Quotes from Randy Pausch

Take Time Out. It's not a real vacation if you're reading email or calling in for messages.

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.

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.

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.

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.'

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.

I also think my dad would be reminding me that kids — more than anything else — need to know their parents love them. Their parents don't have to be alive for that to happen.

I'm a professor. I know that people in research labs can do miraculous things if they're given the resources.

Educators shouldn't be afraid of cliches. You know why? Because kids don't know most of them! They're a new audience. And they're inspired by cliches.

I think that we all stand on the dartboard of life. Roughly 30,000 people a year are going to catch a dart labeled pancreatic cancer, and that's unfortunate. It's not what I would have chosen. But I in no way feel like I deserved it.

There's an academic tradition called the 'Last Lecture.' Hypothetically, if you knew you were going to die and you had one last lecture, what would you say to your students? Well, for me, there's an elephant in the room. And the elephant in the room, for me, it wasn't hypothetical.

If she doesn't really love you, then it's over. And if she does love you, then love will win out.

Brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls aren't there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to show us how badly we want things.

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

I don't know how to not have fun. I'm dying and I'm having fun, and I'm going to keep having fun every day I've got left.

If you want something bad enough, never give up (and take a boost when offered).

An injured lion wants to know if he can still roar.

Anybody out there who is a parent, if your kids want to paint their bedrooms,as a favor to me, let them do it. It'll be OK.

People lie for lots of reasons, often because it seems like a way to get what they want with less effort.

Brick walls let us prove how badly we want our dream and they stop those who don't want it enough. Brick walls let us show our dedication.

Pretty much any time I got a chance to do something cool, I tried to grab for it, and that's where my solace comes from.

If I don't seem as depressed or morose as I should be, sorry to disappoint you.

The questions are always more important than the answers.

if you offer wisdom from a third party, it seems less arrogant and more acceptable.