Best Commencement Speeches

The Harry Potter author spoke to Harvard graduates in 2008 about emerging from failure:

"Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations. . . . The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive. You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity. Such knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has been worth more than any qualification I ever earned."