Make clear that people understand what your circumstances are. And looking for pity - that's a mistake.

- Randy Pausch

I will take an earnest person over a hip person every day, because hip is short-term, earnest is long-term.

- Randy Pausch

If your kids want to paint their bedrooms, as a favor to me, let 'em do it.

- Randy Pausch

Success is measured in months for me. When my health fails, it will fail quickly. Tumors grow on an exponential curve.

- Randy Pausch

There's nothing about my life that I would have changed.

- Randy Pausch

I'm not going to beat the cancer. I tried really hard... but sometimes you're just not going to beat the thing... I wanted to walk off the stage and say anything I thought was important; I had my hour.

- Randy Pausch

My mother took great relish in introducing me as 'This is my son - he's a doctor but not the kind that helps people.'

- Randy Pausch

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

Educators shouldn't be afraid of cliches. You know why? Because kids don't know most of them! They're a new audience. And they're inspired by cliches.

- Randy Pausch

Pretty much any time I got a chance to do something cool, I tried to grab for it, and that's where my solace comes from.

- Randy Pausch

I think that we all stand on the dartboard of life. Roughly 30,000 people a year are going to catch a dart labeled pancreatic cancer, and that's unfortunate. It's not what I would have chosen. But I in no way feel like I deserved it.

- Randy Pausch

It's hard to raise awareness of pancreatic cancer - people who get it don't live long enough.

- Randy Pausch

I'm attempting to put myself in a bottle that will one day wash up on the beach for my children.

- Randy Pausch

Fuel your kids' dreams. Sometimes, that means letting them stay up past their bedtimes.

- Randy Pausch

Anyone who knows me well will tell you that arrogance is one of my flaws.

- Randy Pausch

We don't beat the reaper by living longer, we beat the reaper by living well and living fully.

- Randy Pausch

I've decided to tell my kids things like: 'I love the way each of you tilted back your heads when you laughed.' I will give them specific stuff they can grasp.

- Randy Pausch

Cancer didn't change me at all. I know lots of people talk about the life revelation. I didn't have that.

- Randy Pausch

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.

- Randy Pausch

Smelling a crayon takes you right back to childhood. When I need to go back in time, I put it under my nose and take another hit.

- Randy Pausch