Elbert Hubbard quotes:

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Love, we say, is life; but love without hope and faith is agonizing death.
The best preparation for good work tomorrow is to do good work today.
A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success.
One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man.
Never explain - your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyway.
How many a man has thrown up his hands at a time when a little more effort, a little more patience would have achieved success.
Reversing your treatment of the man you have wronged is better than asking his forgiveness.
It may happen sometimes that a long debate becomes the cause of a longer friendship. Commonly, those who dispute with one another at last agree.
Secrets are things we give to others to keep for us.
Optimism is a kind of heart stimulant - the digitalis of failure.
Character is the result of two things: mental attitude and the way we spend our time.
The recipe for perpetual ignorance is: Be satisfied with your opinions and content with your knowledge.
Responsibility is the price of freedom.
Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped.
He has achieved success who has worked well, laughed often, and loved much.
Do your work with your whole heart, and you will succeed - there's so little competition.
A retentive memory may be a good thing, but the ability to forget is the true token of greatness.
The object of teaching a child is to enable him to get along without his teacher.
We awaken in others the same attitude of mind we hold toward them.
The teacher is the one who gets the most out of the lessons, and the true teacher is the learner.
Many a man's reputation would not know his character if they met on the street.
No one ever gets far unless he accomplishes the impossible at least once a day.
The greatest mistake you can make in life is continually fearing that you'll make one.
Every man is a damn fool for at least five minutes every day; wisdom consists in not exceeding the limit.
The church saves sinners, but science seeks to stop their manufacture.
Initiative is doing the right things without being told.
Life is just one damned thing after another.
A failure is a man who has blundered, but is not able to cash in the experience.
The supernatural is the natural not yet understood.
The happiness of this life depends less on what befalls you than the way in which you take it.
Christianity supplies a Hell for the people who disagree with you and a Heaven for your friends.
The highest reward that God gives us for good work is the ability to do better work.
The final proof of greatness lies in being able to endure criticism without resentment.
Be pleasant until ten o'clock in the morning and the rest of the day will take care of itself.
To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.
In order to have friends, you must first be one.
Often we can help each other most by leaving each other alone; at other times we need the hand-grasp and the word of cheer.
Editor: a person employed by a newspaper, whose business it is to separate the wheat from the chaff, and to see that the chaff is printed.
A friend is one who knows you and loves you just the same.
A man is not paid for having a head and hands, but for using them.
A man is as good as he has to be, and a woman as bad as she dares.
Love grows by giving. The love we give away is the only love we keep. The only way to retain love is to give it away.
So long as governments set the example of killing their enemies, private individuals will occasionally kill theirs.
Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive.
An enemy is anyone who tells the truth about you.
Our desires always disappoint us; for though we meet with something that gives us satisfaction, yet it never thoroughly answers our expectation.
If pleasures are greatest in anticipation, just remember that this is also true of trouble.
I would rather be able to appreciate things I can not have than to have things I am not able to appreciate.
Art is not a thing; it is a way.
As a career, the business of an orthodox preacher is about as successful as that of a celluloid dog chasing an asbestos cat through hell.
Positive anything is better than negative nothing.
Righteous indignation: your own wrath as opposed to the shocking bad temper of others
Not only does beauty fade, but it leaves a record upon the face as to what became of it.
Good health! Whenever you go out of doors, draw the chin in, carry the crown of your head high, and fill the lungs to the utmost; drink in sunshine; greet your friends with a smile, and put soul into every handclasp. Do not fear being misunderstood and never waste a minute thinking about your enemies.
The sculptor produces the beautiful statue by chipping away such parts of the marble block as are not needed - it is a process of elimination.
A little more patience, a little more charity for all, a little more devotion, a little more love; with less bowing down to the past, and a silent ignoring of pretended authority; brave looking forward to the future with more faith in our fellows, and the race will be ripe for a great burst of light and life.
The only man who makes money following the races is one who does it with a broom and shovel.
Football: A sport that bears the same relation to education that bullfighting does to agriculture.
Life is a checkerboard, and the player opposite you is time. If you hesitate before moving, or neglect to move promptly, your men will be wiped off the board by time. You are playing against a partner who will not tolerate indecision!
This will never be a civilized country until we spend more money for books than we do for chewing gum.
If put to the pinch, an ounce of loyalty is worth a pound of cleverness.
You can lead a boy to college, but you cannot make him think.
Never get married in college; it's hard to get a start if a prospective employer finds you've already made one mistake.
A college degree does not lessen the length of your ears; it only conceals it.
Every man should have a college education in order to show him how little the thing is really worth.
A committee is a thing which takes a week to do what one good man can do in an hour.
The brain is a commodity used to fertilize ideas.
A woman will doubt everything you say except it be compliments to herself.
Heaven: The Coney Island of the Christian imagination.
Genius is only the power of making continuous efforts.
Do not go out of your way to do good whenever it comes your way. Men who make a business of doing good to others are apt to hate others in the same occupation. Simply be filled with the thought of good, and it will radiate you do not have to bother about it, any more than you need trouble about your digestion.
God will not look you over for medals degrees or diplomas, but for scars.
Religions are many and diverse, but reason and goodness are one.
No man should dogmatize except on the subject of theology. Here he can take his stand, and by throwing the burden of proof on the opposition, he is invincible. We have to die to find out whether he is right.
Dreams can come true, but there is a secret. They're realized through the magic of persistence, determination, commitment, passion, practice, focus and hard work. They happen a step at a time, manifested over years, not weeks.
It is easy to get everything you want, provided you first learn to do without the things you cannot get.
The man who doesn't relax and hoot a few hoots voluntarily, now and then, is in great danger of hooting hoots and standing on his head for the edification of the pathologist and trained nurse, a little later on.
Polygamy: An endeavour to get more out of life than there is in it
When you grow suspicious of a person and begin a system of espionage upon him, your punishment will be that you will find your suspicions true.
Where much is expected from an individual, he may rise to the level of events and make the dream come true.
When on the brink of complete discouragement, success is discerning that...the line between failure and success is so fine that often a single extra effort is all that is needed to bring victory out of defeat.
Little minds are interested in the extraordinary; great minds in the commonplace.
Half the failures in life arise from pulling in one's horse as he is leaping. Happiness is a habit. Cultivate it.
Don't lose faith in humanity; think of all the people in the United States who have never played you a single nasty trick.
A man who marries a woman to educate her falls victim to the same fallacy as the woman who marries a man to reform him.
Pray that success will not come any faster than you are able to endure it.
A conservative is a man who is too cowardly to fight and too fat to run.
I will gladly lecture for fifty dollars, but I'll not be a guest for less than a hundred.
It is a fine thing to have ability, but the ability to discover ability in others is the true test.
To have a full stomach and fixed income are no small things .
Woman's inaptitude for reasoning has not prevented her from arriving at truth; nor has man's ability to reason prevented him from floundering in absurdity.
The only foes that threaten America are the enemies at home, and these are ignorance, superstition and incompetence.
The ineffable joy of forgiving and being forgiven forms an ecstasy that might well arouse the envy of the gods.
The friend is the man who knows all about you, and still likes you.
Jealousy seems the absolute reversal of love. It is the swinging from the sunny warmth of the Equator to the frigid cold of the North Pole.
The average man plays to the gallery of his own self-esteem.
Grammar is the grave of letters.
Life in abundance comes only through great love.
Men are rich only as they give. He who gives great service gets great rewards.
Make two grins grow where there was only a grouch before.
Cultivate only the habits that you are willing should master you
The man who is anybody and who does anything is surely going to be criticized, vilified, and misunderstood. This is a part of the penalty for greatness, and every great man understands it; and understands, too, that it is no proof of greatness. The final proof of greatness lies in being able to endure contumely without resentment.
The product of the head, heart and hand is a thing to be loved.
Down in their hearts, wise men know this truth: the only way to help yourself is to help others.
Human service is the highest form of self-interest for the person who serves.
Live truth instead of professing it.
Morality is the thing upon which your friends smile, and immorality is the thing upon which they frown
The reason men oppose progress is not that they hate progress, but that they love inertia.
Fear is the thought of admitted inferiority.
A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success. There is no failure except in no longer trying. There is no defeat except from within, no really insurmountable barrier save our own inherent weakness of purpose.
Lawyers are the jackals of commerce.
I wish to live without hate, whim, jealousy, envy, and fear. I wish to be simple, honest, frank, natural . . to face any obstacle and meet every difficulty unabashed and unafraid.
The secret of salvation is this: keep sweet, be useful, and keep busy.
I would rather have a big burden and a strong back, than a weak back and a caddy to carry life's luggage.
Life without absorbing occupation is hell; joy consists in forgetting life.
The best way to prepare for life is to begin to live.
An American religion: Work, play, breathe, bathe, study, live, laugh, and love.
Whom the Gods love die young no matter how long they live.
I believe that the best way to prepare for a Future Life is to be kind, live one day at a time, and do the work you can do best, doing it as well as you can.
Logic: an instrument used for bolstering a prejudice.

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