Randy Pausch Quotes

It's easy to look smart when you're parroting smart people.

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

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.

I'm dying and I'm having fun.

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.

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.

Don't bail. The best of the gold’s at the bottom of barrels of crap.

"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.

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.

Find the best in everybody. Wait long enough, and people will surprise and impress you. It might even take years, but people will show you their good side. Just keep waiting.

I was hugely impressed... was the ultimate example of a man who knew what he didn't know, was perfectly willing to admit it, and didn't want to leave until he understood. That's heroic to me.

I wish every grad student had that attitude.

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?

Not everything has to be fixed.

Luck is what happens, when preparation meets opportunity