Welcome to Graduate Quotes, a curated collection of inspiring and insightful quotes celebrating the journey of education and the achievement of reaching graduation. Graduation marks a significant milestone in one’s life a culmination of years of hard work, dedication, and perseverance. It’s a moment of triumph, signifying not only academic accomplishment but also personal growth and development.
Whether you’re a recent graduate embarking on a new chapter or someone reflecting on past achievements, these quotes serve as a source of motivation, encouragement, and wisdom. From renowned scholars and thinkers to everyday individuals sharing their experiences, these quotes capture the essence of the graduate experience its challenges, triumphs, and the profound impact of education on shaping lives. As you navigate the complexities of post-graduation life, may these words inspire you to embrace new opportunities, chase your dreams, and continue learning and growing along the way.
Below, you’ll find a collection of quotes on this topic. Feel free to copy them, pair them with images, or embellish them with stylish fonts to create your own personalized expressions of celebration and reflection. Let these quotes serve as reminders of your achievements and fuel your aspirations for the journey ahead.
I told my mom I would graduate. I owe that much to her and myself. Carmelo Anthony
Our professor was Marty Scorsese. Marty was a graduate student, or Mr. Scorsese, which is what I had to call him, and still do when I see him ’cause he gave me a C. Billy Crystal
I got all my work done to graduate in two months and then they were like, I’m sorry, you have to take driver’s ed. I just kind of went, Oh, forget it. Fiona Apple
There is a point in every young person’s life when you realize that the youth that you’ve progressed through and graduate to some sort of adulthood is equally as messed up as where you’re going. Jena Malone
College graduates should not have to live out their 20s in their childhood bedrooms, staring up at fading Obama posters and wondering when they can move out and get going with life. Paul Ryan
I’m 18, I’m going to graduate high school in a few months. Camilla Belle
Life is the most exciting opportunity we have. But we have one shot. You graduate from college once, and that’s it. You’re going out of that nest. And you have to find that courage that’s deep, deep, deep in there. Every step of the way. Andrew Shue
Today, the Americans have developed a new culture in science based on the slavery of graduate students. Now, graduate students of American institutions are afraid… He’s got to perform. The post-doc is an indentured labourer. Sydney Brenner
I studied acting in NYU’s graduate program, in which we covered everything from Ibsen and Chekov to August Wilson and David Mamet. Andre Holland
My attitude toward graduate students was different, I must say. I used graduate students as colleagues: I gave them the best problems to work on, and I encouraged them. Frank Press
When I was in first grade, some psychologist told my mom if I didn’t go to graduate school, she basically failed as a parent, because I had the aptitude to do it. Which is so dumb. Huge pressure! Cam
Science has been quite embattled. It’s the most important thing there is. An arts graduate is not going to fix global warming. They may do other valuable things, but they are not going to fix the planet or cure cancer or get rid of malaria. Bill Bryson
I obtained a Woodrow Wilson Doctoral Fellowship and entered the graduate program in History at the University of California. With no Greek or French and minimal Latin and German, I was in no position to pursue my classical interests, so I began work at Berkeley with little more than an open mind. Robert Lucas, Jr.
When I was in graduate school, I became very interested in why some kids took on challenges and were able to bounce back from setbacks whereas others shy away from difficulty and really crumble when they hit failures. I became fascinated with people who had that kind of courage to take on challenges. Carol S. Dweck
When I was in graduate school, I had a teacher who said to me, ‘Women writers should marry somebody who thinks writing is cute. Because if they really realised what writing was, they would run a mile.’ Lorrie Moore
My dad was a composer and a musician, but he never finished high school. His formal education was rather minimal from the standards of today’s college graduates and Ph.D.’s, but he had a deep interest in questions of science and questions of the universe. Brian Greene
I could be happy doing something like architecture. It would involve another couple of years of graduate school, but that’s what I studied in college. That’s what I always wanted to do. Parker Stevenson
When I was going for my graduate degree, I decided I was going to make a feature film as my thesis. That’s what I was famous for-that I had my thesis film be a feature film, which was ‘You’re a Big Boy Now.’ Francis Ford Coppola
In graduate school, I decide to write my doctoral thesis on how Italian architecture influenced English playwrights of the seventeenth century. I wonder why certain playwrights decided to set their tragedies, written in English, in Italian palaces. Jhumpa Lahiri
Pittsburgh was the first chance to be in a classroom with other writers, to have conversations with other writers. In fact, after graduate school, I lived in Japan, Ohio and New Orleans, and only upon leaving Pittsburgh did I see what a special community it was for poets, so I was eager to come back. It’s a strong arts community across the board. Terrance Hayes
I became an atheist because, as a graduate student studying quantum physics, life seemed to be reducible to second-order differential equations. Mathematics, chemistry and physics had it all. And I didn’t see any need to go beyond that. Francis Collins
My grandmother lived to be 100 years old. Her grandmother was a slave, yet she was a college graduate in the Spellman class of 1917. She taught art for 50 years and she saved her Social Security checks for her children’s education. Spike Lee
Michigan has such grandiosity. It has all those all-Americans. You can’t go anywhere without finding a Michigan graduate. Keith Jackson
You don’t have to be a genius or a visionary or even a college graduate to be successful. You just need a framework and a dream. Michael Dell
Cove is essentially a collaboration, coordination and communication tool for the administration of organizations and communities, from the Stanford Graduate School of Business Entrepreneurship Club to church groups and schools. Ruchi Sanghvi
In martial arts, every time you graduate, move to another level, you don’t forget everything you’ve done. You build on it, but it’s always there. Melody Beattie
Bankruptcy laws allow companies to smoothly reorganize, but not college graduates burdened by student loans. Robert Reich
When I was a graduate student in computer science in the early 2000s, computers were barely able to detect sharp edges in photographs, let alone recognize something as loosely defined as a human face. Fei-Fei Li
I’ll never graduate from collagen. Dolly Parton
You know what has made me the happiest I’ve ever been? Seeing my son and daughter graduate from college. More than wanting them to be educated, I wanted them to be nice people. To see that they have become both is just a wonderful thing. Gil Scott-Heron
As a graduate student at Oxford in 1963, I began writing about books in revolutionary France, helping to found the discipline of book history. I was in my academic corner writing about Enlightenment ideals when the Internet exploded the world of academic communication in the 1990s. Robert Darnton
I was the daughter of an immigrant, raised to feel that I needed to get excellent, flawless grades and a full scholarship and a graduate degree and a good job – all the stepping stones to conventional success. Susan Choi
I didn’t even walk for graduation – I did graduate, though. I got this homeschool deal. I didn’t have to go to school because I was depressed, and my mom wrote all these essays for me. I didn’t write one of them. She literally got me my diploma. Lil Peep
When I was doing my bachelors from Delhi University, India experienced its first major external financing and currency crisis in 1990-91. This inspired me to pursue graduate work in economics and was the foundation for my interest in international finance. Gita Gopinath
The ‘Cheetah Generation’ refers to the new and angry generation of young African graduates and professionals, who look at African issues and problems from a totally different and unique perspective. George Ayittey
Some go on to trade schools or get further training for jobs they are interested in. Some go into the arts, some are craftsmen, some take a little time out to travel, and some start their own businesses. But our graduates find and work at what they want to do. Daniel Greenberg
Some of us have been told what we want our whole lives. We’ve been told we should want to go out for sports or not. We should want a college education or a graduate degree or a particular career. We should want to date this person and not the other. Bob Goff
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
The obsessive focus on a college degree has served neither taxpayers nor students well. Only 35 percent of students starting a four-year degree program will graduate within four years, and less than 60 percent will graduate within six years. Students who haven’t graduated within six years probably never will. Alex Tabarrok
Leaders in China and India realize that science and technology lead to success and wealth. But many countries in the West graduate students into the unemployment line by teaching skills that were necessary to live in 1950. Michio Kaku
I accidentally forgot to graduate from college. Anne Lamott
My Ph.D. is in operations research. I was interested in making things work better and using mathematics to help do that. So operations research is what I studied as an undergraduate and graduate student. Alvin E. Roth
It took me 8 years to graduate from undergraduate school because I kept ‘communism from your door steps’ for 3 1/2 years in between while serving in the U.S. Army. Dan Pena
I had an excellent math and physics teacher in high school named T.C. Patel, and in the university, I had truly dedicated professors in both physics and mathematics who gave me a sound foundation with which to pursue graduate studies. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan
I was horrible at science and math. I couldn’t pass a test to save my life! I’m surprised that it didn’t take me until I was 20 to graduate. That’s why my role is so cool – Grissom is the complete opposite of me. William Petersen
As for facial hair, I think I decided it was a good look after graduate school. I always shave it myself and trim my own beard. I change the look depending on the role. For ‘Million Dollar Baby,’ I had no facial hair. For ‘Men in Black 3,’ I had no facial hair but did wear a wig. Mike Colter
Earlier today, Arnold Schwarzenegger criticized the California school system, calling it disastrous. Arnold says California’s schools are so bad that its graduates are willing to vote for me. Conan O’Brien
I went to Paramount High School, Mayfair High School, all types of high schools. I’m not a high school graduate, but it’s all good. YG
The trouble with learning from experience is that you never graduate. Doug Larson
I went through withdrawal when I got out of graduate school. It’s what you learn, what you think. That’s all that counts. Maya Lin
As tough as it is for many college graduates to get their planned careers on track, it could be worse: They could be trying to find a job without a college degree. Elaine Chao
I was once a graduate student in Victorian literature, and I believe as the Victorian novelists did, that a novel isn’t simply a vehicle for private expression, but that it also exists for social examination. I firmly believe this. Margaret Atwood
Each year India and China produce four million graduates compared with just over 250,000 in Britain. Gordon Brown
I’ve always been interested, since graduate school, in why some children wilt and shrink back from challenges and give up in the face of obstacles, while others avidly seek challenges and become even more invested in the face of obstacles. So this has been my primary question for over 40 years. Carol S. Dweck
I don’t look to find an educated person in the ranks of university graduates, necessarily. Some of the most educated people I know have never been near a university. John Keegan
I was allergic to school. I was completely befuddled by school. I was trying so hard, but I couldn’t succeed. I took geometry for four years, the same course over and over again, and I did not graduate with my senior class. I finally passed geometry after doing summer school, and eventually, I graduated. Henry Winkler
I struggled with being a broke college graduate, and while all my friends were getting career jobs, I was working horrible part-time jobs. That’s why now, even when I get tired, I think, ‘This is what I asked for.’ J. Cole
My mom was the first African-American woman to graduate from the University of Chicago Law School, in 1946. She had leadership roles in the law, in government and the corporate world. She was a great role model in that she felt anything was possible. John W. Rogers, Jr.
I made four pictures before ‘The Graduate,’ and nothing ever happened. And after that – wow! Katharine Ross
Today’s advanced STEM graduate could be tomorrow’s world-class, world-changing scientist. Todd Park
My father, who was from a wealthy family and highly educated, a lawyer, Yale and Columbia, walked out with the benefit of a healthy push from my mother, a seventh grade graduate, who took a typing course and got a secretarial job as fast as she could. George Weinberg
Most executives, many scientists, and almost all business school graduates believe that if you analyze data, this will give you new ideas. Unfortunately, this belief is totally wrong. The mind can only see what it is prepared to see. Edward de Bono
I was an English major in college, and then I went to graduate school in English at the University of North Carolina for three years. Elizabeth Edwards
It doesn’t matter where you’re from. You can be from the hood or the suburbs. You can be poor with no education or a college graduate. No matter your background, you can win. Lil B
In 2006, I made the decision to go after my dream. I was living in Atlanta and had a promising career in marketing, but I took a leap of faith and decided to move to New York, enroll in graduate school, and pursue acting. Adrienne C. Moore
It’s very interesting, if you look at a study that was done by the Brookings Institute back in 2009, they determined that if Americans do three things, they can avoid poverty. Three things. Work, graduate from high school, and get married before you have children. Rick Santorum
I’d applied to graduate school for playwriting, and I got rejected by every school. I felt that theatre was closed but that, when it came to film, the door was very slightly ajar. If I have any virtues, it’s that I’m good at walking through doors that are slightly ajar. Greta Gerwig
I think Dustin Hoffman has been in at least three of my favorite movies of all time with things like ‘Tootsie,’ ‘Marathon Man.’ Getting a bit more arthouse and darker, ‘The Graduate’ – incredible, barrier-breaking movie, ‘The Graduate.’ Ricky Gervais
My dad painted cars for a living. He didn’t graduate from high school. Julie Sweet
I told myself that I wanted to be a motivational speaker, I wanted to write a book, graduate college, have my own family, and have my own career. Lizzie Velasquez
I didn’t go to business school. I actually didn’t even graduate high school. I ended up with a GED. So everything that I’ve learned in business, I’ve learned through experience. Troy Carter
Then I started graduate school at UCLA. I got a part time research assistant job as a programmer on a project involving the use of one computer to measure the performance of another computer. Jon Postel
My wife, Ashley, is a West Texan, a graduate of Abilene Cooper Public High School and the University of Texas. Brett Kavanaugh
Too many young people graduate laden with debts that take years, if not decades, to pay off. Robert Reich
I got into journalism, actually, when I started my graduate program at Portland State and ended up becoming the multimedia editor of the student paper and covered very uninteresting stories on campus: this culture event, dance night. Andy Ngo
It’s very likely that graduates, current employees and retirees have some wonderful pieces of Deer Park history in their closets or garages. Matt Lucas
The impetus behind going to graduate school was a year after graduating from college spent in Dallas working at the dog food factory and Bank America and not having met success in my chosen field, which at that point was being an actress. Beth Henley
We don’t stop going to school when we graduate. Carol Burnett
So in my uncertainty, I went to graduate school and there it all happened. Ted Nelson
Even though I disagree with many of the changes, when I see the privates graduate at the end of the day, when they walk off that drill field at the end of the ceremony, they are still fine privates; outstanding, well motivated privates. R. Lee Ermey
Life is a university, and you never graduate. Accept that whatever happens to you, no matter how terrible, is there to teach you. Your job is to learn and do what you have to. Srikumar Rao
History has proven that each generation of Howard graduates will forge the way forward for our country and our world. Kamala Harris
I was raised by my grandparents, who had a little general store. My grandmother, Marion Dunham Bowman, was a graduate of Albany Law School. Although she never did practice law, she kept the house filled with books. It’s because of her that I was always reading. Joseph Bruchac
I think the combination of graduate education in a field like Computer Science and the opportunity to apply this in a work environment like Microsoft is what drove me. The impact these opportunities create can lead to work that has broad, worldwide impact. Satya Nadella
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
For years, I believed that anything worth doing was worth doing early. In graduate school, I submitted my dissertation two years in advance. In college, I wrote my papers weeks early and finished my thesis four months before the due date. My roommates joked that I had a productive form of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Adam Grant
We ought to teach kids more about the Big Bang and entropy and particles. Every high school graduate should know that everything in the universe is made of a handful of particles. That’s not a hard thing to know. But that’s not what’s emphasized. Sean M. Carroll
We’re in a situation where talented, motivated school leavers and graduates can send off a hundred CVs and not get a reply, and where a trip to the Job Centre is depressing rather than inspirational. And you know what, that just feels wrong. Jameela Jamil
My work was fairly theoretical. It was in recursive function theory. And in particular, hierarchies of functions in terms of computational complexity. I got involved in real computers and programming mainly by being – well, I was interested even as I came to graduate school. Dennis Ritchie
In the universities, cheap, vulnerable labor means adjuncts and graduate students. Noam Chomsky
I was from a small town, and nobody really expects you to leave, especially before you graduate. That doesn’t happen. Taylor Swift
Catholic school graduates exhibit a wide variety of qualities that will not only help them in their careers but also in their family and community lives. Joe Baca
My favorite laser disk ever was the laser disk for The Graduate, which had a commentary track that wasn’t even the filmmakers, it was a professor, some film criticism guy who just happen to be this amazing commentator who went off into the whole theory of comedy. Jay Roach
Between being governor and part of the Senate, one of the things I did was I held a chair at the business school at my alma mater, Indiana University. And I’d go to lecture the graduates, and I loved that, answering their questions. It was real; it was tangible, and it was making a difference every day. Evan Bayh
When I make a film, I am hoping to reinvent the genre a little bit. I just do it my way. I make my own little Quentin versions of them… I consider myself a student of cinema. It’s almost like I am going for my professorship in cinema, and the day I die is the day I graduate. It is a lifelong study. Quentin Tarantino
North Dakota State. What do you have to do there to graduate? Milk a cow with your left hand? Bobby Heenan
When I was a graduate student, the leading spirits at Harvard were interested in the history of ideas. M. H. Abrams
I was an undergraduate at Princeton, and I was pressed by the math department to go on to graduate school. Actually they gave me fellowships that paid my way, otherwise I would not have been able to continue. Alonzo Church
And to get real work experience, you need a job, and most jobs will require you to have had either real work experience or a graduate degree. Donald Norman
I’ve been trying to… Having been an English literary graduate, I’ve been trying to avoid the idea of doing art ever since. I think the idea of art kills creativity. Douglas Adams
