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