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