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Best Graduation Speeches by Year

Each graduation season, fall and a notable spring one, we are busy collecting and listening to the best commencement speeches of the year. We are not only interested in those of famous celebrities. Some of the best speeches are given by authors, journalists, teachers, scientists and invited speakers we might not have heard of, but who, nonetheless, can share with graduates great advice and wisdom.

2014 – Best Graduation Speeches

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

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2013 – The Most Notable Graduation Speeches

As long as your desire to explore is greater than your desire to not screw up, you’re on the right track. A life oriented toward discovery is infinitely more rewarding than a life oriented toward not blowing it.



2012 – Top Graduation Speeches

Develop your own compass, and trust it. Take risks, dare to fail, remember the first person through the wall always gets hurt.

2011 – The Most Memorable Graduation Speeches

You will never see a U-haul behind a hearse. You can’t take it with you.

Denzel Washington

2010 – Top Graduation Speeches

This is your time and it feels normal to you but really there is no normal. There’s only change, and resistance to it and then more change.

Archive of the Best Commencement Speeches

The way to be happy is to like yourself and the way to like yourself is to do only things that make you proud.