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