Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) was a popular American salesman, author, and philosopher from the turn of the twentieth century.
This self-described “businessman with a literary attachment” had an unusual career. Hubbard was a brilliant marketer and salesperson for a soap company. At age 37, he sold his shares in the company to establish an arts and crafts community called Roycroft in East Aurora, New York. Roycroft attracted publishers, bookbinders, and artisans who, although not paid well, had a great deal of freedom to experiment with and refine their trade-skills.
Hubbard wrote six novels and hundreds of inspirational biographical essays called Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great. His A Message to Garcia (1899) was a bestselling inspirational essay on sales and marketing. His satirical newspaper The Philistine had a monthly circulation of over 100,000.
In 1915, Hubbard died on a voyage from New York to Liverpool aboard the RMS Lusitania when a German submarine torpedoed it off the coast of Ireland.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Elbert Hubbard
Know what you want to do, hold the thought firmly, and do every day what should be done, and every sunset will see you that much nearer to your goal.
—Elbert Hubbard
The ability to make yourself do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not.
—Elbert Hubbard
Topics: Discipline
A retentive memory may be a good thing, but the ability to forget is the true token of greatness.
—Elbert Hubbard
Topics: Memory
The weaknesses of the many make the leader possible.
—Elbert Hubbard
Topics: Leadership
Fear clogs; Faith liberates.
—Elbert Hubbard
Topics: Faith
It is the weak man who urges compromise—never the strong man.
—Elbert Hubbard
Topics: Compromise
Be pleasant until ten o’clock in the morning and the rest of the day will take care of itself.
—Elbert Hubbard
Topics: Morning
A friend is a person who knows all about you-and still likes you.
—Elbert Hubbard
Topics: Friendship
Never explain—your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyhow.
—Elbert Hubbard
What others say of me matters little, what I myself say and do matters much.
—Elbert Hubbard
Topics: Character
I believe in the hands that work, in the brains that think, and in the hearts that love…I believe in sunshine, fresh air, friendship, calm sleep, beautiful thoughts.
—Elbert Hubbard
Habit is a form of exercise.
—Elbert Hubbard
Topics: Habit
If you err it is not for me to punish you. We are punished by our sins not for them.
—Elbert Hubbard
Topics: Sin
We awaken in others the same attitude of mind we hold toward them.
—Elbert Hubbard
Topics: Attitude, War, Positive Attitudes, Health, Optimism
If you want work well done, select a busy man; the other kind has no time.
—Elbert Hubbard
Topics: Time
The ineffable joy of forgiving and being forgiven forms an ecstasy that might well arouse the envy of the gods.
—Elbert Hubbard
Topics: Forgiveness, Government
Man is not what he thinks he is, but what he thinks, he is.
—Elbert Hubbard
Money never made a fool of anybody; it only shows them up.
—Elbert Hubbard
Topics: Money
The secret of success is this: there is no secret of success.
—Elbert Hubbard
Topics: Success & Failure
An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy to be called an idea at all.
—Elbert Hubbard
Topics: Ideas
The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.
—Elbert Hubbard
HISTORY: gossip well told.
—Elbert Hubbard
The reason men oppose progress is not that they hate progress, but that they love inertia.
—Elbert Hubbard
Topics: Progress
Constant effort and frequent mistakes are the stepping stones of genius.
—Elbert Hubbard
Topics: Mistakes, Genius
Do your work with your whole heart, and you will succeed—there’s so little competition.
—Elbert Hubbard
Life is a compromise between fate and free will.
—Elbert Hubbard
It does not take much strength to do things, but it requires a great deal of strength to decide what to do.
—Elbert Hubbard
Topics: Decisions, Strength
Knowledge is the distilled essence of our intuitions, corroborated by experience.
—Elbert Hubbard
Many a man’s reputation would not know his character if they met on the street.
—Elbert Hubbard
Topics: Hypocrisy, Reputation, Character
Responsibilities gravitate to the person who can shoulder them; power flows to the man who knows how.
—Elbert Hubbard
Topics: Power
The world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it can’t be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.
—Elbert Hubbard
To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.
—Elbert Hubbard
Topics: Criticism, Perfection, Action, Critics
Live truth instead of professing it.
—Elbert Hubbard
Topics: Truth, Hypocrisy
Genius is often only the power of making continuous efforts. The line between failure and success is so fine that we scarcely know when we pass it—so fine that we are often on the line and do not know it. 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. As the tide goes clear out, so it comes clear in. In business sometimes prospects may seem darkest when really they are on the turn. 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.
—Elbert Hubbard
Topics: Failure, Success, Mistakes, Perseverance, Genius, Persistence, Failures, Endurance, Resolve
He has achieved success who has worked well, laughed often, and loved much.
—Elbert Hubbard
Topics: Success & Failure, Accomplishment, Work, Success, Love
The church saves sinners, but science seeks to stop their manufacture.
—Elbert Hubbard
The average man plays to the gallery of his own self-esteem.
—Elbert Hubbard
Topics: Self-Discovery
Don’t take life too serious. You’ll never escape it alive anyway.
—Elbert Hubbard
Topics: Life
Do not take life too seriously—you will never get out of it alive.
—Elbert Hubbard
Topics: Carpe-diem, Life and Living
Art is the beautiful way of doing things. Science is the effective way of doing things. Business is the economic way of doing things.
—Elbert Hubbard
Topics: Science
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