Top 100 Randy Pausch Quotes
#2. I've never understood pity and self-pity as an emotion.
Randy Pausch
#3. The questions are always more important than the answers.
Randy Pausch
#4. I don't suffer from an abundance of politeness.
Randy Pausch
#5. My colleague told me: "It took a long time, but I've finally figured it out. 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." That
Randy Pausch
#6. 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.
Randy Pausch
#7. Time must be explicitly managed, like money.
Randy Pausch
#8. Never, ever underestimate the importance of having fun.
Randy Pausch
#9. Your patience will be both appreciated and rewarded
Randy Pausch
#10. When you're putting people on the moon, you're inspiring all of us to achieve the maximum of human potential, which is how our greatest problems will eventually be solved.
Randy Pausch
#11. Find the best in everybody, no matter how long you have to wait for them to show it
Randy Pausch
#13. I've always admired people who are over-prepared.
Randy Pausch
#14. Don't finish someone's sentences. And talking louder or faster doesn't make your idea any better.
Randy Pausch
#15. You've got to get the fundamentals down, because otherwise the fancy stuff is not going to work.
Randy Pausch
#16. She told us she could see the great respect between us,
Randy Pausch
#17. I've decided to tell my kids things like: 'I love the way each of you tilted back your heads when you laughed.' I will give them specific stuff they can grasp.
Randy Pausch
#18. As I see it, if you work more hours than somebody else, during those hours you learn more about your craft. That can make you more efficient, more able, even happier. Hard work is like compounded interest in the bank. The rewards build faster.
Randy Pausch
#20. And even though I did not reach the NFL, I sometimes think I got more from persuing that dream, and not accomplishing it, then I did from many of the ones I did accomplish.
Randy Pausch
#21. The great thing about working out at a gym is that if you put in effort, you get very obvious results. The same should be true of college. A professor's job is to teach students how to see their minds growing in the same way they can see their muscles grow when they look in a mirror.
Randy Pausch
#22. 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".
Randy Pausch
#23. The best way to teach somebody something is to have them think they're learning something else.
Randy Pausch
#24. Anything is possible, and that's something we should not lose sight of. The inspiration and the permission to dream is huge.
Randy Pausch
#25. When you do the right thing, good stuff has a way of happening.
Randy Pausch
#26. Never lose the child like wonder. It's just too important. It's what drives us. Help others.
Randy Pausch
#27. Put on your own oxygen mask before assisting others.
Randy Pausch
#28. I was hugely impressed ... was the ultimate example of a man who knew what he didn't know, was perfectly willing to admit it, and didn't want to leave until he understood. That's heroic to me.
I wish every grad student had that attitude.
Randy Pausch
#29. There's a lot of talk these days about giving children self-esteem. It's not something you can give; it's something they have to build.
Randy Pausch
#30. It makes no sense to talk about people's rights without also talking about responsibilities. The Last Lecture
Randy Pausch
#31. Self-steam ? He knew there was really one way to teach kids how to develop it : You give them something they can't do, they work hard until they can do it, and you keep repeating the process.
Randy Pausch
#32. If you wait long enough," he said, "people will surprise and impress you.
Randy Pausch
#33. No matter how bad the circumstance it could always be worse.
Randy Pausch
#34. Sometimes you can't pay it back, so you just have to pay it forward.
Randy Pausch
#35. Earnestness is highly underestimated. It comes from the core, while hip is trying to impress you with the surface.
Randy Pausch
#36. Complaining does not work as a strategy. We all have finite time and energy. Any time we spend whining is unlikely to help us achieve our goals. And it won't make us happier.
Randy Pausch
#37. Read at least one book a month. This is self-serving, obviously. It's a proven fact that people who read buy more books than people who don't read. In truth, I wish you'd read ten books a month, or at least buy that many.
Randy Pausch
#38. If I work hard enough, there will be things I can do tomorrow that I can't do today.
Randy Pausch
#39. I had fallen in love, even if she was still finding her way.
Randy Pausch
#40. A good apology is like antibiotic, a bad apology is like rubbing salt in the wound.
Randy Pausch
#41. Fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals. You've got to get the fundamentals down because otherwise the fancy stuff isn't going to work.
Randy Pausch
#42. Proper apologies have three parts:
1) What I did was wrong.
2) I feel badly that I hurt you.
3) How do I make this better?
Randy Pausch
#43. You may not want to hear it, but your critics are often the ones telling you they still love you and care about you, and want to make you better.
Randy Pausch
#44. One thing that makes it possible to be an optimist is if you have a contingency plan for when all hell breaks loose.
Randy Pausch
#45. [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.
Randy Pausch
#46. 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.
Randy Pausch
#47. When giving an apology, any performance lower than an A really doesn't cut it.
Randy Pausch
#49. (It's easy to look smart when you're parroting smart people.)
Randy Pausch
#50. Anyone who knows me well will tell you that arrogance is one of my flaws.
Randy Pausch
#52. Educators shouldn't be afraid of cliches. You know why? Because kids don't know most of them! They're a new audience. And they're inspired by cliches.
Randy Pausch
#53. You will not find your passion in things and you will not find your passion in money. The more things and the more money you have, the more you will look around and use that as the metric and there will be someone with more.
Randy Pausch
#54. All my life, I've been very aware that time is finite.
Randy Pausch
#55. It's hard to raise awareness of pancreatic cancer - people who get it don't live long enough.
Randy Pausch
#56. Through the whole ordeal, I don't think we ever said to each other: "This isn't fair." We just kept going. We recognized that there were things we could do that might help the outcome in a positive ways ... and we did them. Without saying it in words, our attitude was, "Let's saddle up and ride.
Randy Pausch
#57. I sure got their attention. That's always the first step to solving an ignored problem.
Randy Pausch
#58. Find your passion and follow it. You wont find that passion in things or money. Your passion must come from what fuels you from the inside. It will be grounded in the relationships you have with people and what they think of you when your time comes.
Randy Pausch
#59. 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.
Randy Pausch
#60. There should be some lessons learned and how you can use the stuff you hear today to achieve your dreams or enable the dreams of others. And as you get older, you may find that "enabling the dreams of others" thing is even more fun.
Randy Pausch
#61. Until you got ice cream spilled on you, you're not doing field work
Randy Pausch
#62. 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)
Randy Pausch
#63. I didn't know there was a dying-professor section at the bookstore.
Randy Pausch
#65. Never make a decesion until you have to". He'd also warn me that even if I was in a position of strenght, whether at work or in a relationship, I had to play fair. "Just because you're in the driver's seat, doesn't mean you have to run people over.
Randy Pausch
#66. 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.
Randy Pausch
#67. My mother took great relish in introducing me as 'This is my son - he's a doctor but not the kind that helps people.'
Randy Pausch
#68. It's not how hard you hit. It's how hard you get hit ... and keep moving forward.
Randy Pausch
#70. If we had to vanish tomorrow, what would we want as our legacy?
Randy Pausch
#72. Let other people finish their sentences when they're talking.
Randy Pausch
#73. I will take an earnest person over a hip person every day, because hip is short-term, earnest is long-term.
Randy Pausch
#74. When we're connected to others, we become better people.
Randy Pausch
#75. We cannot change the cards we are delt, just how we play the hand
Randy Pausch
#76. I'm attempting to put myself in a bottle that will one day wash up on the beach for my children.
Randy Pausch
#77. I feel like I'm waiting on something that isn't going to happen Don't complain; just work harder.
Randy Pausch
#78. You just have to decide if you're a Tigger or an Eeyore.
Randy Pausch
#79. It's not about the cards you're dealt, but how you play the hand.
Randy Pausch
#80. Never lose the childlike wonder. Show gratitude ... Don't complain; just work harder ... Never give up.
Randy Pausch
#81. Ask those questions. Just ask them. More often than you'd suspect, the answer you'll get is, Sure.
Randy Pausch
#82. I'm sorry.
It's my fault.
How do I make it right?
Randy Pausch
#83. It's a thrill to fulfill your own childhood dreams, but as you get older, you may find that enabling the dreams of others is even more fun.
Randy Pausch
#84. 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.
Randy Pausch
#85. That is what it is. We can't change it. We just have to decide how we'll respond. We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand." In
Randy Pausch
#86. I'm dying and I'm having fun. And I'm going to keep having fun every day I have left.
Randy Pausch
#87. Who remembers that it was Kirk who introduced us to the cell phone?
Randy Pausch
#88. If I only had three words of advice, they would be, Tell the Truth. If got three more words, I'd add, all the time.
Randy Pausch
#89. Success is measured in months for me. When my health fails, it will fail quickly. Tumors grow on an exponential curve.
Randy Pausch
#90. All my adult life I've felt drawn to ask long-married couples how they were able to stay together. All of them said the same thing: We worked hard at it.
Randy Pausch
#91. Your critics are the ones telling you they still love you and care. Worry when you do something badly and nobody bothers to tell you.
Randy Pausch
#92. Getting people to welcome feedback was the hardest thing I ever had to do as an educator.
Randy Pausch
#93. We can't change the cards we're dealt, just how we play the hand.
Randy Pausch
#94. Failure is not just acceptable, it's often essential. The Last Lecture
Randy Pausch
#95. The fact that fashion goes out of fashion and then comes back into fashion based solely on what a few people somewhere think they can sell, well to me, that's insanity.
Randy Pausch
#96. No matter how bad things are, you can always make things worse.
Randy Pausch
#98. A parent's job is to encourage kids to develop a joy for life and a great urge to follow their own dreams.
Randy Pausch
#100. When you're frustrated with people, when they've made you angry, it just may be because you haven't given them enough time.
Randy Pausch
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