The News Tribune found eight parts of Patricia Russell-McCloud's Lincoln University commencement speech on May 16, 2015, that appear to originate elsewhere.
The attribution for these quotes was determined by Internet searches, although their origins have not been otherwise verified. The wording in these examples, while not always exact matches, are very similar in all instances.
The following quotes were spoken by Russell-McCloud during her speech, followed by attributions found online for similar quotes:
- 1.
"What is life? Life is an opportunity; benefit from it. Life is beauty; admire it. Life is a challenge; meet it. Life is duty; complete it. Life is a game; play it. Life is sorrow; overcome it. Life is a song; sing it. Life is a struggle, accept it. Life is an adventure; dare it. Life is life! Live it!"
Some websites attribute this to Mother Teresa; another says the quote is falsely attributed to her.
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- 2.
"Time is free, but it's priceless. You can keep it, but you can spend it. Once you've lost it, you can never get it back again."
"The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger, according to goodreads.com.
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- 3.
"... If you want a thing bad enough to go out and fight for it, to work day and night for it, to give your time and your peace and your sleep for it, if gladly you'll sweat for it and fret for it and plan for it. If you'll simply go after that thing that you want with all of your capacity, strength and sagacity, faith, hope and confidence and stern pertinacity. If neither cold nor famine, nor gout, nor sickness, nor pain, nor body or brain. If none of those things could keep you away from this thing that you want. If dogged and grim, you will besiege and beset it, surely you will get it."
Poet Berton Braley, according to goodreads.com
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- 4.
"... The two most important days of your life are when you were born and when you find out why."
Mark Twain
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- 5.
"So if you multiply 365 days by waking hours, we have 6,500 hours to spend wisely or not."
Carlos Campo, president, Hispanic Education Alliance, Huffington Post, March 31, 2013
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- 6.
"Because graduates, we have taller buildings, but shorter tempers. We have wider freeways, but narrow viewpoints. We spend more, but have less. We have bigger houses, but smaller families. We have more conveniences, but less time. And now in this society, we have more degrees, but less sense. Get ready. We have more knowledge, but less judgment. And we drink too much and smoke too much and laugh too little, drive too fast and get too angry. And we've multiplied our possessions, but we read too little and watch television too much and we pray too seldom. We've multiplied our possessions, but we've reduced our values, and we've learned to make a living, but not to make a life. So we've learned to rush and not to wait. These are the days of quick trips and disposable diapers and throw-away morality, and one-night stands. We understand that there are times that there is much in the store window and nothing in the stock room."
According to Snopes.com this is attributed to Dr. Bob Moorehead, former pastor of Seattle's Overlake Christian Church. This essay appeared under the title "The Paradox of Our Age" in Words Aptly Spoken, Dr. Moorehead's 1995 collection of prayers, homilies and monologues used in his sermons and radio broadcasts.
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- 7.
"Those who will cure illness, promote wellness, and save our environment... ."
Gloria Steinem commencement speech to Tufts University in 1987
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- 8.
"...the mind is a self-balancing 28-jointed adaptive base biped. The mind has an eletro-chemical reduction plant that's integrated with segregated states of special energy abstract with storage batteries. The mind has a subsequent activation system with hydrolic pumps with motors attached. The mind has a subsequent activation system with hydraulic pumps. It's guided with exquisite precision. It has a telescopic and a microscopic rangefinder. It has a spectroscope with a main fuel intake and exhaust system."
Inventor/architect R. Buckminster Fuller, the father of the geodesic dome
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Listen to LU commencement speech, May 16, 2015
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