Randy Pausch Quotes

I am dying soon, and I am choosing to have fun today, tomorrow and every other day I have left.

No job is beneath you.
You ought to be thrilled you got a job in the mailroom And when you get there, here's what you do: Be really great at sorting mail.

Are you a Tigger or an Eyore?

Time is all you have and you may find one day that you have less than you think.

To-Do lists help us break life into small steps.

I mean, I don't know how not to have fun. I'm dying and I'm having fun. And I'm going to keep having fun every day I have left. Because there's no other way to play it.

Too many people go through life complaining about their problems. I've always believed that if you took one tenth the enrgy you put into complaining and applied it to solving the problem, you'd be surprised by how well things can work out.

If you have a question, then find the answer.

Pretty much any time I got a chance to do something cool, I tried to grab for it, and that's where my solace comes from.

I had just two rules for their virtual reality worlds: No shooting violence and no pornography. I issued that decree mostly because those things have been done in computer games only about a zillion times, and I was looking for original thinking.

Well, you can't have just some of me, Jai," I told her. "You appreciate the part of me that didn't get angry because two 'things' we own got hurt. But the flip side of that is my belief that you don't repair things if they still do what they're supposed to do. The cars still work.
Let's just drive 'em.

We cannot change the cards we are delt, just how we play the hand

Though I am not a fan of TV - it's mankind's greatest time-waster, the gift was completely appropriate, since I'll be in bed so much at the end. TV will be one of my last links to the outside world.

Time must be explicitly managed, like money.

The best gift an educator can give, to get somebody to become self-reflective.

Anybody can get chewed out. It's the rare person who says, oh my god, you were right. As opposed to, no wait, the reason is ... We've all heard that

The person who failed often knows how to avoid future failures. The person who knows only success can be more oblivious to all the pitfalls.

We've placed a lot of emphasis in this country on the idea of people's rights. That's how it should be, but it makes no sense to talk about rights without also talking about responsibilities.

Here was a woman, having a child by accident that she surely would come to love. As for me, through the accident of cancer i'd be leaving three children to grow up without my love

Dance with who brung you

Treat the Disease, Not the Symptom....

Sometimes, all you have to do is ask.

Who come out limp often have the most trouble. But the ones who come out all pissed off and full of noise,
they're the fighters. They're the ones who thrive.

(It's easy to look smart when you're parroting smart people.)

Ask those questions. Just ask them. More often than you'd suspect, the answer you'll get is, Sure.

What he said was: "You obviously don't know where the bar should be, and you're only going to do a disservice by putting it anywhere." And boy was that good advice. Because what he said was, you obviously don't know where the bar should be, and you're only going to do them a disservice by putting it anywhere.

No matter how bad things are, you can always make things worse.

If your trashcan or wheelbarrow has dent in it, you don't buy a new one. Maybe that's because we don't use trashcans and wheelbarrows to communicate our social status or identity to others.

Most people who have told a lie think they got away with it ... when in fact, they didn't

Want to have a short phone call with someone? Call them at 11:55 a.m., right before lunch. They'll talk fast. You may think you are interesting, but you are not more interesting than lunch.

Many people might expect the talk to be about dying. But it had to be about living.

Dance with the one who brung you.

When we make something hard to use, people get upset. They become so angry that they want to destroy it. We don't want to create things that people will want to destroy

You can almost always find something in common with another person, and from there, it's much easier to address issues where you have differences. Sports cut across boundaries of race and wealth. And if nothing else, we all have the weather in common.

She told us she could see the great respect between us,

You just have to decide if you're a Tigger or an Eeyore.

If you're going to have childhood dreams you should have great parents who let you pursue them and express your creativity

I think the only advice I can give you on how to live your life well is, first off, remember ... it's not the things we do in life that we regret on our deathbed, it is the things we do not.

Focus on other people, not on yourself.

It was a hot summer night, and I had the soundtrack to Disney's The Lion King blasting on my stereo. Tears actually began streaming down my face as I drove past the building. Here I was, the grown-up version of that wide-eyed eight-year-old at Disneyland. I had finally arrived. I was an Imagineer.

We need to make sure our students are exerting themselves. We need to praise them when they deserve it and to tell them honestly when they have it in them to work harder,

The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don't want it badly enough. They're there to stop the other people.

If you can find an opening, you can probably find a way to float through it.

Apologies are not pass/fail.

Make clear that people understand what your circumstances are. And looking for pity - that's a mistake.

The metaphor I've used is ... somebody's going to push my family off a cliff pretty soon, and I won't be there to catch them. And that breaks my heart. But I have some time to sew some nets to cushion the fall. So, I can curl up in a ball and cry, or I can get to work on the nets.

The most difficult part of writing a book is not devising a plot which will captivate the reader. It's not developing characters the reader will have strong feelings for or against. It is not finding a setting which will take the reader to a place he or she as never been. It is not the research, whether in fiction or non-fiction. The most difficult task facing a writer is to find the voice in which to tell the story.

I was trying to put myself in a bottle that would one day wash up on the beach for my children. If I were a painter, I would have painted for them. If I were a musician, I would have composed music. But I am a lecturer. So I lectured.

We don't beat the reaper by living longer, we beat the reaper by living well and living fully.

Are you a fun-loving Tigger or a sad-sack Eeyore? Pick a camp. I think it's clear where I stand on the great Tigger/Eeyore debate!

Often think of the worst-case scenario, the "Eaten By Wolves" factor.

When we're connected to others, we become better people.

When they [parents and educators] talk of building self-esteem, they often resort to empty flattery rather than character-building honesty. I've heard so many people talk of a downward spiral in our educational system, and I think one key factor is that there is too much stroking and too little real feedback.

When you do something young enough and you train for it, it just becomes a part of you.

When they talk of building self-esteem, they often resort to empty flattery rather than character-building honesty. I've heard so many people talk of downward spiral in our educational system, and I think one key factor is that there is too much stroking and too littke real feedback.

There's a formality in academia that can't be ignored, even if a man is busy with other things, like trying not to die.

Find the best in everybody. Just keep waiting no matter how long it takes. No one is all evil. Everybody has a good side, just keep waiting, it will come out.

Never give up: There are certain times that you think, 'OK, you have beaten me down to my knees. And now the challenge is, I am on my knees and you keep on beating me down. And the question is, are you going to keep beating me all the way to the ground or will I find a way to struggle my way back on to my feet.

When it comes to men who are romantically interested in you, it's really simple. Just ignore everything they say and only pay attention to what they do.

It's hard to raise awareness of pancreatic cancer - people who get it don't live long enough.

You can't get there alone. People have to help you, and I do believe in karma. I believe in paybacks. You get people to help you by telling the truth, by being earnest.

Throughout my academic career, I'd given some pretty good talks. But being considered the best speaker in the computer science department is like being known as the tallest of the Seven Dwarfs.

Anything is possible, and that's something we should not lose sight of. The inspiration and the permission to dream is huge.

We didn't buy much, but we thought about everything.

Remember brick walls let us show our dedication. They are there to separate us from the people who don't really want to achieve their childhood dreams.

Follow your passions, believe in karma, and you won't have to chase your dreams, they will come to you.

An injured lion still wants to roar.

Better to fail spectacularly than do something mediocre.

There's an academic tradition called the 'Last Lecture.' Hypothetically, if you knew you were going to die and you had one last lecture, what would you say to your students? Well, for me, there's an elephant in the room. And the elephant in the room, for me, it wasn't hypothetical.

I'd compare college tuition to paying for a personal trainer at an athletic club. We professors play the roles of trainers, giving people access to the equipment (books, labs, our expertise) and after that, it is our job to be demanding.

Wait long enough and people will surprise and impress. When you're pissed off at someone and you're angry at them, you just haven't given them enough time. Just give them a little more time and they almost always will impress you.

If you love her, support her.

I'm sorry.
It's my fault.
How do I make it right?

Jai handles me by being frank.

We now live in an age when parents praise every child as a genius. And here's my mother, figuring "alert" ought to suffice as a compliment.

What is the most appropriate thing to say to a friend who was about to die. He answered:"tell your friend that in his death, a part of you dies and goes with him. Whenever he goes, you also g. He will not be alone".

I've never understood pity and self-pity as an emotion.

[Jim Graham] had been a linebacker at Penn State, and was seriously old-school. I mean, really old-school; like he thought the forward pass was a trick play.

When there's an elephant in the room introduce him.

Believe nothing a man tells you and everything he shows you ... (Taken from a farewell video from a dying father to his infant daughter on dating)

I'm hanging in there, trying to spend as much quality time with my wife and kids as possible, and though it's very frustrating to know I won't beat the cancer, there's a great satisfaction in knowing that I'm walking off the field with no regrets.

Engineering isn't about perfect solutions; it's about doing the best you can with limited resources.

Failure is not just acceptable, it's often essential. The Last Lecture

A good apology is like antibiotic, a bad apology is like rubbing salt in the wound.

I'm not going to beat the cancer. I tried really hard ... but sometimes you're just not going to beat the thing ... I wanted to walk off the stage and say anything I thought was important; I had my hour.

My coach knew there was only one way to develop (self esteem): You give children something they can't do, they work hard until they find they can do it, and you just keep repeating the process.

I have never thought of writing as hard work, but I have worked hard to find a voice.

Be good at something. It makes you valuable. Have something to bring to the table, because that will make you more welcome.

Brick walls are there for a reason. And once you get over them - even if someone has practically had to throw you over - it can be helpful to others to tell them how you did it.

I'm dying, and I'm having fun.

There are a few key moments in anyone's life. A person is fortunate if he can tell in hindsight when they happened.

No job should, be beneath us. And if you can't(or won't) sort mail, Where is the proof that you can do anything?

There is more than one way to measure profits and losses. On every level, institutions can and should have a heart.

If I work hard enough, there will be things I can do tomorrow that I can't do today.

Educators best serve students by helping them be more self-reflective. The only way any of us can improve - as Coach Graham taught me - is if we develop a real ability to assess ourselves. If we can't accurately do that, how can we tell if we're getting better or worse?

Tenacity is a virtue, but it's not always crucial for everyone to observe
how hard you work at something.

But I want her to grow up knowing that I was the first man ever to fall in love with her. I'd always thought the father/daughter thing was overstated. But I can tell you, sometimes, she looks at me and I just become a puddle.

Experience is often the most valuable thing you have to offer.

Education best serves students by helping them be more self-reflective.

I am going to keep having fun every day I have left, because there is no other way of life. You just have to decide whether you are a Tigger or an Eeyore.