English Speeches with Audio & Transcripts | Books & Articles
In his 2026 Stanford Commencement Address, Google CEO Sundar Pichai shares lessons on optimism, embracing difficult challenges, and pursuing what excites you. Drawing from his journey from India to Silicon Valley, he encourages graduates to navigate uncertainty with confidence, resilience, and purpose. Includes the full transcript and audio.
Bestselling author of Pachinko, Min Jin Lee delivers a powerful Yale Class Day 2026 speech on resilience, purpose, and the Greek concepts of Kronos and Kairos. Through personal stories of failure, illness, advocacy, and success, she encourages graduates to choose what is important over what is merely urgent.
Read the full transcript and listen to the audio of Ronny Chieng’s Harvard Class Day 2026 speech. Blending humor with insight, he discusses AI, creativity, career choices, personal growth, gratitude, and the importance of meaningful human connections.
Comedian and television host Conan O’Brien delivers the Harvard University Commencement Address for the Class of 2026, reflecting on humility, luck, resilience, community, and personal growth. Includes full speech transcript and audio.
In her MIT Commencement 2026 speech, AMD Chair and CEO Lisa Su encouraged graduates to tackle the hardest challenges, embrace the opportunities of AI, trust their engineering instincts, and create their own luck through courage, purpose, and perseverance.
Fareed Zakaria delivers the 2026 commencement speech at Bard College, reflecting on AI, human intelligence, creativity, empathy, imperfection, and what makes humanity irreplaceable in the age of artificial intelligence.
Actor Henry Winkler delivered an inspiring 2026 commencement speech at Emerson College, sharing stories about failure, perseverance, creativity, empathy, and discovering one’s unique gift. From struggling in school to achieving success in Hollywood, Winkler encouraged graduates to trust their instincts, embrace imagination, and use their talents to make a difference in the world.
In his 2026 commencement address at University of Pennsylvania, historian Michael Beschloss explores the historical and political challenges shaping the Class of 2026. Drawing lessons from figures such as Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt, he emphasizes democracy, rule of law, civic engagement, historical truth, resilience, and national unity. He encourages graduates to face uncertainty with courage and help protect the future of American democracy.
In his 2026 ASU commencement speech, Harrison Ford reflects on his difficult college years, unexpected acting journey, and eventual discovery of purpose through environmental advocacy. He encourages graduates to pursue meaningful work, embrace leadership, protect nature, and use their generation’s power to create positive change.
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang delivers an inspiring commencement speech to Carnegie Mellon University’s Class of 2026, sharing his immigrant journey, NVIDIA startup story, AI revolution insights, and vision for the future of technology and work.
In her 2011 Barnard College commencement speech, Sheryl Sandberg focuses on women’s leadership, ambition, and equality. She highlights the gap between educational progress and representation in leadership roles, urging graduates to “lean in,” believe in themselves, and pursue ambitious goals. Emphasizing the importance of confidence, honest choices, and meaningful work, she calls on young women to take responsibility for shaping a more equal world.
In Sheryl Sandberg’s 2014 Harvard commencement speech, she reflects on career paths, honesty, and social responsibility. She describes careers as “jungle gyms” rather than linear ladders, encouraging graduates to stay open to opportunity. Emphasizing the importance of honest feedback and self-awareness, she also urges the audience to confront inequality and speak up to create a more equal world.
Sheryl Sandberg reflects on the sudden loss of her husband and the lessons she learned from grief. Introducing ideas like “Option B” and the “three P’s” of resilience, she encourages graduates to face adversity with strength, gratitude, and a commitment to growth and connection.
Sheryl Sandberg’s 2017 Virginia Tech commencement speech is a powerful reflection on resilience, loss, and rebuilding life. This page provides the full transcript and audio of her inspiring address.
The right side of history will always expect you to be brave. Expect bravery of the community around you, and bravery will show up. Expect fear and fear will rule the day.
In this moment, our sacred rule of law is under attack. Journalism is under attack. Universities are under attack. Freedom of speech is under attack.
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.
Your lives are your move. The best people in life and history are the ones who take negative, even devastating, stimuli and formulate powerful, productive responses.
When you are 80 years old, and in a quiet moment of reflection narrating for only yourself the most personal version of your life story, the telling that will be most compact and meaningful will be the series of choices you have made. In the end, we are our choices. Build yourself a great story.
My brilliantly promising Princetonians, pay attention. I can promise you this: pay attention, and attention will pay you back.