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