Randy Pausch Quotes
Quotes to Explore
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Success is measured in months for me. When my health fails, it will fail quickly. Tumors grow on an exponential curve.
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Don't bail. The best of the gold’s at the bottom of barrels of crap.
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Avoiding Procrastination: Doing things at the last minute is much more expensive than just before the last minute. Deadlines are really important: establish them yourself!
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I am dying soon, and I am choosing to have fun today, tomorrow and every other day I have left.
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People are more important than things.'
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Eat and sleep and exercise. Above all else!
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Did you figure out the head fake? It's not about how to achieve your dreams. It's about how to lead your life. If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself. The dreams will come to you.
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When men are romantically interested in you, it's really simple. Just ignore everything they say and only pay attention to what they do.
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Wait long enough, and people will surprise and impress you.
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You can always change your plan, but only if you have one..'
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Work hard.
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General Advice: Never break a promise, but re-negotiate them if need be. If you haven’t got time to do it right, you don’t have time to do it wrong. Recognize that most things are pass/fail. Feedback loops: ask in confidence.
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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.
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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.
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The metaphor I've used is... somebody's going to push my family off a cliff pretty soon, and I won't be there to catch them. And that breaks my heart. But I have some time to sew some nets to cushion the fall. So, I can curl up in a ball and cry, or I can get to work on the nets.
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A good apology is like antibiotic, a bad apology is like rubbing salt in the wound.'
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You can't get there alone. People have to help you, and I do believe in karma. I believe in paybacks. You get people to help you by telling the truth, by being earnest.
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Respect authority while questioning it.
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Time is all you have and you may find one day that you have less than you think.'
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Treat the Disease, Not the Symptom.
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Chemo days make me tired, though it's hard to say that's because of the chemo when you have kids who have inherited their dad's usual energy level.
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When you're eight or nine years old and you look at the TV set men are landing on the moon - anything is possible. And that is something we need to not lose sight of, is that the inspiration and permission to dream is immense. … It's important to have specific dreams.
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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.
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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.'