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- In recent years, we've become enamored with our own past success. Lulled into complacency by the glitter of our own achievements. We've become accustomed to the title of Military Superpower, forgetting the qualities that got us there. We've become accustomed to our economic dominance in the world, forgetting that it wasn't reckless deals and get rich quick schemes that got us where we are, but hard work and smart ideas, quality products and wise investments.
- Barack Obama (1961 - ), Arizona State Commencement Speech, 2009
- That is the American story. People, just like you, following their passions, determined to meet the times on their own terms. They weren't doing it for the money. Their titles weren't fancy. But they changed the course of history and so can you.
- Barack Obama (1961 - ), Arizona State Commencement Speech, 2009
- Find somebody to be successful for. Raise their hopes. Think of their needs.
- Barack Obama (1961 - ), Arizona State Commencement Speech, 2009
- That's what building a body of work is all about. It's about the daily labor, the many individual acts, the choices large and small that add up over time, over a lifetime to a lasting legacy. It's about not being satisfied with the latest achievement, the latest gold star, because the one thing I know about a body of work is that it's never finished. It's cumulative. It deepens and expands with each day you give your best. You may have setbacks and you may have failures, but you're not done. You haven't even started.
- Barack Obama (1961 - ), Arizona State Commencement Speech, 2009
- Acts of sacrifice and decency without regard to what's in it for you create ripple effects. Ones that lift up families and communities, that spread opportunity and boost our economy.
- Barack Obama (1961 - ), Arizona State Commencement Speech, 2009
- I know starting careers in troubled times is a challenge, but it is also a privilege. Because it's moments like these that force us to try harder, dig deeper and to discover gifts we never knew we had. To find the greatness that lies within each of us. So don't ever shy away from that endeavor. Don't stop adding to your body of work. I can promise that you will be the better for that continued effort as will be this nation that we all love.
- Barack Obama (1961 - ), Arizona State Commencement Speech, 2009
- If you have been touched by the success fairy, people think you know why. People think success breeds enlightenment and you are duty-bound to spread around like manure. Fertilize those young minds!
- Meryl Streep (1949 - ), Barnard Commencement Speech, 2010
- My success has depended wholly on putting things over on people, so I'm not sure that I'm that great a role model. I am, however, an expert on pretending to be an expert on pretending to be an expert.
- Meryl Streep (1949 - ), Barnard Commencement Speech, 2010
- One is obliged to do a great deal of kissing in my line of work: air kissing, [butt] kissing, kissing up, and of course actual kissing. Much like hookers, actors have to do it with people we may not like or even know.
- Meryl Streep (1949 - ), Barnard Commencement Speech, 2010
- Women are better at acting then men. Why? Because we have to be. If successfully convincing someone bigger than you are of something he doesn't want to know is a survival skill, this is how women have survived through the millennia.
- Meryl Streep (1949 - ), Barnard Commencement Speech, 2010
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