110 Short Graduation Quotes for High School Seniors and University Graduates in 2025

Graduation is a big milestone filled with emotions.

You celebrate all the hard work you’ve done in the past couple of years. You’re having a fun time but am also saying goodbye to what has been.

And you look into the future – at least in my experience – with a mix of excitement and uncertainty.

So to help you celebrate your achievement but also give you new motivation and helpful insights for the next chapter of your life I’d like to share 110 short graduation quotes.

I hope you’ll find something positive, reassuring and uplifting here to help you make the most of this period in life or to celebrate loved ones who are graduating this year.

Short Graduation Quotes for a High School Senior

“Your education is a dress rehearsal for a life that is yours to lead.”
– Nora Ephron

“Find out who you are. And do it on purpose.”
– Dolly Parton

“Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.”
– Theodore Roosevelt

“I’ve learned it’s important not to limit yourself. You can do whatever you really love to do, no matter what it is.”
– Ryan Gosling

“You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”
– A.A. Milne

“If I must give any of you advice it would be say yes. Say yes, and create your own destiny.”
– Maya Rudolph

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
– Wayne Gretzky

“All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.”
– Walt Disney

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.”
– Dr. Seuss

“Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world.”
– Nelson Mandela

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward.”
– Steve Jobs

“If you can do what you do best and be happy, you are further along in life than most people.”
– Leonardo DiCaprio

“You don’t go to university so you can punch a clock. You go to university so you can be in a position to make a difference.”
– Janet Napolitano

“You can never be overdressed or overeducated.”
– Oscar Wilde

“Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.”
– Malcolm X

“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.”
– E.E. Cummings

“The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you.”
– B.B. King

“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.”
– Norman Vincent Peale

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”
– Eleanor Roosevelt

“There are no regrets in life. Just lessons.”
– Jennifer Aniston

“Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.”
– Martin Luther King Jr.

“Your life is your adventure. And the adventure ahead of you is a journey to fulfill your own purpose and potential.”
– Kerry Washington

Short Graduation Quotes for University Students

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.”
– Mark Twain

“The important thing is not to stop questioning.”
– Albert Einstein

“No matter where you’re from, your dreams are valid.”
– Lupita Nyong’o
“Be so good they can’t ignore you.”
– Steve Martin

“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.”
– Neale Donald Walsch

“Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.”
– Robert Collier

“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Success is not the absence of failure; it’s the persistence through failure.”
– Aisha Tyler

“Accept no one’s definition of your life. Define yourself.”
– Harvey Fierstein

“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.”
– Henry David Thoreau

“Don’t be afraid of fear. Because it sharpens you, it challenges you, it makes you stronger.”
– Ed Helms

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”
– Steve Jobs

“Nothing is impossible. The word itself says, ‘I’m possible!’”
– Audrey Hepburn

“Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in.”
– Bill Bradley

“If you want something you’ve never had, you must be willing to do something you’ve never done.”
– Thomas Jefferson

“Success is getting what you want, happiness is wanting what you get.”
– W.P. Kinsella

“Instruction ends in the schoolroom, but education ends only with life.”
– Frederick William Robertson

“It is absolutely still possible to make a difference.”
– Michelle Obama

“The road to success is always under construction.”
– Lily Tomlin

“Through discipline comes freedom.”
– Aristotle

“Set your course by the stars, not by the lights of every passing ship.”
– Omar N. Bradley

“Don’t just get involved. Fight for your seat at the table. Better yet, fight for a seat at the head of the table.”
– Barack Obama

“Dreams are lovely. But they are just dreams. Fleeting, ephemeral, pretty. But dreams do not come true just because you dream them. It’s hard work that makes things happen.”
– Shonda Rhimes

Short Graduation Quotes for a Son, Daughter or Your Best Friend

“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”
– Dr. Seuss

“You get in life what you have the courage to ask for.”
– Oprah Winfrey

“Your perspective is unique. It’s important and it counts. Try not to compare it to anyone else.”
– Glenn Close

“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.”
– Theodore Roosevelt

“Make a career of humanity. Commit yourself to the noble struggle for equal rights.”
– Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Never doubt that you can make a space big enough for yourself in this world.”
– Cynthia Nixon

“Fight for what makes you optimistic about the world. Find it, insist on it, dig into it, go after it.”
– Jennifer Garner

“Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do something, but especially not yourself.”
– Mindy Kaling

“Trust your gut, keep throwing darts at the dartboard.”
– Will Ferrell

“You’re defined by what you define failure as. It’s not a thing if it leads you to your success. It’s all part of the journey.”
– Justin Timberlake

“Be bold, be courageous, be your best.”
– Gabrielle Giffords

“You’re not the future. You’re the present. You are succeeding.”
– Jimmy Fallon

“I encourage you to live with life. Be courageous, adventurous.”
– Maya Angelou

“You’ll be on your way up! You’ll be seeing great sights! You’ll join the high fliers who soar to high heights.”
– Dr. Seuss

“The definition of success changes. Success is to live your life with integrity and not give in to peer pressure to be something you’re not.”
– Ellen DeGeneres

“Your education has prepared you for what lies ahead.”
– Conan O’Brien

“What we learn with pleasure we never forget.”
– Alfred Mercier

“If you have found that thing, that purpose in life that gives you access to maximum enthusiasm, trust that!”
– Sterling K. Brown

“A #2 pencil and a dream can take you anywhere.”
– Joyce Meyer

“Ditch the dream and be a doer, not a dreamer.”
– Shonda Rhimes

“You can go slow. Allow your dreams and goals to change, but live an intentional life.”
– Kumail Nanjiani

“Stay hungry. Stay foolish.”
– Steve Jobs

Short and Funny Graduation Quotes

“We’re only here for so long. Be happy, man. You could get hit by a truck tomorrow.”
– Timothée Chalamet

“If they can make penicillin out of moldy bread, they can sure make something out of you.”
– Muhammad Ali

“The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking spaces.”
– Will Rogers

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
– Ferris Bueller

“I look to the future because that is where I’m going to spend the rest of my life.”
– George Burns

“People don’t turn down money. It’s what separates us from the animals.”
– Jerry Seinfeld

“When all else fails, there’s always delusion.”
– Conan O’Brien

“It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great.”
– Jimmy Dugan

“A mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work if it is not open.”
– Frank Zappa

“Do not take life too seriously – you will never get out of it alive.”
– Elbert Hubbard

“You’re only given a little spark of madness, you mustn’t lose it.”
– Robin Williams

“All my life, I always wanted to be somebody. Now I see that I should have been more specific.”
– Jane Wagner

“If at first you don’t succeed, then skydiving definitely isn’t for you.”
– Steven Wright

“Never follow anyone else’s path. Unless you’re in the woods and you’re lost and you see a path; then, by all means, you should follow that path.”
– Ellen DeGeneres

“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.”
– Mark Twain

“The best advice I can give anybody about going out into the world is this: Don’t do it. I have been out there. It is a mess.”
– Russell Baker

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”
– Thomas Edison

“You have to dance a little bit before you step out into the world each day, because it changes the way you walk.”
– Sandra Bullock

“You can’t be that kid standing at the top of the water slide overthinking it. You have to go down the chute.”
– Tina Fey

“You’re still here? It’s over. Go home. Go.”
– Ferris Bueller

Short and Inspirational Graduation Quotes

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

“It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.”
– William Shakespeare

“Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game.”
– Babe Ruth

“A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.”
– John A. Shedd

“The fireworks begin today. Each diploma is a lighted match, each one of you is a fuse.”
– Ed Koch

“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”
– Arthur Ashe

“Nothing is going to be handed to you. You have to make things happen.”
– Florence Griffith-Joyner

“I’ve found that nothing in life is worthwhile unless you take risks. Fall forward.”
– Denzel Washington

“Don’t wait. The time will never be just right.”
– Napoleon Hill

“The only impossible journey is the one you never begin.”
– Anthony Robbins

“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.”
– Milton Berle

“All real education is the architecture of the soul.”
– William Bennett

“The best way to predict your future is to create it.”
– Abraham Lincoln

“Becoming isn’t about arriving somewhere or achieving a certain aim. I see it instead as forward motion, a means of evolving, a way to reach continuously toward a better self.”
– Michelle Obama

“Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.”
– Judy Garland

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
– Lao Tzu

“Every person you meet knows something you don’t; learn from them.”
– H. Jackson Brown Jr.

“To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream, not only plan, but also believe.”
– Anatole France

“Learn from every mistake because every experience, encounter, and particularly your mistakes are there to teach you and force you into being more who you are.”
– Oprah

“You are educated. Your certification is in your degree. You may think of it as the ticket to the good life. Let me ask you to think of an alternative. Think of it as your ticket to change the world.”
– Tom Brokaw

“Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.”
– Albert Einstein

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
– Mahatma Gandhi

“There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.”
– C.S. Lewis

Want more inspiration for the graduation season and summer? Then check out this post with 160 inspirational graduation quotes, these inspirational June quotes and the short summer quotes here. Plus, the inspirational summer quotes in this post and also this one filled with funny summer quotes.