Randy Pausch - The Last Lecture (2008)

98 Sourced Quotes

View all Randy Pausch Quotes
Have something to bring to the table, because that will make you more welcomed.

Randy Pausch
Its important to have specific dreams. Dream Big. Dream without fear.

Randy Pausch
It's not helpful if we spend every day dreading tomorrow.

Randy Pausch
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.

Randy Pausch
And the course was all about bonding. People used to say, you know, what's going to make for a good world? I said, I can't tell you beforehand, but right before they present it I can tell you if the world's good just by the body language. If they're standing close to each other, the world is good.

Randy Pausch
Look, I'm going to find a way to be happy, and I'd really love to be happy with you, but if I can't be happy with you, then I'll find a way to be happy without you.

Randy Pausch
It's not how hard you hit. It's how hard you get hit... and keep moving forward.

Randy Pausch
Wait long enough and people will surprise and impress you. He said, when you are pissed off at somebody, and you're angry at them, you just haven't given them enough time. Just give them a little more time — and they'll almost always impress you. And that really stuck with me. I think he's absolutely right on that one.

Randy Pausch
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
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
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?

Randy Pausch
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."

Randy Pausch
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

Randy Pausch
The questions are always more important than the answers.

Randy Pausch
The number one goal of teachers should be to help students learn how to learn.

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

Randy Pausch
I've always admired people who are over-prepared. In college, I had a classmate named Norman Meyrowitz. One day he was giving a presentation on an overhead projector" and the bulb subsequently went out. The class thought the presentation was over. "It's okay," Norm announced... and he went to his backpack and grabbed an extra bulb he brought with him.

Randy Pausch
He had high hopes for society, and though his hopes were too often dashed, he remained a raging optimist.

Randy Pausch
So what is today's talk about then? It's about my childhood dreams and how I've achieved them — I've been very fortunate that way; how I believe I've been able to enable the dreams of others, and to some degree, lessons learned: 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.

Randy Pausch
Let other people finish their sentences when they're talking.

Randy Pausch
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.

Randy Pausch
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
When you do the right thing, good stuff has a way of happening.

Randy Pausch
You just have to decide whether you are Tigger or an Eeyore. You have to be clear where you stand on the Tigger/Eeyore debate.

Randy Pausch
Apologize when you screw up and focus on other people, not on yourself.

Randy Pausch
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.

Randy Pausch
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.

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

Randy Pausch
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
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