Quotes & anectdotes from
the wise,
the foolish,
the courageous &
the drunk

Elbert Hubbard Philosopher

  • Gender: Male
  • Citizenship: United States
  • Born: Jun 19, 1856
  • Died: May 7, 1915

Elbert Green Hubbard was an American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher. Raised in Hudson, Illinois, he met early success as a traveling salesman with the Larkin Soap Company. Today Hubbard is mostly known as the founder of the Roycroft artisan community in East Aurora, New York, an influential exponent of the Arts and Crafts Movement. Among his many publications were the nine-volume work Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great and the short story A Message to Garcia. He and his second wife, Alice Moore Hubbard, died aboard the RMS Lusitania, which was sunk by a German submarine off the coast of Ireland on May 7, 1915.

The teacher is the one who gets the most out of the lessons, and the true teacher is the learner.

A failure is a man who has blundered, but is not able to cash in the experience.

This will never be a civilized country until we spend more money for books than we do for chewing gum.

The highest reward that God gives us for good work is the ability to do better work.

God will not look you over for medals degrees or diplomas, but for scars.

Never explain - your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyway.

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

Pray that success will not come any faster than you are able to endure it.

The recipe for perpetual ignorance is: Be satisfied with your opinions and content with your knowledge.

Positive anything is better than negative nothing.

The greatest mistake you can make in life is continually fearing that you'll make one.

Die, v.: To stop sinning suddenly.

Little minds are interested in the extraordinary great minds in the commonplace.

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.

Live truth instead of professing it.

We are punished by our sins, not for them.

Responsibility is the price of freedom.

The ineffable joy of forgiving and being forgiven forms an ecstasy that might well arouse the envy of the gods.

Fear is the thought of admitted inferiority.

The object of teaching a child is to enable him to get along without his teacher.

Every man is a damn fool for at least five minutes every day wisdom consists in not exceeding the limit.

We work to become, not to acquire.

The best preparation for good work tomorrow is to do good work today.

A friend is one who knows you and loves you just the same.

One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man.

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

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

Love, we say, is life but love without hope and faith is agonizing death.

A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success.

Life in abundance comes only through great love.

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.

Character is the result of two things: mental attitude and the way we spend our time.

Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive.

Polygamy: An endeavour to get more out of life than there is in it.

Never get married in college it's hard to get a start if a prospective employer finds you've already made one mistake.

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.

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

A retentive memory may be a good thing, but the ability to forget is the true token of greatness.

He has achieved success who has worked well, laughed often, and loved much.

Reversing your treatment of the man you have wronged is better than asking his forgiveness.

Men are only as great as they are kind.

The friend is the man who knows all about you, and still likes you.

There is no failure except in no longer trying.

The only foes that threaten America are the enemies at home, and these are ignorance, superstition and incompetence.

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

The church saves sinners, but science seeks to stop their manufacture.

The thing we fear we bring to pass.

The love we give away is the only love we keep.

If you suffer, thank God! It is a sure sign that you are alive.

We awaken in others the same attitude of mind we hold toward them.

Art is not a thing it is a way.

Fear clogs faith liberates.

The reason men oppose progress is not that they hate progress, but that they love inertia.

Life is just one damned thing after another.

Do your work with your whole heart, and you will succeed - there's so little competition.

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

Friendship, like credit, is highest when it is not used.

Be pleasant until ten o'clock in the morning and the rest of the day will take care of itself.

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.