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