--- title: Hillary Clinton at Wellesley: 1969 Commencement Speech description: Here are the complete remarks from the 1969 Wellesley commencement speech delivered by 21-year-old Hillary Rodham. canonical: https://time.com/4359618/hillary-clinton-wellesley-commencement-transcript/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-07T15:02:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:48:22.310Z article:section: Politics og:title: Read Hillary Clinton's 1969 Wellesley Commencement Speech og:description: "Fear is always with us but we just don't have time for it. Not now." og:url: https://time.com/4359618/hillary-clinton-wellesley-commencement-transcript/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcd77793d573adf57/698896bc3c1639c3fb45d8c5/hillary-clinton-wellesley-1969.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Hillary Clinton At Wellesely College Commencement og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read Hillary Clinton's 1969 Wellesley Commencement Speech twitter:description: "Fear is always with us but we just don't have time for it. Not now." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcd77793d573adf57/698896bc3c1639c3fb45d8c5/hillary-clinton-wellesley-1969.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Read Hillary Clinton's 1969 Wellesley Commencement Speech > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Jun 7, 2016 3:02 PM UTC  Hillary Clinton, right, and Wellesley College's president, Nannerl O. Keohane, share a light moment at commencement in Wellesley, Mass., on May 29, 1992. Hillary Clinton, right, and Wellesley College's president, Nannerl O. Keohane, share a light moment at commencement in Wellesley, Mass., on May 29, 1992.David L. Ryan—Boston Globe/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Jun 7, 2016 3:02 PM UTC Presumptive [Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s](http://time.com/4359288/hillary-clinton-democratic-nominee-woman/?xid=homepage) alma mater, Wellesley College, released [audio excerpts](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CAUOa5m5nY) on Monday from the 1969 commencement speech delivered by the 21-year-old then known as Hillary Rodham. Ruth Adams, then-president of Wellesley, introduced Clinton, calling her “cheerful, good humored, good company, and a good friend to all of us.” “Fear is always with us but we just don’t have time for it. Not now,” Clinton said during the 1969 speech, a sentiment she [echoed last week](http://time.com/4355797/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-foreign-policy-speech-transcript/), when she compared the choice between Republican Donald Trump and herself to a choice between a “fearful America” and a “strong, confident America,” respectively. Read the [complete remarks](http://www.wellesley.edu/events/commencement/archives/1969commencement/studentspeech) from Clinton’s graduation ceremony on May 31, 1969: --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4359618/hillary-clinton-wellesley-commencement-transcript/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4359618/hillary-clinton-wellesley-commencement-transcript/"},"headline":"Read Hillary Clinton's 1969 Wellesley Commencement Speech","datePublished":"2016-06-07T15:02:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:48:22.310Z","description":"\"Fear is always with us but we just don't have time for it. 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