My Favourite Inspirational Quotes on Life and Design
by Olegs Belousovs •
My collection of random famous (and not) quotes, taken from various books, articles, and said by parents/friends, on the topics of life, work, and design.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Make yourself become who you are.
The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.
Life is ours to be spent, not to be saved.
Data explains, stories inspire.
You only think you know, as a matter of fact. And most of your actions are based on incomplete knowledge and you really don’t know what it is all about, or what the purpose of the world is, or know a great deal of other things. It is possible to live and not know.
You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.
Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.
Art is theft.
It is often easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission.
Everything popular is wrong.
Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.
Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.
Always in motion is the future.
Finché la gente accetterà la spazzatura, sarà redditizio venderla.
If our eyes are always looking for weakness, we begin to lose the intuition to notice the beauty.
You can’t TRY to do things, you must simply DO them.
It always seems impossible until it’s done.
What we fear of doing most is usually what we most need to do.
Do not judge me by my successes; judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.
Не имей сто рублей, а имей сто друзей.
If you can’t solve a problem, then there is an easier problem you can solve: find it.
I don’t know what I think until I write it down.
If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.
Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.
The most important things in life aren’t things.
Decide that you want it more than you are afraid of it.
Know the rules well, so you can break them effectively.
…there is nothing new under the sun.
The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.
The main thing is to keep the main thing, the main thing.
He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may cast.
It is not wrong to go back for that which you have forgotten.
The artist who aims at perfection in everything achieves it in nothing.
Believe in yourself and stop trying to convince others.
An ounce of practice is generally worth more than a ton of theory.
There is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.
Quit picking fights and go make something!
You aren’t learning anything when you’re talking.
Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is.
The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.
Without data you’re just another person with an opinion.
The things you own end up owning you.
The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say no to almost everything.
If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go with others.
Senza crisi non ci sono sfide, senza sfide la vita è una routine, una lenta agonia.
Change will lead to insight far more often than insight will lead to change.
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
If you get on the wrong train, get off at the nearest station; the longer it takes you to get off, the more expensive the return trip will be.
Put the customer first. Invent. And be patient.
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
A designer knows he has achieved perfection, not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
The good life consists in enjoying the creativity of others, and in sharing our own, not just in having our basic needs met.
Diciamo di ammazzare il tempo come se, purtroppo, non fosse il tempo ad ammazzare noi.
You can only organize something if you understand how it works.
What people say, what people do, and what people say they do are entirely different things.
Never reply when you are angry. Never make a promise when you are happy. Never make decision when you are sad.
Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.
Non lo so quale sia la chiave del successo, ma la chiave per il fallimento è nel cercare di accontentare tutti.
The days are long, but the years are short.
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.
Life is too short to keep doing the same thing over and over and over again.
Design is like air, you only notice it when it’s bad.
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.
Love your job but don’t love your company, because you may not know when your company stops loving you!
Success is not delivering a feature; success is learning how to solve the customer’s problem.
As our island of knowledge grows, so does the shore of our ignorance.
…a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention…
Your work is something you do, not who you are.
In a time of drastic change, it is the learners who inherit the future.
Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.
No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.
What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.
Don’t criticize unless you can do better.
Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.
It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.
Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.
The best design is the simplest one that works.
I always wanted to be somebody, but now I realize I should have been more specific.
Leave something for someone but don’t leave someone for something.
What you do every day matters more than what you do once in a while.
When you are tired of saying it, they are starting to hear it.
The best way to predict the future is to create it.
You can fool everyone else, but you can’t fool your own mind.
Dovete andare fieri del vostro nemico; allora i successi del vostro nemico saranno anche i vostri successi.
When a flower doesn’t bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower.
Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see.
It is difficult to judge beauty: beauty is an enigma.
The best defense is a good offense.
Hell is other people.
Waiting for inspiration is like standing at the airport waiting for a train.
Being right keeps you in place, being wrong forces you to explore.
A great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.
The days are long, but the years are short.
You are as great as the cause that you serve and as young as your dreams.
The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone.
Come il ferro è consumato dalla ruggine, così gli invidiosi sono consumati dalla loro stessa passione.
The best design tool is a long eraser with a pencil at one end.
La conoscenza non è sufficiente, dobbiamo applicarla. La volontà non è abbastanza, dobbiamo agire.
Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.
View obstacles as opportunities for growth.
Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
If you can change your mind, you can change your life.
If you get, give. If you learn, teach.
Work to become, not to acquire.
When the wind of change blows, some people build walls, others build windmills.
The best way to predict your future is to create it.
What you do every day matters more than what you do once in a while.
There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.
In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few.
Decide what you stand for. And then stand for it all the time.
The distance between dreams and reality is called discipline.
The question is not what you look at, but what you see.
The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without the work.
I think you just have to work hard for about 10 years before you know what you’re doing.
There is no such thing as a self-made man. You will reach your goals only with the help of others.
Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position. But certainty is an absurd one.
Ciò che conta è quello che impari quando sai già tutto.
If everything is important, then nothing is.
It is far better for a man to go wrong in freedom than to go right in chains.
Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But since no one was listening, everything must be said again.
Those who tell the stories rule society.
Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.
A mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work if it is not open.
The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.
È meglio essere primi che meglio degli altri.
It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.
Whatever we say, we are always talking about ourselves.
The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.
Moderation is a fatal thing… Nothing succeeds like excess.
A true leader does not give orders. A true leader gives explanations.
When you stop moving, the music stops.
Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing.
Fear is often just the imagination taking a wrong turn.
Men have become the tools of their tools.
Time is the only resource we have that is nonrenewable.
Designer can design a solution to a problem, but they can’t design a solution to a disagreement.
The more one does and sees and feels, the more one is able to do, and the more genuine may be one’s appreciation of fundamental things like home, and love, and understanding companionship.
As to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.
For the want of a nail the shoe was lost, For the want of a shoe the horse was lost, For the want of a horse the rider was lost, For the want of a rider the battle was lost, For the want of a battle the kingdom was lost, And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
Serious-minded people have few ideas. People with ideas are never serious.
Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.
Even the strongest man cannot lift himself up.
The beginning is the half of every action.
Meglio vivere d’istanti e d’istinti che distanti e distinti.
If our eyes are always looking for weakness, we begin to lose the intuition to notice the beauty.
Many of the things you can count, don’t count. Many of the things you can’t count really count.
Gran parte dello stress deriva da impegni – presi con se stessi o con gli altri – gestiti in modo non adeguato.
Music is the space between the notes.
Without great solitude no serious work is possible.
It’s better to see once than hear a hundred times.
It’s better to burn out than to fade away.
Excellence is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.
To understand is to know what to do.
You can do anything, but not everything.
Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.
The real risk is in not changing. I have to feel that I’m after something. If I make money, fine. But I’d rather be striving. It’s the striving, man, it’s that I want.
It’s easier to make things people want, than it is to make people want things.
If you have no critics you’ll likely have no success.
Everywhere is a walking distance if you have the time
Everybody is interesting when they are interested in something.
Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears.
The biggest communication problem is we do not listen to understand. We listen to reply.
Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.
The problem contains the solution.
Fall seven times and stand up eight.
Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.
A dream will not become an innovation if there is no realisation.
Good design is as little design as possible.
Comparison is the death of joy.
If you obey all the rules you miss all the fun.
The future is a journey, not a destination.
If our eyes are always looking for weakness, we begin to lose the intuition to notice the beauty.
You never know what you can do till you try.
You can outsource your thinking, but you cannot outsource your understanding.
When there’s nothing, you can do anything.
What works good is better than what looks good, because what works good lasts.
A goal without a plan is just a wish.
La motivazione è il carburante del lavoro intellettuale.
I think you travel to search and you come back home to find yourself there.
When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.
Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer.
A critic is a man who knows the way but can’t drive the car.
Every entrepreneur I have ever met is an artist. They are all forced to become comfortable with failure. And for entrepreneurs, their canvas is their company.