Quotes from book
The Last Lecture

The Last Lecture
Randy Pausch

The Last Lecture is a New York Times best-selling book co-authored by Randy Pausch—a professor of computer science, human-computer interaction, and design at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania—and Jeffrey Zaslow of the Wall Street Journal. The book speaks on a lecture Pausch gave in September 2007 entitled "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams".

Randy Pausch photo

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

Randy Pausch book The Last Lecture

The Last Lecture (2008)

Randy Pausch photo

“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.”

Randy Pausch book The Last Lecture

The Last Lecture (2008)

Randy Pausch photo

“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."”

Randy Pausch book The Last Lecture

Source: The Last Lecture (2008), Chapter 48: Tell the Truth, p. 163

Randy Pausch photo

“It's not how hard you hit. It's how hard you get hit…and keep moving forward.”

Randy Pausch book The Last Lecture

The Last Lecture (2008)

Randy Pausch photo

“Never give up: There are certain times that you think, “OK, you have beaten me down to my knees. And now the challenge is, I am on my knees and you keep on beating me down. And the question is, are you going to keep beating me all the way to the ground or will I find a way to struggle my way back on to my feet.””

Randy Pausch book The Last Lecture

The Last Lecture (2008)

Randy Pausch photo

“We're not going to talk about spirituality and religion. Although I will tell you that I have experienced a deathbed conversion. I just bought a Macintosh.”

Randy Pausch book The Last Lecture

The Last Lecture (2007)

Randy Pausch photo

“When told by a female colleague about how a girl can pick the right guy, she said... "When it comes to men who are romantically interested in you, it's really simple. Just ignore everything they say and only pay attention to what they do."”

Randy Pausch book The Last Lecture

Source: The Last Lecture (2008), Chapter 37: Watch What They Do, Not What They Say, p. 146

Randy Pausch photo

“The best gift an educator can give is to get someone to become self-reflective.”

Randy Pausch book The Last Lecture

The Last Lecture (2007)

Randy Pausch photo

“There's a lot of talk these days about giving children self-esteem. It's not something you can give; it's something they have to build. Coach Graham worked in a no-coddling zone. Self-esteem? He knew there was really only one way to teach kids how to develop it; You give them something they can't do, they work hard until they find they can do it, and you just keep repeating the process.”

Randy Pausch book The Last Lecture

Source: The Last Lecture (2008), Chapter 7: I Never Made it in the NFL, pp. 36 - 37

Randy Pausch photo

“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.”

Randy Pausch book The Last Lecture

… It's important to have specific dreams.
The Last Lecture (2007)

Randy Pausch photo

“I'm dying and I'm having fun. And I'm going to keep having fun every day I have left. Because there's no other way to play.”

Randy Pausch book The Last Lecture

The Last Lecture (2007)

Randy Pausch photo

“Junior faculty members used to come up to me and say. "Wow, you got tenure early; what's your secret?" I said, "It's pretty simple, call me any Friday night in my office at 10 o'clock and I'll tell you."”

Randy Pausch book The Last Lecture

The Last Lecture (2007)

Randy Pausch photo

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

Randy Pausch book The Last Lecture

The Last Lecture (2007)

Randy Pausch photo

“And the course was all about bonding. People used to say, you know, what’s going to make for a good world? I said, I can’t tell you beforehand, but right before they present it I can tell you if the world’s good just by the body language. If they’re standing close to each other, the world is good.”

Randy Pausch book The Last Lecture

The Last Lecture (2007)

Randy Pausch photo

“When you’ve had something for ten years that you hold so precious, it’s the toughest thing in the world to hand it over. And the only advice I can give you is, find somebody better than you to hand it to.”

Randy Pausch book The Last Lecture

The Last Lecture (2007)

Randy Pausch photo

“And I think that that’s one of the best things you can give somebody – the chance to show them what it feels like to make other people get excited and happy.”

Randy Pausch book The Last Lecture

The Last Lecture (2007)

Randy Pausch photo

“We keep what is valuable to us, what we cherish.”

Randy Pausch book The Last Lecture

The Last Lecture (2007)

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