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The Times has a compendium of excerpts from graduation speeches, from Dick Cheney to Garry Trudeau to Seamus Heaney. I was struck by NYU president John Sexton's observation:

Consider this reality: There are only 85 human institutions that have been in continuous operation for more than 500 years. Two you could get with a little thought: the Catholic Church and the British Parliament. If I tell you there are eight cantons in Switzerland, you're up to 10.

But the striking point is that of the remaining 75 human institutions that have been in continuous operation for more than five centuries, 70 of them are universities, beginning with Al-Azhar University in Egypt. That universities endure in this way testifies powerfully to the ideal that knowledge and learning deserve a special house of their own, and all of us - faculty, students and everyone associated with our university - are privileged to be the inhabitants of that house.

And CIA director George Tenet's choice of focus made me think I should learn more about him:

Today, the United States is the lone superpower, with global interests and worldwide reach - part of everyone's problem and everyone's solution. And by this I mean more than Afghanistan and Iraq, where crises called forth from us a military response. There is another, underlying story that must be told: the story of societies and peoples who are left behind, excluded from the benefits of an expanding global economy, whose lives of hunger, disease, and displacement may become wellsprings of disaffection and extremism.

But the one that inspired me to hunt--unsuccessfully--for the full text was Susan Sontag's speech at Vassar:

Pay attention. It's all about paying attention. It's all about taking in as much of what's out there as you can, and not letting the excuses and the dreariness of some of the obligations you'll soon be incurring narrow your lives. Attention is vitality. It connects you with others. It makes you eager. Stay eager.

Go read her excerpt. Here, it's on page 2.