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Home: Elbert Hubbard Quotes

Elbert Hubbard Quotes

Journalist, Philosopher, Publisher, Writer
Born On
1856-06-19
Died On
1915-05-07
Birth Place
Bloomington
Death Place
RMS Lusitania
Birth Sign
gemini
Father
Silas Hubbard
Mother
Juliana Frances Read
Spouse
Bertha Crawford Hubbard
Nationality
American
Education
Harvard University
Writers, Philosophers, Journalists, Publishers, Intellectuals & Academics, Media Personalities

Elbert Hubbard married young, but after a few years of marriage, he met a woman named Alice and fell in love with her. This extramarital relationship led to the end of his marriage with his first wife. Alice (who the famous American writer considered his soul mate) and Elbert got wedded and had a daughter together, eventually. Together the writer couple pioneered the Roycroft movement until the World War I began.

Once the decisive war started, Elbert and Alice decided to go to Europe and report on the conflict. The duo also hoped that they could make a difference and encourage the warring nations to come to a peace agreement. To attempt this brave initiative, the Hubbards boarded the ship, Lusitania, which would take them to England, despite the warning announcements made by the Germans.

The ship was doomed needless to say and was bombed by a German submarine on May 7, 1915. The ship sank, but one of the survivors, named Ernest Cooper narrated a significant incident in a letter written to Bert, the author’s son.  He said he saw the loving couple standing at the deck arm in arm, unruffled, at the crucial moment when the ship was drowning fast and lifeboats were far and few in between. While scurrying for safety Cooper asked Hubbard what he planned to do. Elbert shook his head while Alice said, “There does not seem anything to do”. Almost immediately the two lovebirds went into a room and shut the door, taking the decision to sacrifice their lives together, rather than drifting apart in the water.

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

Friendship
Elbert Hubbard

Positive anything is better than negative nothing.

Nothing Positivity
Elbert Hubbard

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

Friendship Friendship
Elbert Hubbard

He who does not understand your silence will probably not understand your words.

Silence Words
Elbert Hubbard

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

Greatness Life
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

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

Funny Life
Elbert Hubbard

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

Motivation Work Heart
Elbert Hubbard

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

Technology Work
Elbert Hubbard

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

Attitude Character Time
Elbert Hubbard

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

Success Effort Hope
Elbert Hubbard

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

Good Work
Elbert Hubbard

Art is not a thing; it is a way.

Art
Elbert Hubbard

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

Teachers
Elbert Hubbard

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

Teachers
Elbert Hubbard

We are punished by our sins, not for them.

Elbert Hubbard

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

Rest
Elbert Hubbard

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

Love
Elbert Hubbard

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.

Patience Success Time
Elbert Hubbard

There is no failure except in no longer trying.

Elbert Hubbard

Responsibility is the price of freedom.

Responsibility Freedom
Elbert Hubbard

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.

Love
Elbert Hubbard

The final proof of greatness lies in being able to endure criticism without resentment.

Greatness Criticism Greatness
Elbert Hubbard

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.

Art
Elbert Hubbard

To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.

Nothing Criticism
Elbert Hubbard

We are not punished for our sins, but by them.

Elbert Hubbard

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

Elbert Hubbard

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

Greatness Strength Things
Elbert Hubbard

We work to become, not to acquire.

Work
Elbert Hubbard

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.

Success
Elbert Hubbard

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.

World
Elbert Hubbard

Many a man's reputation would not know his character if they met on the street.

Character Reputation
Elbert Hubbard

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

Knowledge
Elbert Hubbard

Initiative is doing the right things without being told.

Right Things
Elbert Hubbard

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

Attitude Mind
Elbert Hubbard

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

Elbert Hubbard

Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped.

Genius Restrictions
Elbert Hubbard

Life is just one damned thing after another.

Life
Elbert Hubbard

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

Success
Elbert Hubbard

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

Success
Elbert Hubbard

Our desires always disappoint us; for though we meet with something that gives us satisfaction, yet it never thoroughly answers our expectation.

Fulfillment
Elbert Hubbard

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

Forgiveness
Elbert Hubbard

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

Forgiveness Excitement
Elbert Hubbard

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

America Enemies Home
Elbert Hubbard

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

Life Love Faith Hope
Elbert Hubbard

In order to have friends, you must first be one.

Elbert Hubbard

A man is not paid for having a head and hands, but for using them.

Elbert Hubbard

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

Art Business Science
Elbert Hubbard

Die, v.: To stop sinning suddenly.

Death
Elbert Hubbard

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

Optimism Heart
Elbert Hubbard

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

Life Happiness
Elbert Hubbard

The supernatural is the natural not yet understood.

Elbert Hubbard

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

Experience
Elbert Hubbard

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

Freedom
Elbert Hubbard

Secrets are things we give to others to keep for us.

Confidential Things
Elbert Hubbard

If you can't answer a man's arguments, all is not lost; you can still call him vile names.

Elbert Hubbard

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

Elbert Hubbard

Live truth instead of professing it.

Truth
Elbert Hubbard

Life in abundance comes only through great love.

Greatness Life Love
Elbert Hubbard

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

Good Greatness Greatness Memory
Elbert Hubbard

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

Good
Elbert Hubbard

The man who has no problems is out of the game.

Problems
Elbert Hubbard

It's pretty hard to be efficient without being obnoxious.

Elbert Hubbard

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.

Friendship
Elbert Hubbard

I would rather be able to appreciate things I can not have than to have things I am not able to appreciate.

Things
Elbert Hubbard

An idea that is not dangerous is not worthy of being called an idea at all.

Elbert Hubbard

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

Good Work
Elbert Hubbard

It is easy to get everything you want, provided you first learn to do without the things you cannot get.

Elbert Hubbard

Fear clogs; faith liberates.

Faith Fear
Elbert Hubbard

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

Greatness
Elbert Hubbard

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

Elbert Hubbard

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.

Business
Elbert Hubbard

A conservative is a man who is too cowardly to fight and too fat to run.

Elbert Hubbard

There is something that is much more scarce, something finer far, something rarer than ability. It is the ability to recognize ability.

Ability
Elbert Hubbard

If pleasures are greatest in anticipation, just remember that this is also true of trouble.

Troubles
Elbert Hubbard

A woman will doubt everything you say except it be compliments to herself.

Elbert Hubbard

A pessimist? That's a person who has been intimately acquainted with an optimist.

Elbert Hubbard

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

Life
Elbert Hubbard

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.

Help
Elbert Hubbard

The man who knows it can't be done counts the risk, not the reward.

Elbert Hubbard

Fear is the thought of admitted inferiority.

Fear Inferiority Thought
Elbert Hubbard

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

Love Progress Hatred
Elbert Hubbard

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

Money Country
Elbert Hubbard

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

Science
Elbert Hubbard

The idea that is not dangerous is not worthy of being called an idea at all.

Elbert Hubbard

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

Friendship
Elbert Hubbard

Where much is expected from an individual, he may rise to the level of events and make the dream come true.

Dreams
Elbert Hubbard

Men are only as great as they are kind.

Greatness
Elbert Hubbard

The thing we fear we bring to pass.

Fear
Elbert Hubbard

So long as governments set the example of killing their enemies, private individuals will occasionally kill theirs.

Enemies Example
Elbert Hubbard

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