21 select quotes from Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture

1. “Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted…”
   
   
2. “Be good at something; it makes you valuable…. Have something to bring to the table, because that will make you more welcome.”
   
   
3. “Brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want something badly enough. They are there to keep out the other people.”
   
   
4. “Be willing to apologize. Proper apologies have three parts: 1) What I did was wrong. 2) I’m sorry that I hurt you. 3) How do I make it better? It’s the third part that people tend to forget…. Apologize when you screw up and focus on other people, not on yourself.”
   
   
5. “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.”
   
   
6. “It is not about achieving your dreams but living your life. If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself, the dreams will come to you.”
   
   
7. “Be prepared. Luck is truly where preparation meets opportunity.”
   
   
8. “Better to fail spectacularly than do something mediocre.” [Randy Pausch gave out a First Penguin award each year when he was teaching to the biggest failure in trying something big and new because he thought this should be celebrated. First Penguins are the ones that risk that the water might be too cold.]
   
   
9. “Loyalty is a two way street.”
   
   
10. “Get a feedback loop and listen to it. Your feedback loop can be this dorky spreadsheet thing I did, or it can just be one great man who tells you what you need to hear. The hard part is the listening to it.”
    
    
11. “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. Being earnest. I’ll take an earnest person over a hip person any day, because hip is short term. Earnest is long term.”
    
    
12. “When you are doing something badly and no one’s bothering to tell you anymore, that’s a very bad place to be. Your critics are the ones still telling you they love you and care.”
    
    
13. “Don’t complain, Just work harder.”
    
    
14. “If you want to achieve your dreams, you better learn to work and play well with others…[you have] to live with integrity”
    
    
15. “The best piece of parenting advice I’ve ever heard is from flight attendants. If things get really tough, grab your own oxygen mask first.”
    
    
16. “Tell The Truth. All The Time. No one is pure evil.”
    
    
17. “Show gratitude. Gratitude is a simple but powerful thing.”
    
    
18. “I’ve never understood pity and self-pity as an emotion. We have a finite amount of time. Whether short or long, it doesn’t matter. Life is to be lived.”
    
    
19. “Never underestimate the importance of having fun. I’m dying and I’m having fun. And I’m going to keep having fun every day because there’s no other way to play it….Having fun for me is like a fish talking about the importance of water. I don’t know how it is like not to have fun…”
    
    
20. “Never lose the child-like wonder. It’s just too important. It’s what drives us. Help others.”
    
    
21. “To be cliché, death is a part of life and it’s going to happen to all of us. I have the blessing of getting a little bit of advance notice and I am able to optimize my use of time down the home stretch.”