Quotes from Randy Pausch

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

I'm not going to beat the cancer. I tried really hard... but sometimes you're just not going to beat the thing... I wanted to walk off the stage and say anything I thought was important; I had my hour.

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.

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.

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

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

An injured lion still wants to roar.

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

You get people to help you by telling the truth. Being earnest. I'll take an earnest person over a hip person every day, because hip is short term. Earnest is long term.

The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don't want it badly enough. They're there to stop the other people.

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

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

No matter how bad things are, you can always make things worse.

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.

Luck is where preparation meets opportunity.

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.

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

If I only had three words of advice, they would be, Tell the Truth. If got three more words, I'd add, all the time.

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.

When we're connected to others, we become better people.

The questions are always more important than the answers.

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

People are more important than things.

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