Lists and Rankings

Gawker's Top 10 Commencement Speeches

How do you sum up those college years and all the potential of a life yet to be lived? Umm...not easily. But the graduation speakers on this list came pretty close.

Media/gossip/newsy blog Gawker posted this list of its favorite commencement speeches, compiled by Gawker editor Richard Lawson. You can read the original article--complete with videos!--here.

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• 1. David Foster Wallace, May 2005: Kenyon College (Gambier, OH)
• 2. Will Ferrell, Class Day Speech, June 2003 : Harvard University (Cambridge, MA)
• 3. Steve Jobs, May 2005 : Stanford University (Stanford, CA)
• 4. Jon Stewart, May 2004: College of William and Mary (Williamsburg, VA)
• 5. Tony Kushner, May 2002: Vassar College (Poughkeepsie, NY)
• 6. Eileen Myles, May 1998: Hampshire College (Amherst, MA)
• 7. Winston Churchill, 1943: Harvard University (Cambridge, MA)
• 8. Conan O'Brien, Class Day Speech, 2000: Harvard University (Cambridge, MA)
• 9. Kurt Vonnegut, May 1998: Rice University (Houston, TX)
• 10. Stephen Colbert, June 2006: Knox College (Galesburg, IL)

Source: Used with permission from Gawker.com.