About this Book

In this beguiling anthology of more than 200 excerpts from the best commencement addresses given during the last twenty-five years, editor Peter J. Smith proves that, in the right hands, the graduation speech is thriving.

Far from being a tired truism, the commencement address can be a thoughtful, heartfelt epistle, a dispatch from the front lines of adulthood to the fresh recruits of the newly graduated. In "Onward! Twenty-Five Years of Advice, Exhortation, and Inspiration from America's Best Commencement Speeches," Smith has culled what the best minds (and hearts) have imparted to college graduates and in the process has created both a remarkable social history and a stirring celebration of the human spirit.

Arranged by year (and introduced with a recap of each year's cultural trends and events), the excerpts in "Onward!" spring from people with a wide array of talent, experience, and perspective: presidents and novelists, actors and news anchors, scientists and comedians. Their wisdom -- much of it surprising, all of it compelling -- will inform, delight, and inspire.

"We live in an age in which men have walked on the moon, have harnessed the vast power of nuclear energy, and have created enormous material wealth and riches. Yet our age is marked by ethical retardation, and by the passive tolerance of racism and poverty."

-- VERNON JORDAN, 1976

"I want to discourage you from choosing anything or making any decision simply because it is safe. Things of value seldom are."

-- TONI MORRISON, 1979

"The best thing you can give yourselves for graduation is the gift of possibility. And the best thing you can give each other is the pledge to go on protecting that gift ineach other as long as you live."

-- PAUL NEWMAN, 1990

"Do not let people make you cynical. And do not think for a minute that you can have a good, full life if you don't care about what happens to the other people who share this nation and this planet with you."

-- BILL CLINTON, 1995

"In all things in life, choose your conscience, and trust your instincts and lead your lives without regrets. It is simply easier that way."

-- DAVID HALBERSTAM, 1996

Full of equal measures of common sense and goodwill, "Onward!" is the ideal companion with which to begin one's journey into adulthood.