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