Randy Pausch Quotes

I don't have any oratory skills. But I would not use them if I had.

I had a place at university to study theology and philosophy. I got the divinity prize at my school two years in a row. Probably because there were only 10 of us, but still.

I never turn down requests for interviews. I'm just rarely asked.

I am not a writer, but I have been told I write good emails.

I've not got any terrible stories of what I had to do to scrabble my way to the top, obviously, because I didn't scrabble my way to the top. I just scrabbled my way to the middle!

I went to Oxford University - but I've never let that hold me back.

Thank God I'm a horrible musician. Good singer, horrible musician.

I'm kinda not one of those people that likes to put up trophies in my house, because I don't want my mom to come be like, 'Hey, you're full of yourself.'

I'll never self-proclaim myself as the greatest of all time.

I haven't got many awards to boast of.

I think basically we know how stupid we are, that's why we don't do interviews.

No matter what stage of life you are graduating from or entering, learning how to build and state your case is something every person in the world should know how to do.

I never had lofty dreams of doing important things.

I have more fun talking about other movies than talking about my own.

I'm flattered anybody would call me a legend.

In truth, I am nothing but a plodding mediocrity — please observe, a plodding mediocrity — for a mere mediocrity does not go very far, but a plodding one gets quite a distance. There is joy in that success, and a distinction can come from courage, fidelity and industry.

I was funny -- ha-ha, not peculiar. It was a modest currency, like pennies: pedestrian, somewhat laborious, but a currency nonetheless. I was funny, in public, most often at my own expense.

Public Speaking is a skill that can be studied, polished, perfected. Not only can you get good at it, you can get damn good at it and it makes a heck of a difference.

A scientist sounds like a scientist because the things that come out of their mouth don't stumble, that's all. If they [said], "And the, um, a microwave, uh," you know, then you don't sound right, but if you can just get it out without stumbling then you're going to sound fine.

You have no right to go before a public without an adequate technique, just because you feel. Anything feels - a leaf feels, a storm feels - what right have you to do that? You have to have speech, and it's a cultivated speech.

I never climbed any ladder: I have achieved eminence by sheer gravitation.

Presentations are the most amazing persuasion tool available in organizations today

The truth is I've just never had any kind of plan at all for my career, which is probably not a very flattering thing to admit. I don't know that I'd ever planned to be in this situation. I'm still just an idiot, really really stupid. It's not like I'm now a genius because this has happened. I just got hugely lucky.

I never think I have success even when I have it, for better or for worse.