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