45 Inspirational Quotes from The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
''My dad gave me advice on how to
negotiate my way through life. ‘Never make a decision until you have to.’ He’d also
warn me that even if I was in a position of strength, whether at work or in
relationships, I had to play fair. ‘Just because you’re in the driver’s seat,’
he’d say, ‘doesn’t mean you have to run people over.’ ‘’
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
''Have something to bring to the
table, because that will make you more welcome.''
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
''Fundamentals, fundamentals,
fundamentals. As a college professor, I’ve seen this as one lesson so many kids
ignore, always to their detriment:You’ve got to get the fundamentals
down, because otherwise the fancy stuff is not going to work.''
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
''When you’re screwing up and
nobody says anything to you anymore, that means they’ve given up on you.''
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
‘’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. Coach Graham
worked in a no-coddling zone. Self-esteem? He knew there was really only one
way to teach kids how to develop it: You give them something they can’t do,
they work hard until they find they can do it, and you just keep repeating the
process.’’
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
''People are more important than
things. A car, even a pristine gem like my new convertible, was just a thing.''
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
“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, The Last Lecture
''My parents had raised me to
recognize that automobiles are there to get you from point A to point B. They
are utilitarian devices, not expressions of social status. And so I told Jai we
didn’t need to do cosmetic repairs.We’d just live with the dents and gashes….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.''
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
''N O 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.''
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
''Dylan’s birth was a reminder to
me of the roles we get to play in our destinies. Jai and I could have made
things worse by falling into pieces. She could have gotten so hysterical that
she’d thrown herself into shock. I could have been so stricken that I’d have
been no help in the operating room.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
positive ways…and we did them. Without saying it in words, our attitude was, ‘Let’s
saddle up and ride.''
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
''Time must be explicitly
managed, like money. My students would sometimes roll their eyes at what
they called ‘Pauschisms,’ but I stand by them. Urging students not to invest
time on irrelevant details, I’d tell them: ‘It doesn’t matter how well you
polish the underside of the banister.’ ''
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
''You can always change your
plan, but only if you have one. I’m a big believer in to-do lists. It helps
us break life into small steps. I once put “get tenure” on my to-do list. That
was naïve. The most useful to-do list breaks tasks into small steps. It’s like
when I encourage Logan to clean his room by picking up one thing at a time.''
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
''Ask yourself: Are you spending your time on the right things?
You may have causes, goals,
interests. Are they even worth pursuing?I’ve long held on to a clipping from a
newspaper in Roanoke, Virginia.It featured a photo of a pregnant woman who had
lodged a protest against a local construction site. She worried that the sound
of jackhammers was injuring her unborn child. But get this: In the photo, the
woman is holding a cigarette. If she cared about her unborn child,the time she
spent railing against jackhammers would have been better spent putting out that
cigarette.''
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
''Rethink the telephone. I live in a culture where I spend a
lot of time on hold, listening to ‘Your call is very important to us.’ Yeah,right.
That’s like a guy slapping a girl in the face on a first date and saying, ‘I
actually do love you.’ Yet that’s how modern customer service works. And I
reject that. I make sure I am never on hold with a phone against my ear. I
always use a speaker phone, so my hands are free to do something else….I’ve
also collected techniques for keeping unnecessary calls shorter. If I’m sitting
while on the phone, I never put my feet up. In fact, it’s better to stand when
you’re on the phone. You’re more apt to speed things along. I also like to have
something in view on my desk that I want to do, so I have the urge to wrap
things up with the caller.''
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
''Delegate. As a professor, I learned early on that I could
trust bright, nineteen-year-old students with the keys to my kingdom, and most
of the time, they were responsible and impressive. It’s never too early to delegate.
My daughter, Chloe, is just eighteen months old, but two of my favorite photos
are of her in my arms. In the first, I’m giving her a bottle.In the second,
I’ve delegated the task to her. She looks satisfied. Me, too.''
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
''Take a time out. It’s not a real vacation if you’re reading
email or calling in for messages. When Jai and I went on our honeymoon, we wanted
to be left alone. My boss, however, felt I needed to provide a way for people
to contact me. So I came up with the perfect phone message: ‘Hi, this is Randy. I
waited until I was thirty-nine to get married, so my wife and I are going away
for a month. I hope you don’t have a problem with that, but my boss does. Apparently,
I have to be reachable.’ I then gave the names of Jai’s parents and the city
where they live. ‘If you call directory assistance, you can get their number.
And then, if you can convince my new in-laws that your emergency merits
interrupting their only daughter’s honeymoon, they have our number.’ We didn’t
get any calls.''
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
''Luck is indeed where preparation meets opportunity.''
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
''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.''
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
''Give yourself permission to
dream. Fuel your kids’ dreams, too.Once in a while, that might even mean letting
them stay up past their bedtimes.''
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
''Earnestness is highly
underestimated. It comes from the core, while hip is trying to impress you with
the surface….''
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
''Fashion, by the way, is commerce masquerading as hip. I’m not at all interested
in fashion, which is why I rarely buy new clothes. 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.My parents
taught me: You buy new clothes when your old clothes wear out. Anyone who saw
what I wore to my last lecture knows this is advice I live by! ''
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
''My wardrobe is far from hip. It’s
kind of earnest. It’s going to carry me through just fine.''
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
''Somehow, with the passage of
time, and the deadlines that life imposes, surrendering became the right thing
to do.''
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
''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, The Last Lecture
''Y EARS AGO, I dated a
lovely young woman who was a few thousand dollars in debt. She was completely
stressed out about this. Every month, more interest would be added to her
debts.To deal with her stress, she would go every Tuesday night to a meditation
and yoga class. This was her one free night, and she said it seemed to be
helping her….I told her I had nothing against yoga or meditation. But I did think
it’s always best to try to treat the disease first. Her symptoms were stress
and anxiety. Her disease was the money she owed.’Why don’t you get a job on
Tuesday nights and skip yoga for a while?’ I suggested. This was something of a revelation to her. And
she took my advice. She became a Tuesday-night waitress and soon enough paid
off her debts. After that, she could go back to yoga and really breathe easier.''
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
''Jon warned me that sometimes this
took great patience—even years.’But in the end,’ he said, ‘people will show you
their good side. Almost everybody has a good side. Just keep waiting. It will
come out.’ ''
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
''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.''
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
''Over the years, I also made a
point of telling my students that in the entertainment industry, there are countless
failed products. It’s not like building houses, where every house built can be
lived in by someone.A video game can be created and never make it through
research and development. Or else it comes out and no one wants to play it.
Yes,video-game creators who’ve had successes are greatly valued. But those who’ve
had failures are valued, too—sometimes even more so.Start-up companies often
prefer to hire a chief executive with a failed start-up in his or her
background. 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, The Last Lecture
''S HOWING GRATITUDE is one
of the simplest yet most powerful things humans can do for each other. And
despite my love of efficiency, I think that thank-you notes are best done the
old-fashioned way, with pen and paper.''
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
''Job interviewers and admissions
officers see lots of applicants.They read tons of resumes from ‘A’ students
with many accomplishments. But they do not see many handwritten thank-you notes.If
you are a B+ student, your handwritten thank-you note will raise you at least a
half-grade in the eyes of a future boss or admissions officer.You will become
an ‘A’ to them. And because handwritten notes have gotten so rare, they will
remember you.''
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
''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. The same is true in your
life outside of your job. 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, The Last Lecture
''I always liked telling my
students: ‘Go out and do for others what somebody did for you.’ Riding down to
Disney World, talking to my students about their dreams and goals, I was trying
my best to do just that.''
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
''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 in the middle of
his talk,the lightbulb on the projector blew out. There was an audible groan from
the audience. We’d have to wait ten minutes until someone found a new
projector.’It’s okay,’ Norm announced. ‘There’s nothing to worry about.’ We
watched him walk over to his knapsack and pull something out. He had brought
along a spare bulb for the overhead projector.Who would even think of that? Our
professor, Andy van Dam, happened to be sitting next to me.He leaned over and
said, ‘This guy is going places.’ He had that right.Norm became a top executive
at Macromedia Inc., where his efforts have affected almost everyone who uses
the Internet today.''
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
''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?''
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
''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.''
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
''I’ve often told my students: ‘When
you go into the wilderness, the only thing you can count on is what you take
with you.” And essentially, the wilderness is anywhere but your home or office.
So take money. Bring your repair kit. Imagine the wolves. Pack a lightbulb. Be
prepared.''
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
''Halfhearted or insincere apologies are often worse than not apologizing
at all because recipients find them insulting. If you’ve done something wrong
in your dealings with another person, it’s as if there’s an infection in your
relationship. A good apology is like an antibiotic; a bad apology is like
rubbing salt in the wound.''
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
''I F 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.’ My parents taught me that ‘you’re only as good
as your word,’ and there’s no better way to say it.''
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
''People lie for lots of reasons,
often because it seems like a way to get what they want with less effort. But
like many short-term strategies, it’s ineffective long-term. You run into
people again later, and they remember you lied to them. And they tell lots of
other people about it. That’s what amazes me about lying. Most people who have
told a lie think they got away with it…when in fact, they didn’t.''
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
''Too many are unhappy with the
idea of starting at the bottom.''
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
''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.''
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
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