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