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