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Graduation Quotes

Two of the most popular graduation lines are flagged. “Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself” is a paraphrase of John Dewey, not a quotation. The one about education being what remains after you have forgotten what you learned in school is credited to Einstein and flagged as misattributed.

The page is assembled from the pages on education, success, the future, dreams and learning. It has no graduation speeches in it, but it does have a lot of quotes that get used in them. If you are writing a speech, use the sourced entries; the label will tell you which is which.

Random quote on Graduation

Most quoted on graduation:

The heart and soul of everything the Wikimedia project does is volunteer driven, it's volunteer energy, volunteer time, altruism, people's commitment to create this massive educational endeavour that's really available to everybody

Sue Gardner

Our bilateral cooperation with China has played a significant role in the transformation of our key development sectors, including infrastructure, agriculture, health, education, ICT, trade, mining, transport, as well as tourism.

Édouard Ngirente Édouard Ngirente (2021)

Sanitary pads programme enables our girls to remain in school and focus on their academics. We want them to work hard and report sex pests in their midst for appropriate action.

Joyce Osogo

Young cat! If you keep
Your eyes open enough,
Oh, the stuff you will learn!
The most wonderful stuff!

Dr. Seuss I Can Read With My Eyes Shut! (1978)

The walls of the educational system must come down. Education should not be a privilege, so the children of those who have money can study. Education should be the daily bread of the people of Cuba.

Che Guevara Speech at the University of Las Villas (1959)

Because learning does not consist only of knowing what we must or we can do, but also of knowing what we could do and perhaps should not do.

Umberto Eco The Name of the Rose (1980)

When a child, my dreams rode on your wishes,
I was your son, high on your horse,
My mind a top whipped by the lashes
Of your rhetoric, windy of course.

Stephen Spender

We do not know what tomorrow will bring. We are not prophets. This is a step in the dark. We can only proceed into the future with faith.

P. W. Botha

My dad was exceptionally ambitious. But he had a lot thrown on him, exceeding his ambition. He wanted his band to be successful. But he didn't want to be the fucking voice of a generation.

Frances Bean Cobain Frances Bean Cobain on Life After Kurt's Death: An Exclusive Q&A (2015)

“Education,” he smiled, “is never a waste of time.”

Robert Asprin Time Scout (1995)

Thirdly, we will give two practical Courses of self-training, mental and physical, with which we can fit ourselves to become successful pioneers for the new age.

Vera Stanley Alder Humanity Comes of Age, A study of Individual and World Fulfillment (1950)

We must rely on education to nurture the peoples values, and we must devise a social policy that will assist their industry, provide them work, help the aged and infirm, and thereby prevent catastrophe.

Katsura Tarō

I was shocked to find out that the pupils had been sent away from the school without proper investigation or formal communication with my office.

Pilila Jere

On the ice flow they grip,
cut, twist, break open seeds
throwing out the white salt,
revive volcanic dreams:
unable to satisfy
their diminuated lust
the allegoric flesh
learns the thrill of return.

John Carder Bush The Creation Edda (1970)

I can say without affectation that I belong to the Russian convict world no less … than I do to Russian literature. I got my education there, and it will last forever.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn The Oak and the Calf (1975)

"Dreams is very mystical things," the BFG said. "Human beans is not understanding them at all. Not even their brainiest professors is understanding them."

Roald Dahl The BFG (1982)

Ultimately, we're heading to having the smallest political tent in history, the way events have been unfolding. If the Republican Party fully intends to become a majority party in the future, it must move from the far right back toward the middle.

Olympia Snowe

I believe, and most people believe until they are educated out of this belief, that we are... free.

John Horton Conway The Free Will Lectures (2009)

In the future, I would like to build a space where I can display the art in the foundation's collection and perhaps engage in some artistic initiatives and projects for the community. It is also in my vision to build a sculpture garden.

Pierre Chen Pierre Chen (2019)

I disbelieve in specialization and... experts. ...[P]aying too much respect to the specialist ...[is] destroying the commonwealth of learning, the rationalist tradition, and science ...

Karl Popper Realism and the Aim of Science (1983)

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