Commencement
Speeches
The commencement ceremony affirms each student's search
for knowledge. It often includes a graduation speech which seeks
to put their recent hard (or not so hard) work
into the context of their future. Many of us hear one or two commencement
addresses as graduates or listen to a handful as spectators. Yet -- as we graduate from one year to another, one relationship to another, one experience to another -- we always are learning.
Though these myriad departures and arrivals of everyday existence are seldom met with ceremony, words traditionally reserved for momentous occasions may ring true and inspirational at any hour. That's why we created this unique archive of commencement addresses, selecting an eclectic menu of twenty nine extraordinary speeches from the thousands that we have reviewed since beginning work on this initiative in 1989.
Though some of these wonderful remarks were given decades ago, we believe they are as relevant and important, perhaps increasingly so, as the more current speeches. Thus we encourage you to read them all, recognizing and celebrating your own constant commencement into tomorrow, finding ways to place it firmly within the context of progress for all humankind.
| |
- Tony Balis |
| INDEX
OF OUTSTANDING SPEECHES FROM 1936 TO 2007 |
| Bill Gates |
"Great Expectations"
Harvard University, 2007 |
| Alice Greenwald |
"Why Does Memory Matter?"
Sarah Lawrence College, 2007 |
| Ken Burns |
"A Vanguard Against this New Separatism"
Georgetown University, 2006 |
| Steve Jobs |
"Find What You Love "
Stanford University, 2005 |
| Thomas L. Friedman |
"Listen to Your Heart "
Williams College, 2005 |
| Toni Morrison |
"Be Your Own Story "
Wellesley College, 2004 |
| Bono |
"That's not a cause. That's an emergency."
University of Pennsylvania, 2004 |
| Lewis
Lapham |
"Merlin's
Owl"
St. John's College - Annapolis, 2003 |
| Wally
Lamb |
"What
do Novelists Know?"
Connecticut College, 2003 |
| Martha
C. Nussbaum |
"Compassion
and Global Responsibility"
Georgetown University, 2003 |
| Daniel
S. Goldin |
"Gallileo
and the Search for Truth"
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2001
|
Madelaine
K. Albright
|
University
of California, Berkeley, 2000
with response from Fadia Rafeedie, a Palestinian student |
| Desmond
Tutu |
"Fly,
Eagle, Fly!"
Brandeis University, 2000 |
| Aung
San Suu Kyi |
Bucknell
University, 1999 |
| Richard
N. Kaplan |
University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1999 |
| The
Dalai Lama |
"Education
and the warm heart"
Emory University, 1998 |
| Roger
Rosenblatt |
"Get
A Job"
Brigham Young University, 1998 |
| Elie
Wiesel |
"Learning
and Respect"
DePaul University, 1997 |
| Russell
Baker |
"10
Ways to Avoid Mucking Up the World Any Worse Than It Already Is."
Connecticut College, 1995 |
Vaclav
Havel
|
"Civilization's
Thin Veneer"
Harvard University, 1995 |
| Gordon
Matthew Sumner |
Berklee
College of Music, 1994 |
| Romulus
Linney |
Oberlin
Collge, 1994 |
| Cornel
West |
Wesleyan
University, 1993 |
| Robert
E. Leestamper |
Richmond
College, London, 1989 |
| Meg
Greenfield |
"A
Better Truth"
Williams College, 1987 |
| Gloria
Steinem |
Tufts
University, 1987 |
| Margaret
Atwood |
University
Of Toronto, 1983 |
| Ursula Le Guin |
"A Left-Handed Commencement Address"
Mills College, 1983 |
| Alan Alda |
"The Wilderness of Your Intuition "
Connecticut College, 1980 |
| William
Gass |
"Learning
to Talk"
Washington University, 1979 |
| Theodor Seuss Geisel |
"My Uncle Terwilliger on the Art of Eating Popovers"
Commencement poem at Lake Forest College, 1977 |
| John
F. Kennedy |
American
University, 1963 |
| George
C. Marshall |
"The
Marshall Plan"
Harvard University, 1947 |
| William
Allen White |
Northwestern
University, 1936 |
Comments, questions, or suggestions for this commencements initiative are always welcome. Please write us at: peace@humanity.org Also, most of these addresses now are available in Italian, our first phase in localizing this site into sixty or more languages.
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