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