Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
Leonardo da Vinci
Good design is obvious. Great design is transparent.
Joe Sparano
The role of the designer is that of a good, thoughtful host anticipating the needs of his guests.
Charles Eames
All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself.
Chuck Close
Data absent the ability to draw insights from is like cholesterol in your arteries, it just takes up space and does nothing to help you be healthy.
Chuck Reed
You don't need more intensity, you need more consistency. Intensity impresses; consistency transforms.
Shane Parrish
The art of art, the glory of expression, is simplicity.
Walt Whitman
Art is useless by definition. If it was useful, it would be a tool.
Derek Sivers
A goal without a plan is just a wish.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
The mind, in discovering truths, acts in the same manner as it acts through the eye in discovering objects; when once any object has been seen, it is impossible to put the mind back to the same condition it was in before it saw it.
Thomas Paine
Measure what is important, don't make important what you can measure.
Robert McNamara
When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.
Goodhart's Law
One must wait until the evening to see how splendid the day has been.
Sophocles
But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you.
Ira Glass
Tip the world on its side and everything loose will land in Los Angeles.
Frank Lloyd Wright
There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.
George W. Bush
The opposite of play is not work, it's depression.
Stuart Brown
Imagination does not become great until human beings, given the courage and strength, use it to create.
Maria Montessori
The history of organizations (and of nations) is littered with the corpses of enterprises which failed to respond appropriately to the demands of change.
Saul Bass
Humans solve problems by adding complexity, even when it’s against our best interests.
Paul Taylor
Question everything generally thought to be obvious.
Dieter Rams
Less, but better.
Dieter Rams
All too much of the man-made is ugly, inefficient, depressing chaos.
Dieter Rams
Quiet is better than loud.
Dieter Rams
Simplicity is not the goal. It is the by-product of a good idea and modest expectations.
Paul Rand
You will learn most things by looking, but reading gives understanding. Reading will make you free.
Paul Rand
Chance favors the prepared mind.
Louis Pasteur
AM/FM Principal: Actual Machines vs Fucking Magic.
Unknown
Instructions are the list of things you designed incorrectly.
Unknown
Joy is a well-made object, equaled only by the joy of making it.
Bill Reid
The very best news is bad news delivered early enough to fix it.
Lindy Elkins-Tanton
It’s in the valley of failure that we sow the seeds of success.
Jason Altucher
Nobody reads advertising. People read what interests them, and sometimes it's an ad.
Howard Gossage
Chop your own wood, and it will warm you twice.
Henry Ford
To be interesting, be interested.
Dale Carnegie
Work? It’s just serious play.
Saul Bass
Trust arrives on foot, but leaves on horseback.
Dutch Proverb
Ninety percent of everything is crap.
Sturgeon's Law
Not everything is design. But design is about everything. So do yourself a favor: be ready for anything.
Michael Bierut