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