Items18The creator’s order
  1. 1George C. MarshallGeorge C. MarshallBorn Dec 31, 1880Harvard University, June 5, 1947 Secretary of State George Marshall used Harvard's commencement day to propose what became the Marshall Plan, speaking to a crowd of 15,000 in Harvard Yard. It is dry and almost free of flourish, which is exactly the lesson: a plain statement of a problem and a…0
  2. 2John F. KennedyJohn F. KennedyBorn May 29, 1917American University, June 10, 1963, "A Strategy of Peace" Eight months after the Cuban Missile Crisis, John F. Kennedy asked graduates to rethink their own attitude toward the Soviet Union rather than simply blame it. He announced talks toward a test ban treaty and a halt to American atmospheric…0
  3. 3Martin Luther King Jr.Martin Luther King Jr.Born Jan 15, 1929Oberlin College, June 14, 1965, "Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution" Martin Luther King Jr. builds the whole address on Rip Van Winkle, pointing out that the remarkable thing is not that Rip slept 20 years but that he "slept through a revolution." The image is simple enough to remember for…0
  4. 4Richard FeynmanRichard FeynmanBorn May 11, 1918Caltech, 1974, "Cargo Cult Science" Richard Feynman's address reads as well on the page as any essay. He describes South Sea islanders who built fake runways and control huts after the war, hoping the planes would return, and uses them to skewer research that copies the form of science without its…0
  5. 5Ursula K. Le GuinUrsula K. Le GuinBorn Oct 21, 1929Mills College, May 1983, "A Left-Handed Commencement Address" Ursula K. Le Guin thanks the class for a rare chance "to speak aloud in public in the language of women," then quietly refuses to give the usual speech about climbing to the top. Instead she urges graduates not to measure themselves…0
  6. 6Fred RogersFred RogersBorn Mar 20, 1928Dartmouth College, June 9, 2002 Fred Rogers, a Dartmouth alumnus, gave the graduates what he called the gift of a silent minute to think about those who had helped them become who they were. Then he actually waited while the crowd sat in silence. It is the boldest structural choice in any speech…0
  7. 7Steve JobsSteve JobsBorn Feb 24, 1955Stanford University, June 12, 2005 Steve Jobs promised "three stories from my life," and the plain structure is half the reason the speech has lasted. One is about dropping out and auditing a calligraphy class that later gave the Mac its typography, one about being fired from the company he…0
  8. 8David Foster WallaceDavid Foster WallaceBorn Feb 21, 1962Kenyon College, 2005, "This Is Water" David Foster Wallace opens with two young fish who have no idea what water is, and spends the rest of the speech making the obvious visible. His argument is that a good education teaches you to choose what you pay attention to, because self-centeredness is…0
  9. 9Bill GatesBill GatesBorn Oct 28, 1955Harvard University, June 7, 2007 Bill Gates opens with the best joke a dropout could make, "Dad, I always told you I'd come back and get my degree," then turns the speech into an admission. His one big regret, he says, is that he left Harvard "with no real awareness of the awful inequities in the…0
  10. 10J. K. RowlingJ. K. RowlingBorn Jul 31, 1965Harvard University, June 5, 2008, "The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination" J.K. Rowling's speech has two halves, and the second is the one people forget. The first describes her years of failure before Harry Potter and ends with "rock bottom became the solid foundation…0