Elbert Quotes & Sayings

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

I do not read a book; I hold a conversation with the author. — Elbert Hubbard

No great spiritual event befalls those who do not summon it. — Elbert Hubbard

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

Do not go out of your way to do good whenever it comes your way. Men who make a business of doing good to others are apt to hate others in the same occupation. 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

I have no perfect panacea for human ills. And even if I had I would not attempt to present a system of philosophy between the soup and fish. — Elbert Hubbard

Grammar is the grave of letters. — Elbert Hubbard

Public opinion is the judgment of the incapable many opposed to that of the discerning few. — Elbert Hubbard

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

To subjugate another is to subjugate yourself. — Elbert Hubbard

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. — Elbert Hubbard

Little minds are interested in the extraordinary; great minds in the commonplace. — Elbert Hubbard

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

Impossible things are simply those which so far have never been done. — Elbert Hubbard

I would rather be able to appreciate things I cannot have than to have things I am not able to appreciate. — Elbert Hubbard

A book on cheap paper does not convince. It is not prized, it is like a wheezy doctor with pigtail tobacco breath, who needs a manicure. — Elbert Hubbard

Piety is the tinfoil of pretense. — Elbert Hubbard

Rivalry is the life of trade, and the death of the trader. — Elbert Hubbard

Gossip is only the lack of a worthy memory. — Elbert Hubbard

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

Of all the mental and physical polluters of life, nothing exercises such a poisonous effect as fear. — Elbert Hubbard

Gossip is vice enjoyed vicariously — Elbert Hubbard

Strength comes from solitude, a waiting, a communion with the best in us, which is at one with the divine spark. — Elbert Hubbard

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

I rather like the World. The Flesh is pleasing and the Devil does not trouble me. — Elbert Hubbard

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

Every man should have a college education in order to show him how little the thing is really worth. — Elbert Hubbard

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

What people need and what they want may be very different. — Elbert Hubbard

To have a full stomach and fixed income are no small things . — Elbert Hubbard

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

The more one knows, the more one simplifies. — Elbert Hubbard

Success consists in the climb. — Elbert Hubbard

Die, v.: To stop sinning suddenly. — Elbert Hubbard

Mystic: a person who is puzzled before the obvious, but who understands the non-existent. — Elbert Hubbard

Man creates both his god and his devil in his own image. His god is himself at his best, and his devil himself at his worst. — Elbert Hubbard

A form of self-delusion. — Elbert Hubbard

It is not book learning young men need, nor instruction about this and that, but a stiffening of the vertebra which will cause them to be loyal to a trust, to act promptly, concentrate their energies, do a thing. — Elbert Hubbard

The graveyards are full of people the world could not do without. — Elbert Hubbard

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

A little more patience, a little more charity for all, a little more devotion, a little more love; with less bowing down to the past, and a silent ignoring of pretended authority; brave looking forward to the future with more faith in our fellows, and the race will be ripe for a great burst of light and life. — Elbert Hubbard

This bad habit of fault-finding, criticizing and complaining is a tool that grows keener by constant use, and there is grave danger that he who at first is only a moderate kicker may develop into a chronic knocker, and the knife he has sharpened will sever his head. Hooker — Elbert Hubbard

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

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

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

We never ask God to forgive anybody except when we haven't. — Elbert Hubbard

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

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

Liberalism Has Nearly Destroyed Black America, And Now It's Time For Black America To Return The Favor — Elbert Guillory

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

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

The finest friendships are between those who can do without each other. — Elbert Hubbard

The artist needs no religion beyond his work. — Elbert Hubbard

If men could only know each other, they would neither idolize nor hate. — Elbert Hubbard

It is always the nearest, plainest and simplest principles that learned men comprehend last. — Elbert Hubbard

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

Man is not what he thinks he is, but what he thinks, he is. — Elbert Hubbard

Where parents do too much for their children, the children will not do much for themselves. — Elbert Hubbard

No matter how long you live, die young. — Elbert Hubbard

Study: concentration of the mind on whatever will ultimately put something in your pocket. — Elbert Hubbard

One thing is sure, there are just two respectable ways to die. One is of old age, and the other is by accident. — Elbert Hubbard

Life is a paradox. Every truth has its counterpart which contradicts it; and every philosopher supplies the logic his own undoing. — 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. — Elbert Hubbard

A creed is an ossified metaphor. — Elbert Hubbard

Habit is a form of exercise. — Elbert Hubbard

The secret of salvation is this: keep sweet, be useful, and keep busy. — Elbert Hubbard

Woman's inaptitude for reasoning has not prevented her from arriving at truth; nor has man's ability to reason prevented him from floundering in absurdity. — Elbert Hubbard

The horrifying sound of breaking glass, and a thunderous tirade of splintering pieces hitting the floor, stunned them all. Tobin spun around in shock. The massive Travelling Mirror, through which Tobin and Murphy had so recently arrived, shattered into hundreds of tiny pieces, cascading down the wall, and onto the floor in an enormous pile of jagged edges. The hall was still as everyone stared at the shattered mirror in shocked silence.
"Oh dear. Oh dear, dear, dear," whispered Elbert. — R.S. Mollison-Read

The path of civilization is paved with tin cans. — Elbert Hubbard

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

The wise way to benefit humanity is to attend to your own affairs, and thus give other people an opportunity to look after theirs. — Elbert Hubbard

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

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

History: gossip well told. — Elbert Hubbard

Real life is in love, laughter, and work. — Elbert Hubbard

Positive anything is better than negative nothing. — Elbert Hubbard

Some one has said that we are moving so fast that when plans are being made to perform some great feat, these plans are broken into by a youth who enters and says, I have done it. — Elbert Hubbard

A legal or religious ceremony by which two persons of the opposite sex solemnly agree to harass and spy on each other ... until death do them join. — Elbert Hubbard

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

In a state of nature, the weakest go to the wall; in a state of over-refinement, both the weak and the strong go to the gutter. — Elbert Hubbard

Conformists die, but heretics live forever. — Elbert Hubbard

Library: A place where the dead lie. — Elbert Hubbard

Enthusiasm is like having two right hands. — Elbert Hubbard

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

Destruction, violence, ravages, murder, are perpetrated by statute law. — Elbert Hubbard

Whom the Gods love die young no matter how long they live. — Elbert Hubbard

The weaknesses of the many make the leader possible. — Elbert Hubbard

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

Life is a voyage, and we are all sailing under sealed orders. We plan, plot, scheme and arrange, and some fine day Fate steps in and our dreams are tossed into the yeasty deep. We grin and bear it
anyway we bear it: it is the only thing to do. — Elbert Hubbard

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

Friendship, like credit, is highest when it is not used. — Elbert Hubbard

The supernatural is the natural not yet understood. — Elbert Hubbard

No man needs a vacation so much as the man who has just had one. — Elbert Hubbard

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

If you have health, you probably will be happy, and if you have health and happiness, you have all the wealth you need, even if it is not all you want. — Elbert Hubbard

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

Why not be a top-notcher? A top-notcher is simply an individual who works for the institution of which he is a part, not against it. — Elbert Hubbard

Men are rich only as they give. He who gives great service gets great rewards. — Elbert Hubbard

Allow motion to equal emotion. — Elbert Hubbard

Sunday, with its immunity from work, was devised for slaves who got out of all the work they could during the week. — Elbert Hubbard