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