Randy Pausch

“Temelji. To je bilo ono što nam je poklonio trener Graham. Temelji, temelji, temelji. Kao profesor uvidio sam da ovu lekciju mnogi preskaču, najčešće na vlastitu štetu. Uvijek se moraju postaviti temelji, jer onaj zanimljivi i zabavni dio bez njih neće funkcionirati.”

“Uzevši u obzir svoj ograničeni umjetnički dar, zaključio sam da će biti najbolje ako naslikam stvari u jednostavnim geometrijskim oblicima. Stoga sam naslikao jednostavnu raketu s krilcima i Snjeguljičino zrcalo s natpisom: »Sjećaš li se kad sam ti rekao da si najljepša? Lagao sam!«”

“Nakon što sam obranio doktorat, majka bi me s velikim zadovoljstvom predstavljala ovim riječima: »Ovo je moj sin. On je doktor, ali ne od onih koji pomažu ljudima.«”

“Nismo mnogo kupovali, ali smo štošta znali. Moj otac je posjedovao zaraznu radoznalost prema tekućim događajima, povijesti, pa i našim životima. Odrastajući, shvatio sam da postoje dva tipa obitelji:1. One kojima treba rječnik da dovrše večeru.2. One kojima to ne treba.Mi smo pripadali prvoj grupi. Gotovo svake večeri zbog nečega smo morali konzultirati riječnik, koji se nalazio na polici nekoliko koraka od stola. — Ako imaš kakvo pitanje - govorili su moji - onda potraži odgovor.”

“Zahvalio sam publici na dolasku, izbacio par štosova, a onda rekao: - U slučaju da je netko od vas došao bez poznavanja cijele priče, spomenut ću vam savjet mog oca. On je uvijek govorio da valja predstaviti slona ukoliko se nalazi u sobi. Ako pogledate moje CT snimke, vidjet ćete da u jetri imam otprilike deset tumora. Liječnici kažu da mogu živjeti relativno zdravo još tri do šest mjeseci. To su rekli prije mjesec dana pa sad možete i sami izračunati.Na ekranu sam pokazao veliku CT snimku moje jetre. Is-pod slajda je pisalo »Slon u sobi«, a ja sam još dodao crvene strelice koje su pokazivale svaki pojedinačni tumor.Zadržao sam sliku neko vrijeme da publika može uočiti strelice i prebrojiti tumore. - U redu - rekao sam. -Tako je kako jest. Tu se ne da ništa promijeniti. Jedino što možemo je izabrati način reakcije. Ne možemo promijeniti karte koje smo dobili, već samo odlučiti kako ćemo igrati.”

“Dok sam petljao oko rekvizita, primijetila je da se nisam usudio pogledati ni u koga. Pomislila je da ne želim gledati u ljude kako ne bih vidio nekog prijatelja ili bivšeg studenta, što bi moglo uzburkati moje emocije.Prije nego sam započeo, razabrao se žamor među slušateljima. Oni koji su došli samo da bi vidjeli kako izgleda netko tko umire od raka gušterače vjerojatno su se pitali je li ovo moja prava kosa (da, tijekom kemoterapije nisam izgubio kosu) i hoće li oni osjetiti koliko sam blizu smrti dok budem govorio (moj odgovor: samo gledajte!«).”

“Kada je konobarica donijela jelo, čestitao sam joj na trudnoći. - Mora da ste presretni - rekao sam.- Ne baš - odgovorila je. - Bila je to slučajnost. Kada je otišla, ostao sam pogođen njezinom iskrenošću. Ta usputna primjedba podsjetila me na brojne slučajnosti koje igraju ulogu u našem dolasku u život... i našem putovanju ka smrti. Tu je žena koja je slučajno zanijela dijete, ali će ga zasigurno voljeti. Ja ću pak, slučajnošću zvanom rak, ostaviti troje djece koja će odrastati bez moje ljubavi.”

“Zašto mi je taj govor bio toliko važan? Jesam li time želio pokazati sebi i drugima da sam još i te kako živ? Da još uvijek imam snagu za nastup? Je li to možda želja nekoga tko voli javnu pozornost da odigra posljednju predstavu? Odgovori su bili potvrdni. — Ranjeni lav želi doznati može li još uvijek rikati - rekao sam Ja. - Radi se o dostojanstvu i samopoštovanju, a to nije isto što i taština.”

“Postoje akademske formalnosti koje se ne mogu zapostaviti, čak i kad je čovjek zauzet drugim stvarima, kao što je pokušaj da ostane živ.”

“I love all three of my kids completely and differently. And I want them to know that I will love them for as long as they live. I will.”

“I’m aware that Chloe may have no memory of me at all. She’s too young. But I want her to grow up knowing that I was the first man ever to fall in love with her.”

“Anybody can get chewed out. It's the rare person who says, oh my god, you were right. As opposed to, no wait, the reason is... We've all heard that”

“But I want her to grow up knowing that I was the first man ever to fall in love with her. I'd always thought the father/daughter thing was overstated. But I can tell you, sometimes, she looks at me and I just become a puddle.”

“There's a formality in academia that can't be ignored, even if a man is busy with other things, like trying not to die.”

“Just because you're in the driver's seat, doesn't mean you have to run people over.”

“A coach yells at the kid he thinks can improve but the coach will not yell at the kid who he/she knows won't.”

“عندما ترى نفسك ترتكب خطأ في مكان لا يلومك فيه أحد ، فاعلم أنك لست في المكان الصحيح ، قد تكره أن يوجه أحد النقد لك ، ولكن اعلم أن من يفعل هذا هو شخص يحبك ويحتم بك و يدفعك نحو الأفضل.”

“It's not about the cards you're dealt, but how you play the hand.”

“Though I am not a fan of TV - it's mankind's greatest time-waster, the gift was completely appropriate, since I'll be in bed so much at the end. TV will be one of my last links to the outside world.”

“If you took one-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... Complaining 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 a thrill to fulfill your own childhood dreams, but as you get older, you may find that enabling the dreams of others is even more fun.”

“[Jim Graham] had been a linebacker at Penn State, and was seriously old-school. I mean, really old-school; like he thought the forward pass was a trick play.”

“I’d compare college tuition to paying for a personal trainer at an athletic club. We professors play the roles of trainers, giving people access to the equipment (books, labs, our expertise) and after that, it is our job to be demanding.”

“What is the most appropriate thing to say to a friend who was about to die. He answered:”tell your friend that in his death, a part of you dies and goes with him. Whenever he goes, you also g. He will not be alone".”

“People lie for lots of reasons, often because it seems like a way to get what they want with less effort.”

“When we make something hard to use, people get upset. They become so angry that they want to destroy it. We don’t want to create things that people will want to destroy”

“If nobody ever worried about what was in other people's heads, we’d all be 33 percent more effective in our lives and our jobs.”

“The fact that fashion goes out of fashion and then comes back into fashion based solely on what a few people somewhere think they can sell, well to me, that’s insanity.”

“Take Time Out. It's not a real vacation if you're reading email or calling in for messages.”

“self-steam ? He knew there was really one way to teach kids how to develop it : You give them something they can't do, they work hard until they can do it, and you keep repeating the process.”

“Do not tell people how to live their lives. Just tell them stories and they will figure out how those stories apply to them.”

“Because you’re such a good salesman, and if you go work for a company, they’re going to use you as a salesman. If you’re going to be a salesman, you might as well be selling something worthwhile, like education”

“The great thing about working out at a gym is that if you put in effort, you get very obvious results. The same should be true of college. A professor’s job is to teach students how to see their minds growing in the same way they can see their muscles grow when they look in a mirror.”

“Getting people to welcome feedback was the hardest thing I ever had to do as an educator.”

“educators best serve students by helping them be more self-reflective. The only way any of us can improve—as Coach Graham taught me—is if we develop a real ability to assess ourselves. If we can’t accurately do that, how can we tell if we’re getting better or worse?”

“Well, you can’t have just some of me, Jai,” I told her. “You appreciate the part of me that didn’t get angry because two ‘things’ we own got hurt. But the flip side of that is my belief that you don’t repair things if they still do what they’re supposed to do. The cars still work.Let’s just drive ’em.”

“Never make a decision until you have to.”

“Apologies are not pass/fail.”

“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. ”

“I know you're smart. But everyone here is smart. Smart isn't enough. The kind of people I want on my research team are those who will help everyone feel happy to be here. ”

“It's not helpful if we spend every day dreading tomorrow ~Jai”

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

“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.”

“I'm dying and I'm having fun.”

“Hal yang kau perlu lakukan dalam menghadapi pria : Abaikan semua yang mereka katakan dan perhatikan semua yang mereka lakukan. Itu akan membantumu mengurangi kesalahan besar..”

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

“Walls aren't put in our life to stop us, they are there to test how much we really want somthing.”

“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.”

“People are more important than things.”

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