Quotes: The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

Aside from reading fictions I love reading inspirational books. Almost one third of my bookshelves consist of these type of books. If fictions are my distractions and way to escape reality, inspirational books are my guide to reality. I’m not writing a review for this book, but instead I’ll list some of the interesting quotes found in the book. Most of these quotes are good reminder of things we already know but needed to be reminded of and some insightful and thought provoking questions in life.

LIFE
“Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted. And experience is often the most valuable thing you have to offer.”

“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.”

“Time is all you have and you may find one day that you have less than you think.”

“No matter how bad things are, you can always make things worse. “

“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.”

“We’ve placed a lot of emphasis in this country on the idea of people’s rights. That’s how it should be, but it makes no sense to talk about rights without also talking about responsibilities.”

“There are more ways than one to measure profits and losses.”

“It’s not helpful if we spend every day dreading tomorrow.”

“You’ve got to get the fundamentals down, because otherwise the fancy stuff is not going to work.”

“When you’re screwing up and nobody says anything to you anymore, it means they’ve given up on you.”

“Too many people go through life complaining bout their problems. I’ve always believed that if you took on tenth the energy you put into complaining and applied it to solving the problem, you’d be surprised by how well things can work out. “

“Not everything needs to be fixed”

“… 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. “

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

“Most people who have told a lie think they got away with it … when in fact, they didn’t”

“Never make a decision until you have to.”

“Have something to bring to the table, because that will make you more welcome.”

“We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.”

“You don’t beat the grim reaper by living longer; you beat the grim reaper by living better.”

“If you can find your footing between two cultures, sometimes you can have the best of both worlds.”

“Somehow, with the passage of time, and the dealines that life imposes, surrending became the right thing to do”

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.”

SUCCESS

“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. “

“If you can find an opening, you can probably find a way to float through it.”

“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. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.”

“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.”

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

“Luck is where preparation meets opportunity. “

“The questions are always more important than the answers.”

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

“A lot of people want a shortcut. I find the best shortcut is the long way, which is basically two words: work hard.”

“You can always change you plan, but only if you have one.”

“One thing that makes it possible to be an optimist is if you have a contingency plan for when all hell breaks loose.”

“Give yourself permission to dream. Fuel your kids’ dreams too. Once in a while, that might even mean letting them stay up past their bedtimes.”

“Another way to be prepared is to think negatively. Yes, I’m a great optimist. but, when trying to make a decision, I often think of the worst case scenario. I call it ‘the eaten by wolves factor.’ If I do something, what’s the most terrible thing that could happen? Would I be eaten by wolves? One thing that makes it possible to be an optimist, is if you have a contingency plan for when all hell breaks loose. There are a lot of things I don’t worry about, because I have a plan in place if they do.”

“Complainning does not work as a strategy. We all have finite time and energy. Any time we spend whining is unlikely to help us achieve our goals. And it won’t make us happier.”

“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. “

“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?”

“If I work hard enough, there will be things I can do tomorrow that I can’t do today.”

“…engineering isn’t about perfect solutions; it’s about doing the best you can with limited resources.”

“Sometimes all you have to do is ask, and it can lead to all your dreams coming true.”

“I don’t believe in the no-win scenario”

“Brick walls are there for a reason. They give us a chance to show how badly we want”

“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.”

“Your patience will be both appreciated and rewarded”

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

PEOPLE

“People are more important than things.”

“Focus on other people, not on yourself.”

“Showing gratitude is one of the simplest yet most powerful things humans can do for each other.”

“When we’re connected to others, we become better people.”

“A good apology is like antibiotic, a bad apology is like rubbing salt in the wound.”

“Halfhearted or insincere apologies are often worse than not apologizing at all because recipients find them insulting.”

“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.”

“Go out and do for others what somebody did for you.”

LOVE

“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.”

“When it comes to men that are romantically interested in you, it’s really simple. Just ignore everything they say and only pay attention to what they do. It’s that simple. It’s that easy.”

“Kids need to know their parents love them. Their parents don’t need to be alive for that to happen.”