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