Randy Pausch quotes:

Never lose the childlike wonder. Show gratitude... Don't complain; just work harder... Never give up.

Brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls aren't there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to show us how badly we want things.

We have a finite amount of time. Whether short or long, it doesn't matter. Life is to be lived.

We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the game.

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.

Smelling a crayon takes you right back to childhood. When I need to go back in time, I put it under my nose and take another hit.

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.

It's not about how to achieve your dreams, it's about how to lead your life, ... If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself, the dreams will come to you.

I think that we all stand on the dartboard of life. Roughly 30,000 people a year are going to catch a dart labeled pancreatic cancer, and that's unfortunate. It's not what I would have chosen. But I in no way feel like I deserved it.

I always thought every day was a gift, but now I am looking for where to send the thank you note.

The particular way I'm going to die is not going to be particularly pleasant. It will probably be physically uncomfortable, and it won't be an easy thing for my wife and kids to watch. I think it will be a real challenge to see if I can squeeze the lemons hard enough to still get lemonade the last few weeks.

I played in football games where you walk off the field and the scoreboard didn't end up the way you wanted. But you knew that you really did give it all. And the other team was too strong.

If you are hopeful, if you are optimistic, other people want to help you. And if you are down in the dumps, other people may still help you, but I've noticed that they're walking, not running, over to you.

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

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

If your kids want to paint their bedrooms, as a favor to me, let 'em do it.

Wait long enough, and people will surprise and impress you.

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.

Fuel your kids' dreams. Sometimes, that means letting them stay up past their bedtimes.

I didn't know there was a dying-professor section at the bookstore.

Fuel your kids' dreams. Sometimes, that means letting them stay up past their bedtimes."

Chemo days make me tired, though it's hard to say that's because of the chemo when you have kids who have inherited their dad's usual energy level.

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.

There's nothing about my life that I would have changed.

I'm attempting to put myself in a bottle that will one day wash up on the beach for my children.

My mother took great relish in introducing me as 'This is my son - he's a doctor but not the kind that helps people.'

Anybody out there who is a parent, if your kids want to paint their bedrooms,as a favor to me, let them do it. It'll be OK.

I've said my piece. My time now is entirely focused on family.

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.

If you took one-tenth the energy you put into complaining and applied it to solving the problem, you'd be surprised by how well things can work outComplaining 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.

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

Brick walls are there for a reason. They give us a chance to show how badly we want

The brick walls are there to stop the people who don't want it badly enough. They are there to stop the other people!

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.

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

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

One thing that makes it possible to be an optimist is if you have a contingency plan for when all hell breaks loose.

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.

It is not the things we do in life that we regret on our death bed. It is the things we do not.

One key factor in the downward spiral in our educational system is that there is too much stroking and too little real feedback.

When you're screwing up and nobody says anything to you anymore, that means they've given up on you.

Showing gratitude is one of the simplest yet most powerful things humans can do for each other.

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

I'm dying and I'm having fun. And I'm going to keep having fun every day I have left.

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?

Be willing to apologize. Proper apologies have three parts: 1) What I did was wrong. 2) I'm sorry that I hurt you. 3) How do I make it better? It's the third part that people tend to forget. Apologize when you screw up and focus on other people, not on yourself.

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

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)

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

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.

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.

Sometimes you can't pay it back, so you just have to pay it forward.

There are more ways than one to measure profits and losses.

We don't beat the Reaper by living longer. We beat the Reaper by living well.

We don't beat the reaper by living longer, but by living well, and living fully - for the reaper will come for all of us. The question is: what do we do between the time we're born and the time he shows up.

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.

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 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.

Show gratitude. Gratitude is a simple but powerful thing.

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.

The key question to keep asking is, Are you spending your time on the right things? Because time is all you have.

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

When you see yourself doing something badly and nobody's bothering to tell you anymore, that's a very bad place to be. Your critics are the ones telling you they still love you and care.

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.

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.

If I could only give three words of advice, they would be, 'Tell the truth.' If I got three more words, I'd add: 'All the time.'

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

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.

Are you a Tigger or an Eyore?

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.

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.

Never, ever underestimate the importance of having fun.

An injured lion still wants to roar.

I'm a professor. I know that people in research labs can do miraculous things if they're given the resources.

If I don't seem as depressed or morose as I should be, sorry to disappoint you.

Success is measured in months for me. When my health fails, it will fail quickly. Tumors grow on an exponential curve.

Work hard. I got tenure a year early. Junior faculty members used to say to me: 'Wow, what's your secret?' I said: 'It's pretty simple. Call me any Friday night in my office at 10 o'clock, and I'll tell you.'

If I could only give three words of advice, they would be, 'Tell the truth.' If I got three more words, I'd add, 'All the time.'

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!

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

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

A coach yells at the kid he thinks can improve but the coach will not yell at the kid who he/she knows won't.

A lot of people want a shortcut. I find the best shortcut is the long way, which is basically two words: work hard.

A parent's job is to encourage kids to develop a joy for life and a great urge to follow their own dreams. The best we can do is to help thm develop a personal set of tools for the task.

Advice is very easy to give, and even easier not to follow, so I don't fool with it.

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.

An injured lion wants to know if he can still roar.

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.

Another way to be prepared is to think negatively. Yes, I'm a great optimist. but, when trying to make a decision, I often think of the worst case scenario. I call it 'the eaten by wolves factor.' If I do something, what's the most terrible thing that could happen? Would I be eaten by wolves? One thing that makes it possible to be an optimist, is if you have a contingency plan for when all hell breaks loose. There are a lot of things I don't worry about, because I have a plan in place if they do.

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

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

Apologies are not pass/fail.

Be good at something. It makes you valuable.

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

Because you're such a good salesman, and if you go work for a company, they're going to use you as a salesman. If you're going to be a salesman, you might as well be selling something worthwhile, like education

Being successful doesn't make you manage your time well. Managing your time well makes you successful!

Believe nothing a man tells you and everything he shows you

Better to fail spectacularly than do something mediocre.

Brick walls are there for 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.

Brick walls let us prove how badly we want our dream and they stop those who don't want it enough. Brick walls let us show our dedication.

Call home at least once a week. It's a proven fact that we call home less the older we get. And that's wrong. It should be the other way around. As we get older, our parents get older.

Coach Graham rode you pretty hard, didn't he?" he said. I could barely muster a "yeah." That's a good thing," the assistant told me. When you're screwing up and nobody says anything to you anymore, it means they've given up on you.

Complaining does not work as a strategy.

Develop a good filing system.

Do not tell people how to live their lives. Just tell them stories and they will figure out how those stories apply to them.

Don't complain; just work harder.

Don't bail; the best pieces of gold are at the bottom of the barrel of crap.

Earnestness is highly underestimated. It comes from the core, while hip is trying to impress you on the surface.

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

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?

Everyone has to contribute to the common good. To not do so can be described in one word: selfish.

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

Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted.

Find the best in everybody, no matter how long you have to wait for them to show it

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.

Find the best in everybody. Wait long enough, and people will surprise and impress you. It might even take years, but people will show you their good side. Just keep waiting.

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.

Focus on other people, not on yourself.

Fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals. You've got to get the fundamentals down because otherwise the fancy stuff isn't going to work.

Get a feedback loop and listen to it... When people give you feedback, cherish it and use it.