Upward: The Best Spiritual Graduation Advice
Wisdom and inspiration at a moment of great transition.
Commencement addresses don't stop inspiring young people the day they pack up their textbooks to go home. The best of these speeches plant seeds inside the hearts and minds of graduates that grow into achievements years, even decades, later. Famous speakers like Oprah Winfrey, Desmond Tutu, Jon Stewart, and others whose words follow, encourage all of us to forge ahead on our spiritual journeys, to remember our dreams, and to find hope, purpose, and peace in our lives. Compiled by Therese J. Borchard
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey
Transform Your Wounds into Wisdom
Turn your wounds into wisdom. You will be wounded many times in your life. You'll make mistakes. Some people will call them failures but I have learned that failure is really God's way of saying, "Excuse me, you're moving in the wrong direction." It's just an experience, just an experience. --Wellesley College commencement, 1997
Elie Wiesel
Elie Wiesel
What Are You Waiting For?
My good friends, we are all waiting. We are waiting, if not for the Messiah, as such, we are waiting for the messianic moment. And the messianic moment is what each and every one of us tries to build, meaning a certain area of humanity that links us to all those who are human and, therefore, desperately trying to fight despair as humanly as possible and--I hope--with some measure of success. --DePaul University commencement, 1997
Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood
You Always Have a Choice
When faced with the inevitable, you always have a choice.... As I learned during my liberal arts education, any symbol can have, in the imaginative context, two versions, a positive and a negative. If you spill your milk, you're left with a glass which is either half empty or half full.... You may not be able to alter reality, but you can alter your attitude towards it, and this, paradoxically, alters reality. Try it and see. --The University of Toronto commencement, 1983
Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison
You Are Your Own Stories
You are your own stories and therefore free to imagine and experience what it means to be human.... And although you don't have complete control over the narrative (no author does, I can tell you), you could nevertheless create it.... So, 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. --Wellesley College commencement, 2004
The Dalai Lama
The Dalai Lama
The Importance of Patience
It is important to have determination and optimism and patience. If you lack patience, even when you face some small obstacle, you lose courage. There is a Tibetan saying, "Even if you have failed at something nine times, you have still given it effort nine times." I think that's important. Use your brain to analyze the situation. Do not rush through it, but think. Once you decide what to do about that obstacle, then there's a possibility that you will achieve your goal. --Emory University commencement, 1998
Desmond Tutu
Desmond Tutu
Spread Your Eagle Wings
And God says to all of us, you are no chicken; you are an eagle. Fly, eagle, fly. And God wants us to shake ourselves, spread our pinions, and then lift off and soar and rise, and rise toward the confident and the good and the beautiful. Rise towards the compassionate and the gentle and the caring. Rise to become what God intends us to be--eagles, not chickens. --Brandeis University commencement, 2000 Read the full speech
Tony Snow
Tony Snow
The Power of Love and Prayer
Never underestimate the power of other people's love and prayer. When you put someone else at the center of your frame, the entire world changes for you. --Catholic University commencement, 2007