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