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