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