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