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