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