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