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