Randy Pausch Quotes

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

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

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

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

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.

I know you're smart. But everyone here is smart. Smart isn't enough. The kind of people I want on my research team are those who will help everyone feel happy to be here.

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

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

I'm a professor - there should be some lessons learned - and how you can use the stuff you hear today to enable 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.

Go out and do for others what somebody did for you.

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.

You will need to find your passion. Don't give up on finding it because then all you're doing is waiting for the Reaper.

Whatever news we get about the scans, I’m not going to die when we hear it. I won’t die the next day, or the day after that, or the day after that. So today, right now, well this is a wonderful day. And I want you to know how much I’m enjoying it.” I thought about that, and about Jai’s smile. I knew then. That’s the way the rest of my life would need to be lived.

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.

it make no sense to talk about rights without also talking about responsibilities

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

Not everything needs to be fixed

There are respectful, considerate things that can be done in life that will be appreciated by the recipient, and only good things can result.

Never underestimate the importance of having fun. I'm dying and I'm having fun. And I'm going to keep having fun every day because there's no other way to play it.

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.

No matter how bad things are, you can always make things worse. At the same time, it is often within your power to make them better

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

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.

Don’t complain; just work harder.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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 understand the arguments about how the billions of dollars spent to put men on the moon could have been used to fight poverty and hunger on Earth. But, look, I'm a scientist who sees inspiration as the ultimate tool for doing good. When you use money to fight poverty, it can be of great value, but too often, you're working at the margins. 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. Give yourself permission to dream.

The person who failed often knows how to avoid future failures.

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.

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.

We can't change it. We have to decide how we'll respond.

Develop a good filing system.