4 Grad Speeches Sage Enough to Get Published, and 4 That Should

"Do all the other things, the ambitious things — travel, get rich, get famous, innovate, lead, fall in love, make and lose fortunes, swim naked in wild jungle rivers (after first having it tested for monkey poop) – but as you do, to the extent that you can, err in the direction of kindness. Do those things that incline you toward the big questions, and avoid the things that would reduce you and make you trivial."

Saunders's advice to hurry up and start being compassionate is a very timely reminder for everyone, not just for this year's polyester-robe-wearers. Random House announced they will publish his now-viral speech as a short book.

"And I submit that this is what the real, no bullshit value of your liberal arts education is supposed to be about: How to keep from going through your comfortable, prosperous, respectable adult life dead, unconscious, a slave to your head and to your natural default setting of being uniquely, completely, imperially alone day in and day out."

This speech is the most popular of the grad speech genre, and with good reason — DFW speaks humbly but powerfully about how to live a life consciously and with awareness to what you choose to make important: "what you choose to worship." A lot's been done with the speech: there's an illustrated video version here, and the book adaptation came in 2009, a year after Wallace's death. The transcript of the entire speech can be found here.

"Then look, every day, at the choices you are making, and when you ask yourself why you are making them, find this answer: for me, for me. Because they are who and what I am, and mean to be."

Quindlen advised 1999 Mount Holyoke grads to "lay down the burden" of trying to be perfect and aspiring to other people's ideals; the wisdom was republished in 2005 as Being Perfect .

"When things get tough, this is what you should do: Make good art. I’m serious. Husband runs off with a politician — make good art. Leg crushed and then eaten by a mutated boa constrictor — make good art."

In 2012, Gaiman addressed Philadelphia University of the Arts grads and encouraged them to make big, fabulous mistakes and along the way, to also make art. Make Good Art is the beautifully designed published version.

"I can assure that awards have very little bearing on my own personal happiness. My own sense of well-being and purpose in the world. That comes from studying the world feelingly, with empathy in my work. It comes from staying alert and alive and involved in the lives of the people that I love and the people in the wider world who need my help."

The transcript of Streep's charming speech is here.

"For me, the most important thing in your life is to live your life with integrity, and not to give into peer pressure, to try to be something that you’re not. To live your life as an honest and compassionate person. To contribute in some way. So to conclude my conclusion: follow your passion, stay true to yourself. Never follow anyone else’s path, unless you’re in the woods and you’re lost and you see a path, and by all means you should follow that."

A video of the witty and wise address is here.

Image: tulanesally on flickr

"In 2000 I told graduates to not be afraid to fail, and I still believe that. But today I tell you that whether you fear it or not, disappointment will come. The beauty is that through disappointment you can gain clarity, and with clarity comes conviction and true originality."

Watch his whole hilarious and inspiring address here.

Image: dartmouthflickr on flickr

"Ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure. But the world is quite eager to give you a set of criteria if you let it. Failure means a stripping away of the inessential."

Watch her entire moving address here.