In the discharge of duties my guide will be the Constitution, which I this day swear to preserve, protect, and defend. — Zachary Taylor
Commencement speeches were invented largely in the belief that outgoing college students should never be released into the world until they have been properly sedated. — Garry Trudeau
You have opened a new chapter in the relations of the American and Chinese people... I am confident that this beginning of our friendship will certainly meet with majority support of our two peoples. — Zhou Enlai
Today we affirm a new commitment to live out our nation's promise through civility, courage, compassion and character. — George W. Bush
Long years ago, we made a tryst with destiny and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge... At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. — Jawaharlal Nehru
Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. — Abraham Lincoln
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
Donald Trump is going to speak the truth to the American people. — Mike Pence
I now announce myself as candidate for the Presidency. I anticipate criticism; but however unfavorable I trust that my sincerity will not be called into question. — Victoria Woodhull
I thought a lot about our Nation and what I should do as President. And Sunday night before last, I made a speech about two problems of our countryenergy and malaise. — Jimmy Carter
It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears. — Louis D. Brandeis
When he (Richard Nixon) took the oath of office, he pledged to be the president for 100% of the people, and I challenge the president to prove that he is being the president for 100% of the people. — Jackie Robinson
As to the presidency, the two happiest days of my life were those of my entrance upon the office and my surrender of it. — Martin Van Buren
A speech is poetry: cadence, rhythm, imagery, sweep! A speech reminds us that words, like children, have the power to make dance the dullest beanbag of a heart. — Peggy Noonan
There is a good reason they call these ceremonies 'commencement exercises'. Graduation is not the end; it's the beginning. — Orrin Hatch
Inaugural Address Quotes
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself-and possibly teh bogey man. — Pat Paulsen
The propitious smiles of Heaven, can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained... — George Washington
The rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God. — John F. Kennedy
We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature. — Abraham Lincoln
Government is not a solution to our problem government is the problem. — Ronald Reagan
We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations — Barack Obama
So let us begin anew - remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof — John F. Kennedy
Let it be told to the future world, that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet and to repulse it. — Thomas Paine
Let us strive on to finish the work we are in. — Abraham Lincoln
Inaugural Quotes
It is an error to believe that Christ did not teach a determined body of doctrine applicable to all times and to all men, but rather that He inaugurated a religious movement adapted, or to be adapted, to different times and different places. — Pope Pius X
I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody. — Muhammadu Buhari
The transformation of part of the northern part of this continent into "America" inaugurated a nearly boundless epoch of opportunity and innovation, and thus deserves to be celebrated with great vim and gusto, with or without the participation of those who wish they had never been born. — Christopher Hitchens
If we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday at a time of presidential inaugurals, this is thanks to Ronald Reagan who created the holiday, and not to the Democratic Congress of the Carter years, which rejected it. — David Horowitz
I talk about going to his [George W. Bush's] Inauguration and crying when he took the oath, 'cause I was so afraid he was going to "wreck the economy and muck up the drinking water"... the failure of my pessimistic imagination at that moment boggles my mind now. — Sarah Vowell
The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the Republican model of Government, are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally staked, on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people. — George Washington
I and others of my sex find ourselves controlled by a form of government in the inauguration of which we had no voice. — Victoria Woodhull
To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist. — Barack Obama
Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law. — Barack Obama
For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. — Barack Obama
Inauguration Quotes
Within moments of my inauguration, we will begin the largest domestic deportation operation in American history. — Donald Trump
We, the people, still believe that our obligations as Americans are not just to ourselves, but to all posterity. — Barack Obama
I do but quote from one of those speeches when I declare that "I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so." — Abraham Lincoln
In the circumstances in which the Republic finds itself, the constitution cannot be inaugurated; it would destroy itself. The provisional government of France is revolutionary until there is peace. — Louis Antoine de Saint-Just
The great men of music close periods; they do not inaugurate them. The pioneer work, the finding of new paths, is left to smaller men. — Ralph Vaughan Williams
President Trump ought to realize, he's not campaigning anymore. He's president. And instead of talking about how many people showed up at his inauguration, he ought to be talking about how many people are going to stay into the middle class and move into the middle class. — Charles Schumer
United, there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided, there is little we can do-for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and
split asunder. — John F. Kennedy
Rituals, anthropologists will tell us, are about transformation. The rituals we use for marriage, baptism or inaugurating a president are as elaborate as they are because we associate the ritual with a major life passage, the crossing of a critical threshold, or in other words, with transformation. — Abraham Verghese
With firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right. — Abraham Lincoln
The primary reason Jesus came to earth was to inaugurate the Kingdom of God. Often, we hear that the reason Jesus came to the earth was to die on the Cross. Jesus did come to die on the Cross, but that death on the Cross was for the purpose of establishing the Kingdom of God. — John Eckhardt
Commencement Speech Quotes
Everyone you will ever meet knows something you don't. — Bill Nye
Continue to share your heart with people even if it's been broken. — Amy Poehler
Never follow anyone else's path, unless you're in the woods and you're lost. — Ellen DeGeneres
Commencement oratory must eschew anything that smacks of partisan politics, political preference, sex, religion or unduly firm opinion. Nonetheless, there must be a speech: Speeches in our culture are the vacuum that fills a vacuum. — John Kenneth Galbraith
As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters. I wish you all very good lives. — J. K. Rowling
You might as well take a chance on doing what you love. — Jim Carrey
Music is the literature of the heart; it commences where speech ends. — Alphonse De Lamartine
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
So many of us choose our path out of fear disguised as practicality. — Jim Carrey
Don't be afraid of fear. Because it sharpens you, it challenges you, it makes you stronger; and when you run away from fear, you also run away from the opportunity to be your best possible self. — Ed Helms
So let us begin anew -- remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof. Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate. Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring those problems which divide us. — John F. Kennedy
We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us. — Marianne Williamson
If we are truly created equal then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well — Barack Obama
Care for him who shall have borne the battle — Abraham Lincoln
Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? — Marianne Williamson
For now, decisions are upon us and we cannot afford delay. We cannot mistake absolutism for principle or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat name-calling as reasoned debate. — Barack Obama
We will respond to the threat of climate change — Barack Obama
The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether government works. — Barack Obama
Actually, you know who gave the shortest inauguration speech in history? George Washington. It was only like three minutes long. Well, sure. George Washington couldn't tell a lie. — Jay Leno
Once he became president, George [H.] Bush revealed a vein of Styrofoam and no matter how deep he tried to go, he always ended up bobbing on the surface. His inaugural speech was like being present at the death of language. — Kate Clinton
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
We pledge ourselves to liberate all our people from the continuing bondage of poverty, deprivation, suffering, gender and other discrimination. Nelson Mandela's inaugural speech — Nelson Mandela
I feel it is my first duty to make an unprecedented compact with my countrymen. Not an inaugural address, not a fireside chat, not a campaign speech - just a little straight talk among friends. — Gerald R. Ford
John F.Kennedy gave probably the greatest inauguration speech ever that first time, but I guarantee you when he first walked out there he was thinking, "Goodness gracious this is big and I better be up to the task." — Barack Obama
If you go to the Lincoln Memorial, the Second Inaugural is probably the most religious speech ever given by an American President. In its 732 words, it references God 14 times and has two verses of the Bible. — Newt Gingrich
The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring this endeavor will light our bounty and all who serve it, and the glow from that fire can truly light the world. — Kennedy
Then I went for a run with the other dog and just walked. And I started thinking about a lot of things. I was able to - I can't remember what it was. Oh, the inaugural speech, started thinking through that. — George W. Bush
I actually think agendas are more often found in State of the Union speeches than in inaugural speeches. — Gwen Ifill
In Conclusion
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