Randy Pausch

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

“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 chose...”

“I think the only advice I can give you on how to live your life well is, first off, remember... it's not the things we do in life that we regret on our deathbed, it is the things we do not.”

“If I don't seem as depressed or morose as I should be, sorry to disappoint you.”

“The particular way I'm going to die is not going to be particularly pleasant. It will probably be physically uncomfortable, and it won't be an easy thing for my wife and kids to watch. I thi...”

“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, th...”

“Chemo days make me tired, though it's hard to say that's because of the chemo when you have kids who have inherited their dad's usual energy level.”

“I am dying soon, and I am choosing to have fun today, tomorrow and every other day I have left.”

“I played in football games where you walk off the field and the scoreboard didn't end up the way you wanted. But you knew that you really did give it all. And the other team was too strong.”

“Work hard. I got tenure a year early. Junior faculty members used to say to me: 'Wow, what's your secret?' I said: 'It's pretty simple. Call me any Friday night in my office at 10 o'clock, a...”

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

“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, by being earnest.”

“I'm a professor. I know that people in research labs can do miraculous things if they're given the resources.”

“I'm hanging in there, trying to spend as much quality time with my wife and kids as possible, and though it's very frustrating to know I won't beat the cancer, there's a great satisfaction i...”

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

“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.”

“An injured lion still wants to roar.”

“I've never understood pity and self-pity as an emotion.”

“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.”

“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.”