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