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