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
The object of teaching a child is to enable him to get along without a teacher.
—Elbert Hubbard
Parties who want milk should not seat themselves on a stool in the middle of a field in hope that the cow will back up to them
—Elbert Hubbard
Topics: Welfare
The brain is a commodity used to fertilize ideas.
—Elbert Hubbard
Topics: Ideas
The great Big Black Things that have loomed against the horizon of my life, threatening to devour me, simply loomed and nothing more. The things that have really made me miss my train have always been sweet, soft, pretty, pleasant things of which I was not in the least afraid.
—Elbert Hubbard
Topics: Fear
The man who does not understand your silence will probably not understand your words.
—Elbert Hubbard
Topics: Silence, Understanding
Winning isn’t everything. Wanting to is.
—Elbert Hubbard
Topics: Winning, Passion, Enthusiasm, Motivation
The only foes that threaten America are the enemies at home, and these are ignorance, superstition and incompetence.
—Elbert Hubbard
Give us a religion that will help us to live—we can die without assistance.
—Elbert Hubbard
Topics: Religion
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.
—Elbert Hubbard
Responsibilities gravitate to the person who can shoulder them; power flows to the man who knows how.
—Elbert Hubbard
Topics: Power
Never explain—your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyhow.
—Elbert Hubbard
A conservative is a man who is too cowardly to fight and too fat to run.
—Elbert Hubbard
A retentive memory may be a good thing, but the ability to forget is the true token of greatness.
—Elbert Hubbard
Topics: Memory
Forbid a man to think for himself or to act for himself and you may add the joy of piracy and the zest of smuggling to his life.
—Elbert Hubbard
Topics: Enthusiasm
The goal of evolution is self – conquest
—Elbert Hubbard
Topics: Evolution
We awaken in others the same attitude of mind we hold toward them.
—Elbert Hubbard
Topics: Positive Attitudes, Attitude, Mind, War, Health, Optimism
You will generally find that the person who doesn’t give a continental what the newspapers say about ‘im either one way or the other subscribes to a press clipping bureau anyway.
—Elbert Hubbard
Topics: Journalism
Keep your mind on the great and splendid things you would like to do and then, as the days go gliding by you will find yourself unconsciously seizing the opportunities that are required for the fulfillment of your desire. Picture in your mind the able, earnest, useful person you desire to be, and the thought you hold is hourly transforming you into that particular individual you so admire.
—Elbert Hubbard
The happiness of this life depends less on what befalls you than the way in which you take it.
—Elbert Hubbard
Topics: Happiness
I believe in freedom—social, economical, domestic, political, mental and spiritual.
—Elbert Hubbard
Topics: Freedom
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.
—Elbert Hubbard
Topics: Communication, Silence
Die, v.: To stop sinning suddenly.
—Elbert Hubbard
Topics: Death, Dying
Play needs direction as well as work.
—Elbert Hubbard
Every man is a damn fool for at least five minutes every day. Wisdom consists in not exceeding that limit.
—Elbert Hubbard
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: Perseverance, Mistakes, Genius, Failures, Endurance, Resolve, Failure, Success, Persistence
The man who has no more problems to solve is out of the game.
—Elbert Hubbard
Topics: Problem-solving, Problems
An imitator is a man who succeeds in being an imitation.
—Elbert Hubbard
The stupidity of one brain multiplied by twelve.
—Elbert Hubbard
Topics: Justice
Character is the result of two things: mental attitude and the way we spend our time.
—Elbert Hubbard
Topics: Character, Attitude
The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.
—Elbert Hubbard
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