<p>After all the fuss of picking colleges and now working on AP tests - my DS is having a super hard time thinking of quotes and ideas for graduation. Our school does a "top ten" presentation - they are supposed to have a quote and base their portion of the speech on that. Any good sites with ideas???</p>
<p>Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.
--Les Brown</p>
<p>If you Google "graduation quotes," you will get many sites.</p>
<p>I like this one:</p>
<p>"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." ~Attributed to Mark Twain, unconfirmed</p>
<p>A few of my potentially relevant favorites:</p>
<p>"Map out your future, but do it in pencil." - Jon Bon Jovi</p>
<p>"Follow your bliss." - Joseph Campbell</p>
<p>"Joy and rapture, I have a brain!" - Scarecrow</p>
<p>CTTC is right about the googling. Try stuff like "future + quotes", "education + quotes", and "graduation + quotes". BrainyQuotes.com is one that I tend to go to a lot, though it can be hit or miss. </p>
<p>And CTTC, allow me to recommend Mark</a> Twain quotations ;)</p>
<p>The favorite that made me cry:</p>
<p>'Thank you to my parents, who supported me through everything.'</p>
<p>"Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go."
TS (Thomas Stearns) Eliot, (widely attributed to Emerson)</p>
<p>(I doubt that National Park Service would endorse it though ;)...)</p>
<p>and the ever popular Dr Seuss </p>
<p>Oh, the Places You'll Go!
Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You're off to Great Places!
You're off and away!</p>
<p>You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You're on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go.</p>
<p>You'll look up and down streets. Look 'em over with care.
About some you will say, "I don't choose to go there."
With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet,
you're too smart to go down any not-so-good street.</p>
<p>And you may not find any
you'll want to go down.
In that case, of course,
you'll head straight out of town.</p>
<p>It's opener there
in the wide open air.</p>
<p>Out there things can happen
and frequently do
to people as brainy
and footsy as you.</p>
<p>And when things start to happen,
don't worry. Don't stew.
Just go right along.
You'll start happening too.</p>
<p>OH!
THE PLACES YOU'LL GO! </p>
<p>You'll be on your way up!
You'll be seeing great sights!
You'll join the high fliers
who soar to high heights.</p>
<p>You won't lag behind, because you'll have the speed.
You'll pass the whole gang and you'll soon take the lead.
Wherever you fly, you'll be the best of the best.
Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.</p>
<p>Except when you don' t
Because, sometimes, you won't.</p>
<p>I'm sorry to say so
but, sadly, it's true
and Hang-ups
can happen to you.</p>
<p>You can get all hung up
in a prickle-ly perch.
And your gang will fly on.
You'll be left in a Lurch.</p>
<p>You'll come down from the Lurch
with an unpleasant bump.
And the chances are, then,
that you'll be in a Slump.</p>
<p>And when you're in a Slump,
you're not in for much fun.
Un-slumping yourself
is not easily done.</p>
<p>You will come to a place where the streets are not marked.
Some windows are lighted. But mostly they're darked.
A place you could sprain both you elbow and chin!
Do you dare to stay out? Do you dare to go in?
How much can you lose? How much can you win?</p>
<p>And IF you go in, should you turn left or right...
or right-and-three-quarters? Or, maybe, not quite?
Or go around back and sneak in from behind?
Simple it's not, I'm afraid you will find,
for a mind-maker-upper to make up his mind.</p>
<p>You can get so confused
that you'll start in to race
down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace
and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space,
headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.</p>
<p>The Waiting Place...</p>
<p>...for people just waiting.
Waiting for a train to go
or a bus to come, or a plane to go
or the mail to come, or the rain to go
or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow
or waiting around for a Yes or a No
or waiting for their hair to grow.
Everyone is just waiting.</p>
<p>Waiting for the fish to bite
or waiting for wind to fly a kite
or waiting around for Friday night
or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake
or a pot to boil, or a Better Break
or a sting of pearls, or a pair of pants
or a wig with curls, or Another Chance.
Everyone is just waiting.</p>
<p>NO!
That's not for you!</p>
<p>Somehow you'll escape
all that waiting and staying.
You'll find the bright places
where Boom Bands are playing.</p>
<p>With banner flip-flapping,
once more you'll ride high!
Ready for anything under the sky.
Ready because you're that kind of a guy!</p>
<p>Oh, the places you'll go! There is fun to be done!
There are points to be scored. there are games to be won.
And the magical things you can do with that ball
will make you the winning-est winner of all.
Fame! You'll be famous as famous can be,
with the whole wide world watching you win on TV.</p>
<p>Except when they don't.
Because, sometimes, they won't.</p>
<p>I'm afraid that some times
you'll play lonely games too.
Games you can't win
'cause you'll play against you.</p>
<p>All Alone!
Whether you like it or not,
Alone will be something
you'll be quite a lot.</p>
<p>And when you're alone, there's a very good chance
you'll meet things that scare you right out of your pants.
There are some, down the road between hither and yon,
that can scare you so much you won't want to go on.</p>
<p>But on you will go
though the weather be foul
On you will go
though your enemies prowl
On you will go
though the Hakken-Kraks howl
Onward up many
a frightening creek,
though your arms may get sore
and your sneakers may leak.</p>
<p>On and on you will hike
and I know you'll hike far
and face up to your problems
whatever they are.</p>
<p>You'll get mixed up, of course,
as you already know.
You'll get mixed up
with many strange birds as you go.
So be sure when you step.
Step with care and great tact
and remember that Life's
a Great Balancing Act.
Just never forget to be dexterous and deft.
And never mix up your right foot with your left.</p>
<p>And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and 3 / 4 percent guaranteed.)</p>
<p>KID, YOU'LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!</p>
<p>So...
be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray
or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O'Shea,
you're off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So...get on your way!</p>
<p>---Dr. Seuss</p>
<p>Dr. Seuss is so classic!!</p>
<p>I went to an all girls school, so mine may have been more appropriate there:</p>
<p>"Girl, you future's so bright it's burning my eyes!" -Oprah</p>
<p>The idea was to express my appreciation of all my classmates. We were a very close class!</p>
<p>I'm currently listening to the new John Mayer song Say. It seems like it has lots of possibilities. She could also try favorite song lyrics or something inspirational. Another one I like is</p>
<p>"Every sixty seconds you spend mad or upset is a minute of happiness you'll never get back"</p>
<p>"Don't forget to have a little fun every once in awhile. You'll have the rest of your life to do work. After all, college ends--work doesn't!" -Tom Petty</p>
<p>sue--thanks for posting Seuss--always loved that, as silly as it is it is all real...</p>
<p>Dr. Seuss actually gave the Commencement Address at UCSD in 1978. His wife Audrey re-read it at the 2004 Commencement. Here it is:</p>
<p>I’ve been brought here this morning</p>
<p>At the enormous expense</p>
<p>Of precisely one dollar and fifty-five cents</p>
<p>Plus nineteen cents more if you add on the tip</p>
<p>To the driver who drove on this hazarded trip</p>
<p>From the wilds of La Jolla far, far to the south</p>
<p>So that you could hear wisdom pour out of my mouth</p>
<p>I’ve been brought here to warn you
Of the stress and the strife
That you’ll face as you bravely ride forth into Life
So I’ve compended a compendium of gruesome grim items
Of stuff that should scare you
Ad-in-fin-it-tye-tums</p>
<p>Such as the lamentable instability of your fast-shrinking dollars</p>
<p>And the current crisis in the marketability of kangaroo collars</p>
<p>Though we’re faced with the problems of modern entreaties</p>
<p>And would Bruce Jenner have won the Olympics if he had failed to eat his Wheaties</p>
<p>Oh the problems of urban renewal and zoning</p>
<p>I must point out the fact that while zones are zoning</p>
<p>Cloning also goes on</p>
<p>And while clones are cloning</p>
<p>There’s no legal way you can unzone the clones</p>
<p>Until the Supreme Court speaks out and de-unclones the zoners</p>
<p>And the problem of corrupt government and who to impeach</p>
<p>And should an anthropoid mate with a star-bellied leech?</p>
<p>And where is the answer out there on Black’s Beach?</p>
<p>I must speak of the shamrock shortage in Belfast</p>
<p>And how all over the world things are going to hell fast</p>
<p>And how due to Mr. Jarvis and Proposition 13</p>
<p>There’ll be no one to keep the gym locker room clean</p>
<p>Which brings us to Solzhenitsyn and moral decay</p>
<p>And how pot affects hens and the eggs that they lay</p>
<p>I could go on and depress you for the rest of the day</p>
<p>But I’m so depressed that I’m not going to stay</p>
<p>I’m throwing the rest of my compendium away</p>
<p>And I’ll say the one single good thing I can say</p>
<p>As you leave on your horses to enter the fray</p>
<p>I just wish you good luck and hasta luego</p>
<p>From UC La Jolla – I mean, San Diego</p>
<p>"Well done is better than well said" Benjamin Franklin</p>
<p>A popular song the kids would all know "Photograph" by Nickelback has lots of lines he could use. "If I could relive those days, I know the one thing that would never change"</p>
<p>I actually used a religious one to have graduation gifts made up by a wonderful calligrapher Mary Teichman - <a href="http://www.mtcalligraphy.com/peace/peace.html:%5B/url%5D">http://www.mtcalligraphy.com/peace/peace.html:</a></p>
<p>"Be patterns, be examples in all countries, places, islands, nations wherever you come; that your carriage and life may preach among all sorts of people, and to them; then you will come to walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in everyone; whereby in them you may be a blessing, and make the witness of God in them to bless you. " -- George Fox, 1656</p>
<p>I really like the Scarecrow one!</p>
<p>My high school used to have each senior choose a quote to appear below their portrait in the yearbook. Unfortunately, they did away with that the year before me. I hadn't given mine too much thought, but I was considering using this nerdy one:</p>
<p>He made also a molten sea, of ten cubits, from brim to brim, round all about... and a line of thirty cubits compassed it round about.
--I Kings 7:23</p>
<p>(Somehow it seems like it would be more appropriate if it were 7:22, but oh well.)</p>
<p>"If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door." Milton Berle</p>
<p>"Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart." Confucius</p>
<p>I just bought some cards for my D's senior friends yesterday. The quotes included:</p>
<p>Believe there are no limits but the sky
~Cervantes</p>
<p>The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams
~Eleanor Roosevelt</p>
<p>You are unrepeatable.
There is a magic about you that is all your own...
~D. M. Dellinger</p>
<p>Live with intention.
walk to the edge.
listen hard.
practice wellness.
playwith abandon.
laugh.
choose with no regret.
continue to learn.
appreciate your friends.
do what you love.
live as if this is all there is.
~ Mary Anne Radmacher</p>
<p>RISK more than others think is safe
CARE more than others think is wise
DREAM more than others think is practical
EXPECT more thanothers think is possible
~Cadet Maxim</p>
<p>^ abuwalker's last quote reminded me of another favorite:</p>
<p>"You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." - A. A. Milne</p>
<p>(OP, I know you didn't actually ask for quotes, but hey, we're generating our very own CC version of the site you requested ;))</p>
<p>True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is
running the country - Kurt Vonnegut</p>
<p>There is one I like by Mother Teresa, but I keep seeing it worded differently -- don't really know what the accurate version is. "In this life, we cannot always do great things, but we can do small things with great love."</p>