148 High School Graduation Quotes

Following is our list of high school graduation quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about inspirational high school graduation.

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Famous High School Graduation Quotes

So basically, I graduated high school a semester early. — Jessica Szohr

Graduation is not the end; it's the beginning. — Orrin Hatch

A graduation ceremony is an event where the commencement speaker tells thousands of students dressed in identical caps and gowns that 'individuality' is the key to success. — Robert Orben

There is a good reason they call these ceremonies 'commencement exercises'. Graduation is not the end; it's the beginning. — Orrin Hatch

But youth has a future. The closer he came to graduation, the more his heart beat. He said to himself: “This is still not life, this is only the preparation for life. — Nikolai Gogol

I quit high school on my birthday. It was my senior year and I didn't see the point. This was 1962, and I was ready to make music. — Barry White

Made it through high school, went to the University of Minnesota. — Dave Winfield

College is the reward for surviving high school. Most people have great fun stories from college and nightmare stories from high school. — Judd Apatow

We don't stop going to school when we graduate. — Carol Burnett

The most important day of a person's education is the first day of school, not Graduation Day. — Harry Wong

I tried to go to college, I barely got out of high school. — Dana White

In my freshman year in high school, I went to the only public high school in Boston with a theatre program. — Donnie Wahlberg

TRYING TO BE POPULAR IN HIGH SCHOOL IS LIKE TRYING TO BE MAYOR OF A CITY THAT WON'T EXIST IN FOUR YEARS. — Jenny Holzer

And for those of you that dropped out of high school, remember the famous phrase: 'Do you want fries with that?' — Bobby Heenan

You may leave school, but it never leaves you. — Andy Partridge

Short High School Graduation Quotes

  • Just about a month from now I'm set adrift, with a diploma for a sail and lots of nerve for oars. — Richard Halliburton
  • I did graduate with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering in 1948. — Daniel J. Evans
  • The fireworks begin today. Each diploma is a lighted match. Each one of you is a fuse. — Ed Koch
  • The man who graduates today and stops learning tomorrow is uneducated the day after. — Newton D. Baker
  • The best decision I ever made was to drop out of school. — KSI
  • After graduating from high school, I worked at an advertising agency as a designer. — Akira Toriyama
  • Children enter school as question marks and leave as periods. — Neil Postman
  • In the school of the woods, there is no graduation day. — Horace Kephart
  • I participated on debating teams and in student government, and served as senior class president. — Paul D. Boyer
  • I graduated in 1930 and I went up to the Yale Drama School for two years. — Albert Maltz
High school graduation quote It is easier to build up a child than it is to repair and adult.
It is easier to build up a child than it is to repair and adult.

Graduating High School Quotes

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined... — Henry David Thoreau

Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind. Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened. — Dr. Seuss

Go, and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here. — Neil Gaiman

Just don't give up trying to do what you really want to do. - Ella Fitzgerald

Just don't give up trying to do what you really want to do. — Ella Fitzgerald

Never go to your high school reunion pregnant or they will think that is all you have done since you graduated. — Erma Bombeck

At commencement you wear your square-shaped mortarboards.My hope is that from time to time you will let your minds be bold, and wear sombreros. — Paul A. Freund

High school graduation quote When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to
When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down "happy". They told me I didn't understand the assignment, and I told them they didn't understand life

You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. — Dr. Seuss

I thought I should go to New York because it was the place to go to study. I went and tried to get an application from the Juilliard School but they wouldn't even give me one because I didn't have my high school graduation. — Maureen Forrester

Success is the best revenge for anything. Keep ya head down and work hard to achieve. — Ed Sheeran

In fact, if they didn't let me commute, I would not have taken the role because I wanted to graduate high school with my classmates. I remember my agent's jaw dropping when I told him if I couldn't commute I didn't want the role. — Sarah Chalke

Inspirational High School Graduation Quotes

Do not follow where the path may lead. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

You just have to be yourself and go full with confidence and be courageous! — Gabby Douglas

Always be a first-rate version of yourself. — Audrey Hepburn

High school graduation quote Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom.
Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom.

Nothing worth knowing can be taught. — Oscar Wilde

Living well is the best revenge.If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door. — Max Eastman

The horizon leans forward, offering you space to place new steps of change. — Maya Angelou

High school graduation quote Knowing when to walk away is wisdom. Being able to is courage. Walking away, with your head held hig
Knowing when to walk away is wisdom. Being able to is courage. Walking away, with your head held high is dignity.

Just the example Delaware State University graduates set by the way they live their lives, should be an inspiration to other high school students to go to Delaware State. — Michael N. Castle

In the world of entrepreneurs, you don't need a college education. You need a proper education. — Robert Kiyosaki

Life has a very simple plot: first you're here and then you're not. — Eric Idle

Life is an improvisation. You have no idea what's going to happen next and you are mostly just making things up as you go along. — Stephen Colbert

Graduating High School Seniors Quotes

You'll never know what you're capable of if you don't try. — Sarah Michelle Gellar

My high school wasn't a big public school; it was tiny. There were 36 girls in my graduating class. We were a big group of girls that by the time senior year came along couldn't wait to get away from school fast enough but we loved each other. It's really fun to see the girls at reunions now. — Cecily von Ziegesar

Openness isn't the end. It's the beginning. — Margaret Heffernan

High school graduation quote Children are not a distraction from more inportant work. They are the most important work.
Children are not a distraction from more inportant work. They are the most important work.

Education is the key to unlocking the world, a passport to freedom. — Oprah Winfrey

I had only played five games in my senior year in high school. I was not large enough. Hell, when I graduated, I was about five foot four and weighed 120 pounds. I didn't go with the Dodgers until spring training of 1940 and I weighed all of 155 pounds soaking wet. — Pee Wee Reese

Your education is a dress rehearsal for a life that is yours to lead. — Nora Ephron

High school graduation quote It is easier to build up a child than it is to repair an adult.
It is easier to build up a child than it is to repair an adult.

Harry taught me that death isn't the end, it's the beginning. — Jennifer Love Hewitt

Without any formal personal finance instruction in our high school or college curricula, many college seniors who graduate in the red will continue to make common financial mistakes that only exacerbate their debt burdens. — Alexa Von Tobel

Good High School Graduation Quotes

People will frighten you about a graduation.... They use words you don't hear often: And we wish you Godspeed." It is a warning, Godspeed. It means you are no longer welcome here at these prices." — Bill Cosby

It is a warning, Godspeed. It means you are no longer welcome here at these prices. — Bill Cosby

People will frighten you about a graduation....They use words you don't hear often. — Bill Cosby

High school graduation quote I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.
I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.

Your dynamic with everyone will change when you graduate high school. High school is a pit of despair. It's a swirling tornado of insecurities and there's really nothing good about it. — Kristen Bell

I've always been a creative speller and never achieved good grades in school. I graduated from high school but didn't have the opportunity to attend college, so I did what young women my age did at the time - I married. — Debbie Macomber

For people who aren't familiar with my background, I didn't graduate high school. My career high salary was about $200,000. My last position was about $122,000. For a guy without a high school diploma, that's pretty good. — Edward Snowden

High school graduation quote The difference between school and life? In school, you're thought a lesson and then given a test. In
The difference between school and life? In school, you're thought a lesson and then given a test. In life, you're given a test that teaches you a lesson.

Trust me, high school ends. You graduate and get away from all the people you never want to see again-it's all good. — Chad Michael Murray

I was an educated girl. I'd done very well in school. I had a good point average and graduated from USC as an English teacher. My dad didn't even finish high school. — Marlo Thomas

High School Graduation Speech Quotes

Sometimes just being still is the best thing you can do for yourself. — Silas House

Be yourself, it's the best thing you can do. — Greyson Chance

Karate is the best thing you can do for your child. — Chuck Norris

High school graduation quote Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the face.
Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the face.

Live all of your life. Understand it, see it, appreciate it. And have fun. — Joss Whedon

When every high school graduate can spell the word, 'inauguration,' let's put lampshades on our heads and listen to his speeches until Obama's voice gives out. — Paula Poundstone

Graduation Quotes

Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. — Steve Jobs

One of the greatest benefits of the revolution is that even our prostitutes are college graduates. — Fidel Castro

If you don't go after what you want, you'll never have it. If you don't ask, the answer is always no. If you don't step forward, you're always in the same place. — Nora Roberts

High school graduation quote Keep your head and standards high!
Keep your head and standards high!

What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us. — Henry David Thoreau

Every person that you meet knows something you don't; learn from them. — H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

You have to go wholeheartedly into anything in order to achieve anything worth having. — Frank Lloyd Wright

High school graduation quote True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the countr
True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.

Give me an Army of West Point graduates and I'll win a battle... Give me a handful of Texas Aggies and I'll win a war. — George S. Patton

The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking spaces. - Will Rogers

The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking spaces. — Will Rogers

Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. — Steve Jobs

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. — Steve Jobs

Graduation Day Quotes

I learned law so well, the day I graduated I sued the college, won the case, and got my tuition back. — Fred Allen

The larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of wonder. — Ralph Washington Sockman

It is soooooo necessary to get the basic skills, because by the time you graduate, undergraduate or graduate, that field would have totally changed from your first day of school. — Leigh Steinberg

When people go through something rough in life, they say, "I'm taking it one day at a time." Yes, so is everybody. Because that's how time works. — Hannibal Buress

If you don't step forward, you're always in the same place. — Nora Roberts

Work hard but work smart. Always. Every day. Nothing is handed to you and nothing is easy. You're not owed anything... No job or task is too small or beneath you. If you want to get ahead, volunteer to do the things no one else wants to do, and do it better. Be a sponge. Be open and learn. — Bobbi Brown

We cannot lead a choiceless life. Every day, every moment, every second, there is a choice. If it were not so, we would not be individuals. — Ernest Holmes

I don't believe in colleges and universities. I believe in libraries because most students don't have any money. When I graduated from high school, it was during the Depression and we had no money. I couldn't go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for 10 years. — Ray Bradbury

You can't make a cloudy day a sunny day, but can embrace it and decide it's going to be a good day after all. — Jane Lynch

The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day. — David Foster Wallace

Graduation Commencement Quotes

Nothing in life is worthwhile unless you take risks. Fall forward. Every failed experiment is one step closer to success. — Denzel Washington

Never follow anyone else's path, unless you're in the woods and you're lost. — Ellen DeGeneres

You cannot help but learn more as take the world into your hands. Take it up reverently, for it is and old piece of clay, with millions of thumbprints on it. — John Updike

Interviewing is tough, especially if you don't know what you're looking for. — Charlyne Yi

Of course there's a lot of knowledge in universities: the freshmen bring a little in; the seniors don't take much away, so knowledge sort of accumulates. — Abbott Lawrence Lowell

God wants us to know that life is a series of beginnings not endings. Just as graduations are not terminations but commencements. Creation is an ongoing process and when we create a perfect world where love and compassion are shared by all suffering will cease. — Bernie Siegel

Whatever you choose, however many roads you travel, I hope that you choose not to be a lady. I hope you will find some way to break the rules and make a little trouble out there. And I also hope that you will choose to make some of that trouble on behalf of women. — Nora Ephron

You might as well take a chance on doing what you love. — Jim Carrey

Spread joy. Chase your wildest dreams. — Patch Adams

I learned many great lessons from my father, not the least of which, was that you can fail at what you don't want so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love — Jim Carrey

Senior Graduation Quotes

Whether we're a preschooler or a young teen, a graduating college senior or a retired person, we human beings all want to know that we're acceptable, that our being alive somehow makes a difference in the lives of others. — Fred Rogers

I’ve found that nothing in life is worthwhile unless you take risks. — Denzel Washington

I had a lot of success from the start. I never really was tested for long periods of time. I got my first professional job while I was a senior in college. I signed with the William Morris Agency before I graduated. — Denzel Washington

When I started singing as a freshman, I didn't sing for anybody - my parents or my friends. By the time I was a senior, the teacher asked me if I wanted to audition for a solo at my graduation. I was really nervous but I got it. — Toby Lightman

Until you've faced a crowd of graduating seniors, you have not experienced apathy. — Gillian Roberts

I'm about to graduate senior year and I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't want to lose the momentum with what I'm doing now as an actress. — Kaitlyn Dever

You cannot but learn more of the world's heft, as you take it now into your hands. — John Updike

People Writing About High School Graduation

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Read quotes by Orrin Hatch

Orrin Hatch
quotes on education, politics and immigration

49 344
Read quotes by Jessica Szohr

Jessica Szohr
quotes on education, relationships and love

26 225
Read quotes by Robert Orben

Robert Orben
quotes on life, leadership and love

109 756
Read quotes by Nikolai Gogol

Nikolai Gogol
quotes on education, love and a farm near dikanka

64 543
Read quotes by Barry White

Barry White
quotes on age, life and love

43 629
Read quotes by Dave Winfield

Dave Winfield
quotes on baseball, sports and winning

28 187

More High School Graduation Quotes

It is clear the future holds great opportunities. It also holds pitfalls. The trick will be to avoid the pitfalls, seize the opportunities, and get back home by six o'clock. — Woody Allen

If you're graduating from high school, and you come from a lower-income family, you're effectively given two options. One is to get a four-year college degree; two is to work at a low-wage job, potentially for the rest of your life. We've got to do better on that front. We have to provide more options. — James David Vance

I wanted to be a marine biologist my whole life until I graduated high school. — Cobie Smulders

At 20, I realized that I could not possibly adjust to a feminine role as conceived by my father and asked him permission to engage in a professional career. In eight months I filled my gaps in Latin, Greek and mathematics, graduated from high school, and entered medical school in Turin. — Rita Levi-Montalcini

The things taught in schools & colleges are not an education but the means of education. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Students are suffering under incredibly high tuitions and high student loan interest rates. They graduate from school, and they're having a very difficult time finding a job. They don't feel as though there are honest leaders who are listening to them, and who will be a part of the solution. — Tulsi Gabbard

Right after I graduated high school, I joined a sushi restaurant to learn how to make Japanese food. And then spent seven years. Then that time - that's enough. Then sushi restaurant - butchering fish and they make your body smell like fishy. — Masaharu Morimoto

My favorite animal is the turtle. The reason is that in order for the turtle to move, it has to stick its neck out. — Ruth Westheimer

Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here. — Neil Gaiman

In 2005, a man diagnosed with multiple myeloma asked me if he would be alive to watch his daughter graduate from high school in a few months. In 2009, bound to a wheelchair, he watched his daughter graduate from college. The wheelchair had nothing to do with his cancer. The man had fallen down while coaching his youngest son's baseball team. — Siddhartha Mukherjee

When nearly a third of our high school students do not graduate on time with their peers, we have work to do. We must design our middle and high schools so that no student gets lost in the crowd and disconnected from his or her own potential. — Christine Gregoire

Both of my parents graduated from high school, both attended college, both have government jobs now. They've always been very adamant about me finishing high school and finishing college. — Chance the Rapper

If American schooling is inadequate now, just imagine how much more obsolete it will be when today's kindergarten students graduate from high school in just 12 years. — Janet Napolitano

Currently, only 70 percent of our high school students earn diplomas with their peers, and less than one-third of our high school students graduate prepared for success in a four-year college. — Ruben Hinojosa

Head Start graduates are more likely to graduate from high school and less likely to need special education, repeat a grade, or commit crimes in adolescence. — Joe Baca

And this year, when we end the cruel, defeatist practice of passing children who cannot read into fourth grade, and when our most diligent students begin to graduate from high school in 11 years, and get a head start on college costs with the dollars they earned through their hard work, others will take notice of Indiana yet again. — Mitch McConnell

I believe in myself as I look forward to graduating from Hamilton Heights High School in 1991. — Bryan White

I knew that when I left there at the age of 18, I wouldn't be back. And it was common knowledge among all the people there that when you graduate from high school here, you go to college or go get a job or something and do it on your own. — Johnny Cash

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