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