Quotes by Elbert Hubbard

Optimism is a kind of heart stimulant ? the digitalis of failure.

To escape criticism -- do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.

And these blessings, no gift equals the gentle, trusting love and companionship of a good woman.

No one gets very far unless he accomplishes the impossible at least once a day.

Academic education is the act of memorizing things read in books, and things told by college professors who got their education mostly by memorizing things read in books.

An ounce of performance is worth more than a pound of preachment.

People who never do any more than they get paid for, never get paid for any more than they do.

The greatest mistake you can make in life is to continually fear that you will make one.

An ounce of loyalty is worth a pound of cleverness.

Man's greatest blunder has been in trying to make peace with the skies instead of making peace with his neighbors.

Marriage: A legal or religious ceremony by which two persons of the opposite sex solemnly agree to harass and spy on each other for ninety-nine years, or until death do them join.

Progress comes from the intelligent use of experience.

Don't make excuses make good.

We find what we expect to find, and we receive what we ask for.

Prison is a socialist paradise where equality prevails, everything is supplied, and competition is eliminated.

To know when to be generous and when to be firm -- this is wisdom.

Prophecy -- To observe that which has passed, and guess it will happen again.

Be yourself and speak your mind today. though it contradicts all you have said before.

One's thirtieth birthday and one's seventieth are days that press their message home with iron hand.

Morality is the thing upon which your friends smile, and immorality is the thing upon which they frown.

Dogma is a lie reiterated and authoritatively injected into the mind of one or more persons who believe that they believe what someone else believes.

Theology is an attempt to explain a subject by men who do not understand it. The intent is not to tell the truth but to satisfy the questioner.

Righteous indignation: your own wrath as opposed to the shocking bad temper of others.

History: gossip well told.

Don't take life too seriously. You'll never get out of it alive.

A man is as good as he has to be, and a woman is as bad as she dares.

The happiness of this life depends less on what befalls you than the way in which you take it.

The essence of marriage is companionship, and the woman you face across the coffee urn every morning for ninety-nine years must be both able to appreciate your jokes and to sympathize with your aspirations.

Put yourself in the other man's place and then you will know why he thinks certain things and does certain deeds.

Habit: The great economizer of energy.

Be patient with the boys -- you are dealing with soul-stuff.

No good sensible working bee listens to the advice of a bedbug on the subject of business.

Orthodoxy: That peculiar condition where the patient can neither eliminate an old idea nor absorb a new one.

Man is Creation's masterpiece. But who says so?

The inspirations of today are the shams of tomorrow the purpose has departed.

History: a collection of epitaphs.

Life consists in molting our illusions. We form creeds today only to throw them away tomorrow. The eagle molts a feather because he is growing a better one.

Wealth is an engine that can be used for power, if you are an engineer; but to be tied to the fly wheel of an engine is rather a misfortune.

Fortitude: That quality of mind which does not care what happens so long as it does not happen to us.

The fool is not the man who merely does foolish things. The fool is the man who does not know enough to cash in on his foolishness.

Would you make men better -- set them an example. The millenium will never come until governments cease from governing, and the meddler is at rest.

Grammar is the grave of letters.

The heroic man does not pose; he leaves that for the man who wishes to be thought heroic.

The reward of a good deed is in having done it.

The brain is a commodity used to fertilize ideas.

Fear is the thought of admitted inferiority.

He who influences the thought of his times influences the times that follow.

We will not be dictated to by men with less intelligence, energy, initiative and ambition than we ourselves possess.

Freedom is the supreme good; freedom from self imposed limitation.

A college degree does not lessen the length of your ears; it only conceals it.

Lawyers are men whom we hire to protect us from lawyers.

Logic: an instrument used for bolstering a prejudice.

To know the great men dead is compensation for having to live with the mediocre.

As a rule, the man who can do all things equally well is a very mediocre individual.

Dignity is a mask we wear to hide our ignorance.

Lovers are fools, but Nature makes them so.

Life without absorbing occupation is hell; joy consists in forgetting life.

There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.

Let a man once see himself as others see him, and all enthusiasm vanishes from his heart.

Pessimist: One who has been intimately acquainted with an Optimist.

I am not sure just what the unpardonable sin is, but I believe it is a disposition to evade the payment of small bills.

It does not take much strength to do things, but it requires a great deal of strength to decide what to do.

Punishment -- The justice that the guilty deal out to those that are caught.

The newspapers print what the people want, and thus does the savage still swing his club and flourish his spear.

All wages are based primarily on productive power. Anything else would be charity.

All noise is waste. So cultivate quietness in your speech, in your thoughts, in your emotions. Speak habitually low. Wait for attention and then you low words will be charged with dynamite.

Laws that do not embody public opinion can never be enforced.

Perfume: any smell that is used to drown a worse one.

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.

Everything comes too late for those who only wait.

Theology is an attempt to explain a subject by men who do not understand it. The intent is not to tell the truth but to satisfy the questioner.

Luck is tenacity of purpose.

A committee is a thing which takes a week to do what one good man can do in an hour.

Life is a movement outward, an unfolding.

In God's great vaudeville, Mother is the headliner.

I would rather have a big burden and a strong back, than a weak back and a caddy to carry life's luggage.

The average man believes a thing first, and then searches for proof to bolster his opinion.

Success -- To rise from the illusion of pursuit to the disillusion of possession.

If there is any better way to teach virtue than by practicing it, I do not know it.

Every knock is a boost.

Progress needs the brakeman, but the brakeman should not spend all his time putting on the brakes.

God looked upon His work and saw that it was good. That is where the clergy take issue with him.

Art is the beautiful way of doing things. Science is the effective way of doing things. Business is the economic way of doing things.

The Businessman is one who supplies something great and good to the world, and collects from the world for the goods.

Your enemy is one who misunderstands you; why should you not rise above the fog and see his error and respect him for the good qualities you find in him?

The average man plays to the gallery of his own self-esteem.

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.

Not only does beauty fade, but it leaves a record upon the face as to what became of it.

Love is not really blind- the bandage is never so tight but that it can peep.

Time is an eternal guest that banquets on our ideals and bodies.

Respectability is the dickey on the bosom of civilization.

Every tyrant who ever lived has believed in freedom -- for himself.

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!

Enthusiasm is the great hill-climber.

Heaven: The Coney Island of the Christian imagination.

Genius is only the power of making continuous efforts.