Quotes from The Last Lecture

“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.”
― Randy Pausch, quote from The Last Lecture

“We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.”
― Randy Pausch, quote from The Last Lecture

“When it comes to men who are romantically interested in you, it’s really simple. Just ignore everything they say and only pay attention to what they do.”
― Randy Pausch, quote from The Last Lecture

“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.”
― Randy Pausch, quote from The Last Lecture

“The key question to keep asking is, Are you spending your time on the right things? Because time is all you have. ”
― Randy Pausch, quote from The Last Lecture

“No matter how bad things are, you can always make things worse.”
― Randy Pausch, quote from The Last Lecture

“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.”
― Randy Pausch, quote from The Last Lecture

“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.”
― Randy Pausch, quote from The Last Lecture

“Showing gratitude is one of the simplest yet most powerful things humans can do for each other.”
― Randy Pausch, quote from The Last Lecture

“Luck is where preparation meets opportunity. ”
― Randy Pausch, quote from The Last Lecture

“Time is all you have and you may find one day that you have less than you think.”
― Randy Pausch, quote from The Last Lecture

“It's not how hard you hit. It's how hard you get hit...and keep moving forward.”
― Randy Pausch, quote from The Last Lecture

“Too many people go through life complaining about their problems. I've always believed that if you took one tenth the enrgy you put into complaining and applied it to solving the problem, you'd be surprised by how well things can work out.”
― Randy Pausch, quote from The Last Lecture

“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.”
― Randy Pausch, quote from The Last Lecture

“A lot of people want a shortcut. I find the best shortcut is the long way, which is basically two words: work hard.”
― Randy Pausch, quote from The Last Lecture

“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.”
― Randy Pausch, quote from The Last Lecture

“When we're connected to others, we become better people.”
― Randy Pausch, quote from The Last Lecture

“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.”
― Randy Pausch, quote from The Last Lecture

“The questions are always more important than the answers.”
― Randy Pausch, quote from The Last Lecture

“A good apology is like antibiotic, a bad apology is like rubbing salt in the wound.”
― Randy Pausch, quote from The Last Lecture

“People are more important than things.”
― Randy Pausch, quote from The Last Lecture

“You can always change you plan, but only if you have one.”
― Randy Pausch, quote from The Last Lecture

“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. ”
― Randy Pausch, quote from The Last Lecture

“There's a lot of talk these days about giving children self-esteem. It's not something you can give; it's something they have to build. Coach Graham worked in a no-coddling zone. Self-esteem? He knew there was really only one way to teach kids how to develop it: You give them something they can't do, they work hard until they find they can do it, and you just keep repeating the process.”
― Randy Pausch, quote from The Last Lecture

“Are you a Tigger or an Eyore?”
― Randy Pausch, quote from The Last Lecture

“All my adult life I've felt drawn to ask long-married couples how they were able to stay together. All of them said the same thing: "We worked hard at it.”
― Randy Pausch, quote from The Last Lecture

“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. ”
― Randy Pausch, quote from The Last Lecture

“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.”
― Randy Pausch, quote from The Last Lecture

“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.”
― Randy Pausch, quote from The Last Lecture

“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.”
― Randy Pausch, quote from The Last Lecture

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Popular quotes

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― Thomas Hardy, quote from A Pair of Blue Eyes

“The country through which we had been travelling for days has an original beauty. Wide plains were diversified by stretches of hilly country with low passes. We often had to wade through swift running ice-cold brooks. It has long since we had seen a glacier, but as we were approaching the tasam at Barka, a chain of glaciers gleaming in the sunshine came into view. The landscape was dominated by the 25,000-foot peak of Gurla Mandhata; less striking, but far more famous, was the sacred Mount Kailash, 3,000 feet lower, which stands in majestic isolation apart from the Himalayan range.”
― Heinrich Harrer, quote from Seven Years in Tibet (Paladin Books)

“Pero no olvide tampoco que lo primero que se aprende en el Ejército es a ser hombres. Los hombres fuman, se emborrachan, tiran contra, culean. Los cadetes saben que, si son descubiertos, se les expulsa. Ya han salido varios. Para hacerse hombre hay que correr riesgo, hay que ser audaz. Eso es el Ejército, Gamboa, no sólo la disciplina.”
― Mario Vargas Llosa, quote from The Time of the Hero

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About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2018, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.