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Graduate Students Quotes

Lessons passed down one lab and lecture hall at a time.

This set of graduate students quotes leans on professors recalling their own mentees, from Stanford labs to Berkeley campuses in the sixties. For a broader look at classroom dynamics, see the Adjunct quotes page.

I used to tell my graduate students at Stanford, 'Don't worry about what job you have to pick because your job picks you. Let your job pick you. Find something you are passionate about. Then when you are passionate, be...

Quotes by Sebastian Thrun

In the United States, in poetry workshops, it's now quite a thing to make graduate students learn poems by heart.

Quotes by Seamus Heaney

The most important thing is to recognize that research is our seed corn. It's a national security priority. It's not just a way to have enough going on that graduate students can do their Ph.D.s and scientists can publish. We...

Quotes by Raja Krishnamoorthi

I learned quickly, as I tell my graduate students now, there are no answers in the back of the book when the equipment doesn't work or the measurements look strange.

Quotes by Martin Lewis Perl

Active Quotes

I've been lucky enough to work with extraordinary teachers along the way, and I'm excited to share what I've learned with graduate students at SNHU. I'm just as excited for what I'll learn from them.

Quotes by Leslie Jamison

An intense temperament has convinced me to teach not only from books but from what I have learned from experience. So I try to impress upon young doctors and graduate students that tumultuousness, if coupled to discipline and a cool...

Quotes by Kay Redfield Jamison

My parents met when they were graduate students at UC Berkeley in the 1960s. They were both active in the civil-rights movement.

Quotes by Kamala Harris

Almost all of my graduate students say that they got interested in dinosaurs because of 'Jurassic Park.'

Quotes by Jack Horner

Many of our young people spend four years getting very expensive college degrees. But our universities fail them and the nation if they continue to graduate students with expertise in biochemistry, mathematics or history without teaching them to think about...

Quotes by Heather Wilson

Adjunct Quotes

My attitude toward graduate students was different, I must say. I used graduate students as colleagues: I gave them the best problems to work on, and I encouraged them.

Quotes by Frank Press

Teaching methods are often inadequate for the goals faculties are trying to achieve. Important courses such as expository writing and foreign languages are frequently taught by untrained graduate students and underpaid adjunct teachers.

Quotes by Derek Bok

At the beginning of every semester, I ask my graduate students whether there is something I should read that will help me understand their work.

Quotes by Alice McDermott

Frequently Asked Questions

What themes come up most in graduate students quotes?
Mentorship is the strongest theme, with professors recalling lessons they passed to their own graduate students, alongside memories of where they themselves studied.
Do these quotes focus on famous universities?
A few mention specific schools, including Berkeley in the 1960s and Stanford, but the underlying message about mentoring and passion for a field applies well beyond any one campus.
Why do several quotes mention research not going as planned?
They reflect a common lesson taught to graduate students: real experiments and equipment rarely behave as textbooks suggest, and learning to adapt is part of the training.
Is career advice a common thread here?
Yes, one quote encourages letting passion guide career choice rather than chasing a specific job title, a message often repeated to graduate students weighing their next step.
What other academic-life quotes pair well with these?
Try Adjunct quotes for more on teaching roles, or Attitude quotes for the mindset that carries students through difficult research.

Several speakers admit that real research rarely matches the textbook, which is part of why mentorship matters so much in graduate work. Explore Attitude quotes for more on the mindset that carries students through uncertainty.