward."

- Harvey Mackay

"Success is not about wealth or fame, but about inner happiness and fulfillment."

- Margot Robbie

"You will find the key to success under the alarm clock."

- Benjamin Franklin

"Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Nobody likes to fail, but failure is an essential part of life and of learning. If your uniform isn’t dirty, you haven’t been in the game."

- Ben Bernanke

"There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind."

- C.S. Lewis

"Celebrate endings — for they precede new beginnings."

- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

"When you take risks, you learn that there will be times when you succeed and there will be times when you fail, and both are equally important."

- Ellen DeGeneres

"The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary."

- Vince Lombardi

"Fight for what makes you optimistic about the world. Find it, insist on it, dig into it, go after it."

- Jennifer Garner

"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

"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm."

- Winston Churchill

"Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life."

- Steve Jobs

"Success is not final. Failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts."

- Winston Churchill

"Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds that you plant."

- Robert Louis Stevenson

"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

"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

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever."

- Mahatma Gandhi

"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

"If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere."

- Frank A. Clark

"What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the human soul."

- Joseph Addison

"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

"So long as your desire to explore is greater than your desire to not screw up you’re on the right track."

- Ed Helms

"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

"You’re going to fall down, but the world doesn’t care how many times you fall down, as long as it’s one fewer than the number of times you get back up."

- Aaron Sorkin

"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

"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. Accept your lack of knowledge and use it as your asset."

- Natalie Portman

"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

"I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble."

- Helen Keller

"Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world right in the eye."

- Helen Keller

"When you respect the idea that you are sharing the Earth with other humans, and when you lead with your nice foot forward, you’ll win, every time. It might not be today, it might not be tomorrow, but it comes back to you when you need it."

- Kristen Bell

"Try to keep your mind open to possibilities and your mouth closed on matters that you don’t know about. Limit your ‘always’ and your ‘nevers.’ Continue to share your heart with people even if it has been broken."

- Amy Poehler

"The best helping hand that you will ever receive is the one at the end of your own arm."

- Fred Dehner

"It is often easier to make progress on mega-ambitious dreams. I know that sounds completely nuts. But, since no one else is crazy enough to do it, you have little competition."

- Larry Page

"The question isn’t who’s going to let me; it’s who’s going to stop me."

- Ayn Rand

"Some life lessons don’t ever change. They need to be highlighted and they need to be remembered throughout our entire lives. But how you embrace them will distinguish you from the pack."

- Brooke Shields

"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 really are enough. You have untold strengths and resources inside. You have your glorious self."

- Sue Monk Kidd

"Nobody else is paying as much attention to your failures as you are…to everyone else, it’s just a blip on the radar screen, so just move on."

- Jerry Zucker

"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

"Education makes a people easy to lead, but difficult to drive. Easy to govern, but impossible to enslave."

- Henry Peter Brougham

"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

"Some men see things as they are and ask why. Others dream things that never were and ask why not."

- George Bernard Shaw

"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

"The only thing you can do in this life is pursue your passions, celebrate your bloopers, and never stop following your fear."

- Grace Helbig

"Always aim high, work hard, and care deeply about what you believe in."

- Hillary Clinton

"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

"To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream, not only plan, but also believe."

- Anatole France

"Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one."

- Malcolm S. Forbes

"Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself."

- John Dewey

"As you start your journey, the first thing you should do is throw away that store-bought map and begin to draw your own."

- Michael Dell

"I will encourage you not to just make a living, but to live to make something."

- Wesley Chan

"The old rules are crumbling and nobody knows what the new rules are. So make up your own rules."

- Neil Gaiman

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined."

- Henry David Thoreau

"Opportunity dances with those who are already on the dance floor."

- H. Jackson Browne Jr.

"The most rewarding things in life are often the ones that look like they cannot be done."

- Arnold Palmer

"If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced."

- Vincent Van Gogh

"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

"So, I say to you, forget about the fast lane. If you really want to fly, just harness your power to your passion. Honor your calling. Everybody has one. Trust your heart and success will come to you."

- Oprah Winfrey

"There is no such thing as failure. Failure is just life trying to move us in another direction."

- Oprah Winfrey

"We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already. We have the power to imagine better."

- J.K. Rowling

"Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing you will be successful."

- Herman Cain

"If you want something you’ve never had, you must be willing to do something you’ve never done."

- Thomas Jefferson

"You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. You have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future."

- Steve Jobs

"In response to those who say to stop dreaming and face reality, I say keep dreaming and make reality."

- Kristian Kan

"Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it."

- Charles Swindoll

"I encourage you to live with life. Be courageous, adventurous. Give us a tomorrow, more than we deserve."

- Maya Angelou

"The horizon leans forward, offering you space to place new steps of change."

- Maya Angelou

"Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better."

- Maya Angelou

"Don’t ever confuse the two, your life and your work. The second is only part of the first."

- Anna Quindlen

"In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love."

- Mother Teresa

"Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition."

- Steve Jobs

"The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart you’ll know when you find it."

- Steve Jobs

"Things turn out best for people who make the best out of the way things turn out."

- Art Linkletter

"You can fail at what you don’t want, so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love."

- Jim Carrey

"If you can imagine it, you can achieve it; if you can dream it, you can become it."

- William Arthur Ward

"Don’t let anyone ever make you feel like you don’t deserve what you want. Go for it."

- 10 Things I Hate About You

"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go."

- Dr. Seuss

"It is not our abilities that show what we truly are. It is our choices."

- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

"Your life is your story, and the adventure ahead of you is the journey to fulfill your own purpose and potential."

- Kerry Washington

"Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful."

- Albert Pujols

"Just don't give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don't think you can go wrong."

- Ella Fitzgerald

"You can and should set your own limits and clearly articulate them. This takes courage, but it is also liberating and empowering, and often earns you new respect."

- Rosalind Brewer

"These children and their parents know that getting an education is not only their right, but a passport to a better future - for the children and for the country."

- Harry Belafonte

"If you can't figure out your purpose, figure out your passion. For your passion will lead you right into your purpose."

- Bishop T.D. Jakes

"Now I think it’s one of the most useless questions an adult can ask a child—What do you want to be when you grow up? As if growing up is finite. As if at some point you become something and that’s the end."

- Michelle Obama

"Education is the key to unlocking the world, a passport to freedom."

- Oprah Winfrey

"It's okay to fail; it's not okay to quit."

- Christopher Paul Gardner

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire."

- W.B. Yeats

"We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort."

- Jesse Owens

"The best way to predict your future is to create it."

- Peter Drucker

"Get up. Stand up. Speak up. Do something."

- Tamara Burke

"You must always have faith in people. And, most importantly, you must always have faith in yourself."

- Legally Blonde

"Successful people don't have fewer problems. They have determined that nothing will stop them from going forward."

- Benjamin Carson

"If everything was perfect, you would never learn and you would never grow."

- Beyoncé

"Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly."

- Langston Hughes

"Never dull your shine for somebody else."

- Tyra Banks

"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."

- Arie Pencovici

"Do not live someone else's life and someone else's idea of what womanhood is. Womanhood is you. Womanhood is everything that's inside of you."

- Viola Davis

"Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world."

- Harriet Tubman

"The purpose of our lives is to be happy."

- Dalai Lama

"There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure."

- Colin Powell

"If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward."

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Just remember, you can't climb the ladder of success with your hands in your pockets."

- Arnold Schwarzenegger

"If you fall behind, run faster. Never give up, never surrender, and rise up against the odds."

- Jesse Jackson

"The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking spaces."

- Will Rogers

"Don't sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them."

- Madam C.J. Walker

"The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future."

- Plato

"We have a powerful potential in out youth, and we must have the courage to change old ideas and practices so that we may direct their power toward good ends."

- Mary McLeod Bethune

"Never limit yourself because of other’s limited imagination; never limit others because of your own limited imagination."

- Mae Jemison

"Dreams can become a reality when we possess a vision, a plan, and the courage to chase after it relentlessly."

- Walt Disney

"It’s your turn to choose and define what success means to you. Now, others will try to define it for you, but yours is the only voice that matters."

- Octavia Spencer

"Do or do not. There is no try."

- Yoda

"Your need for acceptance can make you invisible in this world. Don’t let anything stand in the way of the light that shines through this form. Risk being seen in all of your glory."

- Jim Carrey

"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

"Why fit in when you were born to stand out?"

- Dr. Seuss

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."

- Nelson Mandela

"The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."

- Oliver Goldsmith

"Learning is the only thing the mind never exhausts, never fears, and never regrets."

- Leonardo da Vinci

"Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny."

- Lao-Tze

"The future depends on what you do today."

- Mahatma Gandhi

"Carpe diem, seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary."

- Dead Poets Society

"You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who will decide where to GO."

- Dr. Seuss

"Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm."

- Winston Churchill

"He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life."

- Muhammad Ali

"Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else."

- Judy Garland

"Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail."

- Charles Kettering

"You control your destiny. You don’t need magic to do it."

- Brave

"Your imagination is your preview of life’s coming attractions."

- Albert Einstein

"Stay hungry. Stay foolish."

- Steven Jobs

"Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement."

- Helen Keller

"Education is the ability to meet life’s situations."

- John G. Hibben

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek."

- Barack Obama

"The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

- Lao Tzu

"You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take."

- Wayne Gretzky

"It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves."

- William Shakespeare

"May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears."

- Nelson Mandela

"Believe and act is if it were impossible to fail."

- Charles Kettering

"Nothing will work unless you do."

- Maya Angelou

"You can never be overdressed or overeducated."

- Oscar Wilde

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life."

- Steve Jobs

"The only person who can stop you from reaching your goals is you."

- Jackie Joyner-Kersee

"If you can dream it, you can do it."

- Walt Disney

"The best way to predict the future is to create it."

- Peter Drucker

"If you can believe it, the mind can achieve it."

- Jimmy Demaret

"Nothing can dim the light that shines from within."

- Maya Angelou

"The highest result of education is tolerance."

- Helen Keller

"It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up."

- Babe Ruth

"Love the life you live. Live the life you love."

- Bob Marley

"Believe in yourself and have confidence that you can compete against all odds. Have a vision of what you'd like to accomplish and be able to articulate that vision."

- Robert Johnson

"The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you."

- B.B. King

"Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game."

- Babe Ruth

"You get in life what you have the courage to ask for."

- Oprah Winfrey

"Be bold, be courageous, be your best."

- Gabrielle Giffords

"Follow your passion. It will lead you to your purpose."

- Oprah

"Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly."

- Robert F. Kennedy

"Kid, you’ll move mountains."

- Dr. Seuss

"Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try it."

- John F. Kennedy

"There is no boy, at this age, cute enough or interesting enough to stop you from getting an education, If I had worried about who liked me and who thought I was cute when I was your age, I wouldn’t be married to the President of the United States."

- Michelle Obama

"Don’t underestimate the power of your dreams."

- Corinna Ko

"Kid, you'll move mountains!"

- Dr. Seuss

"If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door."

- Milton Berle

"Don't follow the path. Go where there is no path and begin the trail. When you start a new trail equipped with courage, strength, and conviction, the only thing that can stop you is you!"

- Ruby Bridges

"Graduation is not the end; it’s the beginning."

- Senator Orrin Hatch

"This above all: To thine own self be true."

- William Shakespeare

"Sometimes the right path is not the easiest one."

- Grandmother Willow

"Do not let making a living prevent you from making a life."

- John Wooden

"Get busy living or get busy dying."

- Stephen King

"Intelligence without ambition is like a bird without wings."

- Dali

"The only thing that ever sat its way to success was a hen."

- Sarah Brown

"The road to success is always under construction."

- Lily Tomlin

"Life is what we make it, always has been, always will be."

- Grandma Moses

"If you aren’t going all the way, why go at all?"

- Joe Namath

"Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life."

- Omar Khayyam

"Nothing is impossible. The word itself says ‘I’m possible!’"

- Audrey Hepburn

"Wherever you go, go with all your heart."

- Confucius

"Don’t wait. The time will never be just right."

- Napoleon Hill

"Dream big and dare to fail."

- Norman Vaughan

"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education."

- Mark Twain

"There’s just no telling how far I’ll go."

- Moana

"Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment."

- Jim Rohn

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

- Jeremiah 29:11

"Set out each day believing in your dreams. Know without a doubt that you were made for great things."

- Josh Hinds

"Don't be afraid of failure. This is the way to succeed."

- LeBron James

"Be the change you are trying to create."

- Mahatma Gandhi

"If you want something you've never had, you must be willing to do something you've never done."

- Thomas Jefferson

"Life isn't how to survive the storm, it's about how to dance in the rain."

- Taylor Swift

"Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you. Spend a lot of time with them and it will change your life."

- Amy Poehler

"Hard work may not always result in success, but it will never result in regret."

- Moneyball

"If you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself, then make that change."

- Michael Jackson

"Everything negative - pressure, challenges - is all an opportunity for me to rise."

- Kobe Bryant

"Always keep swinging. Whether I was in a slump or feeling bad or having trouble off the field, the only thing to do was keep swinging."

- Hank Aaron

"Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can."

- Arthur Ashe

"Without faith, nothing is possible. With it, nothing is impossible."

- Mary McLeod Bethune

"You can surmount the obstacles in your path if you are determined, courageous and hard-working. Never be faint-hearted. Be resolute, but never bitter."

- Ralph Bunche

"If they don't give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair."

- Shirley Chisholm

"Strive to make something of yourself, then strive to make the most of yourself."

- Alexander Crummell

"Our elevation must be the result of self-efforts and work of our own hands. No other human power can accomplish it. If we but determine it shall be so, it will be so."

- Martin R. Delany

"You can't just sit there and wait for people to give you that golden dream. You've got to get out there and make it happen for yourself."

- Diana Ross

"You learn more in failure than you ever do in success."

- Jay Z

"Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value."

- Albert Einstein

"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

"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

"There is only one success: to be able to spend your life in your own way."

- Christopher Morley

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."

- Thomas Edison

"Opportunity does not knock, it presents itself when you beat down the door."

- Kyle Chandler

"You must continue to dream the wild dream that you dreamed when you were young."

- Mike Tomlin

"You can’t climb the ladder of success with your hands in your pockets."

- Arnold Schwarzenegger

"Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young."

- Henry Ford

"Nothing is going to be handed to you. You have to make things happen."

- Florence Griffith-Joyner

"Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory."

- Dr Seuss

"Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened."

- Dr. Seuss

"The most important thing in your life is to live your life with integrity and to not give into peer pressure to try to be something that you’re not."

- Ellen DeGeneres

"It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are."

- E.E. Cummings

"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

"Life is my college. May I graduate well, and earn some honors!"

- Louisa May Alcott

"Be willing to embrace wonder, to experience unexpected discovery, and to go in unknown directions. Never become so enamored of your own smarts that you stop signing up for life’s hard classes."

- Melissa Harris-Perry

"Sometimes you find out what you are supposed to be doing by doing the things you are not supposed to do."

- Oprah Winfrey

"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

"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

"The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes."

- Benjamin Disraeli

"A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him."

- David Brinkley

"The brave may not live forever, but the cautious do not live at all."

- Princess Diaries

"Spread joy. Chase your wildest dreams."

- Patch Adams

"Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

- Ferris Bueller

"It’s fine to live in the now. But the best thing about now is that there’s another one tomorrow. I’m gonna start makin’ them count."

- The Spectacular Now

"There’s a million things I haven’t done. Just you wait, just you wait."

- Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton

"If you focus on what you left behind, you will never be able to see what lies ahead."

- Ratatouille

"All kids need is a little help, a little hope and somebody who believes in them."

- Magic Johnson

"Within our dreams and aspirations, we find our opportunities."

- Sugar Ray Leonard

"A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives."

- Jackie Robinson

"When I discover who I am, I'll be free."

- Ralph Ellison

"If there is a book that you want to read, but hasn't been written yet, you must be the one to write it."

- Toni Morrison

"Memories of our lives, of our works and our deeds will continue in others."

- Rosa Parks

"The best way to guarantee a loss is to quit."

- Morgan Freeman

"To simply wake up every morning a better person than when I went to bed."

- Sidney Poitier

"I have had one goal in my life, that of playing some role in making life a little easier for the persons who come after me."

- Percy Lavon Julian

"Don't let people disrespect you. My mom says don't open the door to the devil. Surround yourself with positive people."

- Cuba Gooding Jr.

"In order to be the best version of yourself, you have to dedicate time, effort, and support to other people who need it."

- Laurence Fishburne

"If there is no struggle, there is no progress."

- Frederick Douglass

"Every day, my daddy told me the same thing. 'Once a task is just begun, never leave it till it's done. Be the labour great or small, do it well or not at all.'"

- Quincy Jones

"The guy who takes a chance, who walks the line between the known and unknown, who is unafraid of failure, will succeed."

- Gordon Sparks

"If you look at how long the Earth has been here, we're living in the blink of an eye. So, whatever it is you want to do, you go out and do it."

- Jamie Foxx

"We're here for a reason. I believe a bit of the reason is to throw little torches out to lead people through the dark."

- Whoopi Goldberg

"You can fool people. You can fool anybody any time of the day, but you can't fool yourself. At night, when you go home, you've got to be straight up with you."

- Whitney Houston

"Success is the sweetest revenge."

- Vanessa Williams

"You have to be able to accept failure to get better."

- LeBron James

"Never let someone tell you you're too small or too slow."

- Chris Paul

"If your dream is only about you, it's too small."

- Ava DuVernay

"Bottom line: if you show a genuine interest in learning about how others became successful, you can open up a world of opportunities."

- Armstrong Williams

"I know that in life there will be sickness, devastation, disappointments, heartache - it's a given. What's not a given is the way you choose to get through it all. If you look hard enough, you can always find the bright side."

- Rashida Jones

"The easy thing to do is to keep doing what’s always been done, but challenging the status quo can show you things you didn’t know were possible."

- Alicia Boler Davis

"I learned law so well, the day I graduated I sued the college, won the case, and got my tuition back."

- Fred Allen

"You will never have more energy or enthusiasm, hair, or brain cells than you have today."

- Tom and Ray Magliozzi

"You are graduating from college. That means that this is the first day of the last day of your life."

- Andy Samberg

"Life has no remote. Get up and change it yourself."

- Mark Coope

"The expert in anything was once a beginner."

- Helen Hayes

"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing."

- Albert Einstein

"Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere."

- Chinese proverb

"The secret to success is to know something nobody else knows."

- Aristotle Onassis

"Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great."

- John D. Rockefeller

"Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"In the end, it's not the years in your life that count; it's the life in your years."

- Abraham Lincoln

"Life is change, growth is optional. Choose wisely."

- Karen Kaiser Clark

"Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving."

- Albert Einstein

"The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide you're not going to stay where you are."

- JP Morgan

"The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today."

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

"The future belongs to those who learn more skills and combine them in creative ways."

- Robert Greene

"In the business world, everyone is paid in two coins: cash and experience. Take experience first; the cash will come later."

- Harold Geneen

"Life is too important to be taken seriously."

- Oscar Wilde

"Life affords no greater responsibility, no greater privilege, than the raising of the next generation."

- C. Everett Koop

"Knowledge is not power. The implementation of knowledge is power."

- Larry Winget

"The trouble with learning from experience is that you never graduate."

- Doug Larson

"Give me a stock clerk with a goal, and I will give you a man who will make history. Give me a man without a goal, and I will give you a stock clerk."

- James Cash Penney

"The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth."

- Gerald Burrill

"Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans."

- John Lennon

"You pray for rain, you gotta deal with the mud too. That's a part of it."

- Denzel Washington

"The only difference between a hero and the villain is that the villain chooses to use that power in a way that is selfish and hurts other people."

- Chadwick Boseman

"You have to be prepared to die before you can be prepared to live."

- Fred Shuttlesworth

"Good manners will open doors that the best education cannot."

- Clarence Thomas

"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

"It is better to be a failure at something you love than to be a success at something you hate."

- George Burns

"You can kill a man but you can't kill an idea."

- Medgar Evers

"Like what you do, and then you will do your best."

- Katherine Johnson

"Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated."

- Confucius

"The knowledge I have now is not the knowledge I had then."

- Stokely Carmichael

"The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."

- Albert Einstein

"The important thing is this: to be able to give up in any given moment all that we are for what we can become."

- DeSeaux

"Anytime you see a turtle up on top of a fence post, you know he had some help."

- Alex Haley

"You can always become better."

- Tiger Woods

"Time is a created thing. To say 'I don't have time' is like saying 'I don't want to.'"

- Lao Tzu

"Age is no barrier. It's a limitation you put on your mind."

- Jackie Joyner-Kersee

"Seize the day, and put the least possible trust in tomorrow."

- Horace

"Everything is habit-forming, so make sure what you do is what you want to be doing."

- Wilt Chamberlain

"Do not pray for easier lives, pray to be stronger men."

- John F. Kennedy

"When you leave here, don’t forget why you came."

- Adlai E. Stevenson

"There are two lasting bequests we can give our children. One is roots. The other is wings."

- Hodding Carter, Jr.

"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

"Remember that life's a great balancing act."

- Dr. Seuss

"There is no script. Live your life. Soak it all in."

- Dick Costolo

"Ideas are wilder than memories."

- V.E. Schwab

"I only debate my equals. All others, I teach."

- John Henrik Clarke

"When you do the common things in life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world."

- George Washington Carver

"Don't just fly, soar."

- Dumbo

"Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks."

- Warren Buffett

"Follow your fear."

- Tina Fey

"Life's a climb. But the view is great."

- Miley Cyrus

"But 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

"The very things that hold you down are going to lift you."

- Timothy Mouse, Dumbo

"I refused to take no for an answer."

- Bessie Coleman

"Creativity is intelligence having fun."

- Albert Einstein

"Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step."

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced."

- James Baldwin

"Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens."

- Jimi Hendrix

"By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest."

- Confucius

"I chased my dreams. In the end, find what gets you excited and chase it."

- Guion Bluford

"A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them."

- John C. Maxwell

"The paradox of education is precisely this - that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated."

- James Baldwin

"The purpose of human life is to improve one’s character traits, by working on oneself every day. That’s why God gives us today—and tomorrow."

- Sara Yoheved Rigler

"If you aren’t fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm."

- Vince Lombardi

"I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it."

- Harry S. Truman

"You don’t have to be famous. You just have to make your mother and father proud of you, and you already have."

- Meryl Streep

"Let us keep the dance of rain our fathers kept and tread our dreams beneath the jungle sky."

- Arna Bontemps

"The best remedy for those who are frightened, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be alone with the sky, nature and God. For only then can you feel that everything is as it should be and that God wants people to be happy amid nature’s beauty and simplicity."

- Anne Frank

"All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness."

- Dalai Lama

"You don’t raise heroes, you raise sons. And if you treat them like sons, they’ll turn out to be heroes, even if it’s just in your own eyes."

- Walter M. Schirra, Sr.

"Remain humble but stay hungry."

- Cardi B.

"If watching is all you're gonna do, then you're gonna watch your life go by without you."

- Laverne, The Hunchback of Norte Dame

"You can never plan the future by the past."

- Edmund Burke

"Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor."

- Truman Capote

"Man dreams that he is more than a leaf on a tree."

- Countee Cullen

"I go to seek a Great Perhaps."

- Francois Rabelais

"An unschooled man who knows how to meditate upon the Lord has learned far more than the man with the highest education who does not know how to meditate."

- Rev. Charles Stanley

"When you find yourself in need of spiritual nourishment, it is in the opportunities to serve others that you will find the abundance you seek."

- Steve Maraboli

"Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity."

- Timothy 4:12

"You start to live when you commit to a cause higher than yourself. You must learn to depend on divine power for the fulfillment of a higher calling."

- Lailah Gifty Akita

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

- Philippians 4:13

"God never said that the journey would be easy, but He did say that the arrival would be worthwhile."

- Max Lucado

"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

"Keep in mind that neither success nor failure is ever final."

- Roger Babson

"Your families are extremely proud of you. You can't imagine the sense of relief they are experiencing."

- Kurt Vonnegut

"Do not fear mistakes. There are none."

- Miles Davis

"Men are what their mothers made them."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"A father is a man who expects his son to be as good a man as he meant to be."

- Frank A. Clark

"Being champion is all well and good, but you can't eat a crown."

- Althea Gibson

"If I have a monument in this world, it is my son."

- Maya Angelou

"You get to consciously decide what has meaning and what doesn’t. You get to decide what to worship."

- David Foster Wallace

"To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships."

- W.E.B. DuBois

"Men who are in earnest are not afraid of consequences."

- Marcus Garvey

"There are few things more liberating in this life than having your worst fear realized."

- Conan O’Brien

"You don't have to be famous. You just have to make your mother and father proud of you, and you already have."

- Meryl Streep

"The only time to look back in life is when taking a memory test."

- Buddy Hackett

"I don’t listen to what art critics say. I don’t know anybody who needs a critic to find out what art is."

- Jean-Michel Basquiat

"There are years that ask questions and years that answer."

- Zora Neale Hurston

"Never be afraid to sit awhile and think."

- Lorraine Hansberry

"Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person’s character lies in their own hands."

- Anne Frank

"The advice I would give to someone is to not take anyone's advice."

- Eddie Murphy

"Now that you’ve graduated, just remember: Bosses don’t usually accept notes from your mother."

- Melanie White

"Graduation day is tough for adults. They go to the ceremony as parents. They come home as contemporaries. After 22 years of child-raising, they are unemployed."

- Erma Bombeck

"Art hurts. Art urges voyages - and it is easier to stay at home."

- Gwendolyn Brooks

"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

"A person soon learns how little he knows when a child begins to ask questions."

- Richard L. Evans

"Intemperance and intolerance serve no one and hatred guarantees failure."

- Edward Brooke

"We know what we are, but know not what we may be."

- Shakespeare

"When you stop having dreams and ideals - well, you might as well stop altogether."

- Marian Anderson

"We all have ability. The difference is how we use it."

- Stevie Wonder

"Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed."

- Proverbs 16:3

"It's a long old road, but I know I'm gonna find the end."

- Bessie Smith

"A problem is a chance for you to do your best."

- Duke Ellington

"Don’t worry about the world coming to an end today. It is already tomorrow in Australia."

- Charles Schulz

"You have to believe in yourself when no one else does."

- Serena Williams

"The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged."

- Deuteronomy 31:8

"I don't want the bottom, so I have to sacrifice the top."

- Chuck Berry

"I never wanted to be famous. I only wanted to be great."

- Ray Charles

"Your education is a dress rehearsal for a life that is yours to lead."

"Effort and courage are not enough without purpose and direction."

"By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest, and third by experience, which is the bitterest."

"The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet."

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind."

"Whether you think you can or you can’t, you are right."

"You're braver than you believe and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think."

"If at first you don’t succeed, do it like your mother told you."

"You just gotta ignite the light and let it shine / Just own the night, like the Fourth of July."

"It’s something unpredictable, but in the end, it’s right / I hope you had the time of your life."

"As we go on, we remember / All the times we had together / And as our lives change / Come whatever / We will still be friends forever."

"She is clothed in strength and dignity, and she laughs without fear of the future."

"I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance / Never settle for the path of least resistance."

"Behind you all your memories, before you all your dreams, around you all who love you, within you all you need."

"The world is calling…"

"And this is the part where you find out who you are."

"And so the adventure begins…"

"This is the beginning of anything you want."

"School’s out for summer / School’s out forever."

"The tassel’s worth the hassle."

"‘For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

"Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. I have taken an oath and confirmed it, that I will follow your righteous laws."

"When people tell you not to believe in your dreams, and they say ‘why?’ say ‘why not?','author':'Billie Jean King','category':'Aspirations','relevanceScore':1},{"

"Never let it be said that to dream is a waste of one’s time, for dreams are our realities in waiting. In dreams, we plant the seeds of our future."

"I hope your dreams take you to the corners of your smiles, to the highest of your hopes, to the windows of your opportunities, and to the most special places your heart has ever known."