--- description: Words of wisdom throughout the decades title: Best Commencement Address Advice: 10 Speeches from History image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [History](/section/history/) ## History Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Education](/tag/education/) ## Education Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # 10 Timeless Pieces of Advice from Commencement Addresses  by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Rothman is managing editor at TIME. May 22, 2015 4:00 PM CUT  by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Rothman is managing editor at TIME. May 22, 2015 4:00 PM CUT Every year about this time, celebrities, politicians, prominent academics and other notables flock to college campuses to impart advice to graduates. Some of those words of wisdom seem, in retrospect, not so wise. (Case in point: Clare Booth Luce [advocating](http://time.com/vault/issue/1964-06-26/page/36/ "undefined") for the nuclear option against China in 1964.) Others endure because they aren’t words at all, as was the case when the speaker at Fairleigh Dickinson’s commencement in [1981](http://time.com/vault/issue/1981-06-15/page/70/ "undefined") was Dizzy Gillespie—and, rather than saying much, he played his trumpet. Some bits of advice, however, have stood the test of time. Here are 10 of the best that have appeared in the pages of TIME over the years: ### Calvin Coolidge at Georgetown University **In** [**1924**](http://time.com/vault/issue/1924-06-23/page/3/ "undefined")**:** “The market for trained intelligence will never be overstocked.” ### Franklin Delano Roosevelt at Oglethorpe University **In** [**1932**](http://time.com/vault/issue/1932-05-30/page/16/ "undefined")**:** “The country demands bold persistent experimentation. It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it and try another. But above all, try something. The millions who are in want will not stand by silently forever while the things to satisfy their needs are within easy reach.” ### Ralph McGill, editor of the Atlanta _Constitution_, at the University of Miami **In** [**1949**](http://time.com/vault/issue/1949-06-20/page/54/ "undefined")**:** “It has sometimes been my idea that instead of a speaker offering sage advice, it would be a far better idea to place before a graduating audience a fine symphony … or a magnificent ballet, and when this had been completed, to say; ‘Ladies and gentlemen, life can be very lovely or very sad. It probably will be a mixture of both . . . Goodbye, and God go with you . . .” ### Kirsten Mishkin, the first Radcliffe woman to deliver the traditional Latin commencement address at Harvard **In** [**1970**](http://time.com/vault/issue/1970-06-29/page/53/ "undefined") (and this one’s in Latin, so it needs more room): “Together, let us establish a new society, the foundations of which will be … not fear, but good will; not war between the sexes, but loyal brotherhood and sisterly love,” she concluded, also in Latin. ### Beverly Sills at Barnard College in 1981 **In** [**1981**](http://time.com/vault/issue/1981-06-15/page/70/ "undefined")**:** “If you wonder when you’ll get time to rest, well, you can sleep in your old age if you live that long. You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try.” ### Coretta Scott King at Pomona College **In** [**1984**](http://time.com/vault/issue/1984-06-18/page/118/ "undefined")**:** “When we make politics a crusade, politicians will begin to understand that they must serve all of the people and not just a select few.” ### Ann H. Zwinger at Carleton College **In** [**1984**](http://time.com/vault/issue/1984-06-18/page/118/ "undefined")**:** “I highly recommend the pursuit of happiness from east to west, bending and stooping, pausing, enjoying, not going anywhere in particular except down a beach or around a pond, always knowing that there is something wonderful just ahead.” ### Barbara Walters at Hofstra University **In** [**1986**](http://time.com/vault/issue/1986-06-09/page/86/ "undefined")**:** “The hardest thing you will ever have to do is to trust your own gut and find what seems to work for you.” ### Tracy Kidder at Sarah Lawrence College **In** [**1986**](http://time.com/vault/issue/1986-06-09/page/86/ "undefined")**:** “If you do feel a little worried, don’t worry about being worried. You’re heading out on an adventure, and you can always change your mind along the way and try something else.” ### Jodie Foster at the University of Pennsylvania **In** [**2006**](http://time.com/vault/issue/2006-06-05/page/125/ "undefined")**:** “Your Penn education has given you a two-by-four. You may build a building or hit someone over the head.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3859576/commencement-addresses-history/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3859576/commencement-addresses-history/"},"headline":"10 Timeless Pieces of Advice from Commencement Addresses","datePublished":"2015-05-22T16:00:46.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T07:13:20.124Z","description":"Words of wisdom throughout the decades","url":"https://time.com/3859576/commencement-addresses-history/","keywords":["Education"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/education/","name":"Education"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3859576/commencement-addresses-history/","name":"10 Timeless Pieces of Advice from Commencement Addresses"}}]}] ```