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