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