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