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