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