Explore Quotes by Randy Pausch

It's very important to know when you're in a pissing match. And it's very important to get out of it as quickly as possible.

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.

Better to fail spectacularly than do something mediocre.

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

To be cliché, death is a part of life and it's going to happen to all of us. I have the blessing of getting a little bit of advance notice and I am able to optimize my use of time down the home stretch.

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 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.

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.

Show gratitude. Gratitude is a simple but powerful thing.

I'll take an earnest person over a hip person every day, because hip is short-term, earnest is long term.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.'

There's a limit to how many times you can read how great you are and what an inspiration you are, but I'm not there yet.

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

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.