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