Great Throughts Treasury

"Everyone has to contribute to the common good. To not do so can be described in one word: selfish."

"Finally, one day I looked through her finances with her. I figured out that if she spent four or five months working a part-time job on Tuesday nights, she could actually pay off all the money she owed."

"Failing to plan is planning to fail. Plan Each Day, Each Week, Each Semester. You can always changeyour plan, but only once you have one!"

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

"Everything you do is an opportunity cost. Learn to say ?No.?"

"Find the best in everybody. ? you might have to wait a long time, sometimes years, but people will show you their good side. 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."

"He had high hopes for society, and though his hopes were too often dashed, he remained a raging optimist."

"Fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals. You?ve got to get the fundamentals down because otherwise the fancy stuff isn?t going to work."

"He?d also warn me that even if I was in a position of strength, whether at work or in relationships, I had to play fair. Just because you?re in the driver?s seat, he?d say, doesn?t mean you have to run people over."

"He said, when you?re screwing up and nobody?s saying anything to you anymore, that means they gave up. And that?s a lesson that stuck with me my whole life. Is that when you see yourself doing something badly and nobody?s bothering to tell you anymore, that?s a very bad place to be. Your critics are your ones telling you they still love you and care."

"Here was a woman, having a child by accident that she surely would come to love. As for me, through the accident of cancer i'd be leaving three children to grow up without my love."

"How do you get people to help you? 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'll take an earnest person over a hip person every day, because hip is short-term, earnest is long term."

"Help others."

"I am aware that Chloe will have no memory of me. He's still too young. But I would not want to grow up knowing that I was the first man to be in love with her."

"I asked my parents what I do. - Support is - Mom said. - If you love her, give her support. 's what I did. This week I spent in lectures, staying in the office, which was located in the hallway where she worked. Several times I stopped just to see if everything is OK. - I just want to see you - I spoke. - If I can do anything, just let me know. Several days later, she called me: - Look, Randy, I'm sitting here, I feel that I miss you and I wish you were here beside me. That means something, what do you think? finally realized. Yet she was in love. My parents once were right. Love is won. At the end of the week Jai moved to Pittsburgh. Brick walls for a reason. They give us the opportunity to understand how fervently we want something."

"Here's what I know: Time must be explicitly managed, like money. You can always change your plan, but only if you have one. Ask yourself: Are you spending your time on the right things? Develop a good filing system. Rethink the telephone. Delegate. Take a time out. Time is all you have. And you may find one day that you have less than you think."

"I bought the last volume of the World Encyclopedia. Since I was elected one of the authors, now I see that Wikipedia is quite a good source of information because I know what kind of quality control in real encyclopedias. But sometimes when the children come to the library cannot resist not to open the letter V and show them. It was written by their dad."

"I created a course called Building Virtual Worlds... You make whatever you want. Two rules: no shooting violence and no pornography. Not because I'm opposed to those in particular, but that's been done with VR, right? And you'd be amazed how many 19-year-old boys are completely out of ideas when you take those off the table."

"I do not want to leave Tiger in me. I cannot imagine turning into Sivka. Someone asked me what I wanted inscription on the tombstone. - Randy Pausch: He lived thirty years after the terminal diagnosis - I replied. Believe me, I would have these thirty years brought a lot of joy. But if it cannot be, then I would bring joy in everything I do now."

"I don't suffer from an abundance of politeness."

"I found that the people most of the time spent worrying about what others think of them. When one of us would not care what other people racing through their heads, to our lives and jobs were 33% more effective. How'd I get just to that percentage? I'm a scientist. I love exact figures, even when they cannot justify. So let's start with this number. - No need to worry about what I think. Whether good or bad, I'll give it to you know - I used to speak to members of his research group. This means that I spoke directly and not always tactful if something was not pleased. I knew them and reassure displaying it in a positive light. - If you do not say anything, it means that you do not have to worry about - I'd say. students and colleagues appreciate this way of communication because it did not have to waste time burdening the what Randy thinks. Because it was what I thought was the most common in my team there are people who work 33% more efficiently than anyone else. There it was in my head."

"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 quote my father to people almost every day. Part of that is because if you dispense your own wisdom, others often dismiss it; if you offer wisdom from a third party, it seems less arrogant and more acceptable. Of course, when you have someone like my dad in your back pocket, you can't help yourself. You quote him every chance you get."

"I thanked the audience for coming, threw a couple of crazy stunts, and then said: - In case any of you came without knowing the whole story, I will advise you of my father. He always said to be present if there is an elephant in the room. If you look at my CT scan, you will see that I have about ten liver tumors. Doctors say they can live relatively healthy three to six months. It said a month ago, so now you can calculate yourself. On the screen I showed my great CT imaging of the liver. Is-the slide that said elephant in the room, and I added red arrows that showed each individual tumor. held my picture for some time that the audience can spot the arrows and numbered tumors. - OK - I said. Exactly how it is. It is not to change anything. All we can do is to choose the way of reaction. We cannot change the cards we received, but only to decide how we 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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"'I had no idea what I do or say after the crowd sang Happy Birthday Jai. But when I was invited on stage and when she came to me, I followed the natural impulse. Like her, I guess. We hugged and kissed, lips first, and then I kissed her on the cheek. The crowd continued to applaud. We hear them, but they seemed to have been miles away from us. As we stood embraced, Jai me whispered in my ear. - Please, do not die. It sounded like a Hollywood dialogue. But she is just that. I still firmly embraced."

"I was trying to put myself in a bottle that would one day wash up on the beach for my children. If I were a painter, I would have painted for them. If I were a musician, I would have composed music. But I am a lecturer. So I lectured."

"I understand the arguments about how the billions of dollars spent to put men on the moon could have been used to fight poverty and hunger on Earth. But, look, I'm a scientist who sees inspiration as the ultimate tool for doing good. When you use money to fight poverty, it can be of great value, but too often, you're working at the margins. When you're putting people on the moon, you're inspiring all of us to achieve the maximum of human potential, which is how our greatest problems will eventually be solved. Give yourself permission to dream."

"I told her I had nothing against yoga or meditation. But I did think it?s always best to try to treat the disease first. Her symptoms were stress and anxiety. Her disease was the money she owed."

"I, like Moses, get to see the Promised Land, but I won't get to set foot in in it. And that's OK, because I can see it. And the vision is clear. [Referring to his creation of Alice, a software program that teaches computer programming and 3-D]"

"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."

"If she doesn't really love you, then it's over. And if she does love you, then love will win out."

"If you offer wisdom from a third party, it seems less arrogant and more acceptable."

"If other people owe you an apology, and your words of apology to them are proper and heartfelt, you still may not hear from them for a while. After all, what are the odds that they get to the right emotional place to apologize at the exact moment you do? So just be patient. Many times in my career, I saw students apologize, and then several days later, their teammates came around. Your patience will be both appreciated and rewarded."

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

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

"If you asked me the advice I'll tell summarized in two words: Be honest, though increased to some extent I'll add two words to her: at all times ."

"If you have a question, then find the answer."

"If we had to vanish tomorrow, what would we want as our legacy?"

"If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself. The dreams will come to you."

"If you love her, support her."

"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."

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

"If you use the money for the fight against poverty it can be very useful, but still act on the sidelines. When you send a man to the moon, you are providing inspiration to all of us to take advantage of the maximum human potential through which the greatest problems of humanity can be solved. Allow yourself to dream. Eat and dreams for their children. This will sometimes mean that they go to sleep later than you are prescribed."

"If you've done something wrong in your dealings with another person, it's as if there's an infection in your relationship. A good apology is like an antibiotic; a bad apology is like rubbing salt in the wound."

"If you want to achieve your dreams, you better learn to work and play well with others?[you have] to live with integrity"

"If you?re going to have childhood dreams you should have great parents who let you pursue them and express your creativity"