150 Quotes by Elbert Hubbard
Elbert Hubbard was an American writer, philosopher, and entrepreneur known for his inspirational essays and his role in the Arts and Crafts Movement. He gained fame through his essay series titled "A Message to Garcia," which emphasized the virtues of initiative, dedication, and responsibility. Hubbard's writing often centered on themes of self-improvement, individualism, and the pursuit of meaningful work.
As a proponent of the Arts and Crafts Movement, he championed craftsmanship and the value of handmade items in a rapidly industrializing society. Hubbard's engaging prose style and practical insights resonated with a wide audience, making him a prominent figure in the self-help and motivational literature of his time. His work remains relevant to those seeking guidance in personal development and the pursuit of a purposeful life.
Elbert Hubbard Quotes
An enemy is anyone who tells the truth about you. (Meaning)
We are not punished for our sins, but by them. (Quote Meaning)
Enthusiasm is like having two right hands. (Meaning)
Enthusiasm is the great hill-climber. (Quote Meaning)
I believe in the Motherhood of God. (Meaning)
Laughter is higher than all pain. (Quote Meaning)
History: gossip well told. (Meaning)
Every knock is a boost. (Quote Meaning)
The sculptor produces the beautiful statue by chipping away such parts of the marble block as are not needed. (Meaning)
The highest reward that God gives us for good work is the ability to do better work. (Quote Meaning)
A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you. (Meaning)
Dreams can come true, but there is a secret. They're realized through the magic of persistence, determination, commitment, passion, practice, focus and hard work. They happen a step at a time, manifested over years, not weeks.
Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive.
If you work for a man, in heaven's name work for him, speak well of him, and stand by the institution he represents. Remember, an ounce of loyalty is worth a pound of cleverness. If you must growl, condemn, and eternally find fault - resign your position, and when you are outside, damn to your heart's content - but as long as you are part of the institution, do not condemn it. If you do, the first high wind that comes along will blow you away, and probably you will never know why.
The friend is the man who knows all about you, and still likes you.
The greatest mistake you can make in life is continually fearing that you'll make one.
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.
Never explain - your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyway.
The best preparation for good work tomorrow is to do good work today. (Quote Meaning)
To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, be nothing. (Meaning)
Positive anything is better than negative nothing. (Quote Meaning)
One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man. (Meaning)
He who does not understand your silence will probably not understand your words. (Quote Meaning)
Thoroughness characterizes all successful men. Genius is the art of taking infinite pains. All great achievement has been characterized by extreme care, infinite painstaking, even to the minutest detail.
Where parents do too much for their children, the children will not do much for themselves.
Responsibility is the price of freedom. (Meaning)
The love we give away is the only love we keep. (Quote Meaning)
Life is just one damned thing after another. (Meaning)
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.
Many people fail in life, not for lack of ability or brains or even courage but simply because they have never organized their energies around a goal.
A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success.
The man who doesn't relax and hoot a few hoots voluntarily, now and then, is in great danger of hooting hoots and standing on his head for the edification of the pathologist and trained nurse, a little later on.
Literature is the noblest of all the arts. Music dies on the air, or at best exists only as a memory; oratory ceases with the effort; the painter's colors fade and the canvas rots; the marble is dragged from its pedestal and is broken into fragments.
Christianity supplies a Hell for the people who disagree with you and a Heaven for your friends.
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.
The cheerful loser is the winner.
Be pleasant until ten o'clock in the morning and the rest of the day will take care of itself.
The recipe for perpetual ignorance is: Be satisfied with your opinions and content with your knowledge.
I believe the only way we can reach the Kingdom of Heaven is to have the Kingdom of Heaven in our hearts.
Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped. (Quote Meaning)
A friend is one who knows you and loves you just the same.
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. (Meaning)
Every man is a damn fool for at least five minutes every day; wisdom consists in not exceeding the limit. (Quote Meaning)
We work to become, not to acquire. (Meaning)
God will not look you over for medals degrees or diplomas, but for scars.
Happiness is a habit—cultivate it. (Quote Meaning)
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.
If it was woman who put man out of Paradise, it is still woman, and woman only, who can lead him back.
Men are only as great as they are kind.
We are punished by our sins, not for them. (Meaning)
Constant effort and frequent mistakes are the stepping stones to genius.
Art is not a thing; it is a way. (Quote Meaning)
Folks who never do any more than they get paid for, never get paid for any more than they do
If you want work well done, select a busy man - the other kind has no time.
You can lead a boy to college, but you cannot make him think.
Nothing is permanent but change. (Meaning)
The man who craves disciples and wants followers is always more or less of a charlatan. The man of genuine worth and insight wants to be himself; and he wants others to be themselves, also.
Everything comes too late for those who only wait.
It is easy to get everything you want, provided you first learn to do without the things you cannot get.
Fences are made for those who cannot fly. (Quote Meaning)
We find what we expect to find, and we receive what we ask for.
A retentive memory may be a good thing, but the ability to forget is the true token of greatness.
As we grow better, we meet better people.
True life lies in laughter, love and work.
"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." (Meaning)
Friendship, like credit, is highest when it is not used.
The reward of a good deed is in having done it.
Do your work with your whole heart, and you will succeed - there's so little competition. (Quote Meaning)
Freedom cannot be bestowed - it must be achieved. (Meaning)
No matter how long you live, die young.
The greatest mistake a person can make is to be afraid of making one.
Lawyers are men whom we hire to protect us from lawyers.
Good health! Whenever you go out of doors, draw the chin in, carry the crown of your head high, and fill the lungs to the utmost; drink in sunshine; greet your friends with a smile, and put soul into every handclasp. Do not fear being misunderstood and never waste a minute thinking about your enemies.
The cure for grief is motion. (Quote Meaning)
The object of teaching a child is to enable him to get along without his teacher.
The man who is anybody and who does anything is surely going to be criticized, vilified, and misunderstood. This is a part of the penalty for greatness, and every great man understands it; and understands, too, that it is no proof of greatness. The final proof of greatness lies in being able to endure contumely without resentment.
Most people like hard work, particularly when they're paying for it.
Genius is the ability to act rightly without precedent - the power to do the right thing the first time.
Be yourself and think for yourself, and while your conclusions may not be infallible they will be nearer right than the inclusions forced upon you by those who have a personal interest in keeping you in ignorance.
The best way to prepare for life is to begin to live. (Meaning)
Man's greatest blunder has been in trying to make peace with the skies instead of making peace with his neighbors
Dogma is a lie reiterated and authoritatively injected into the mind of one or more persons who believe that they believe what someone else believes.
Success consists in the climb.
It does not take much strength to do things, but it requires great strength to decide on what to do. (Quote Meaning)
If you can't answer a man's arguments, all is not lost; you can still call him vile names.
Progress comes from the intelligent use of experience.
The supernatural is the natural not yet understood. (Meaning)
Pray that success will not come any faster than you are able to endure it.
Parties who want milk should not seat themselves on a stool in the middle of the field in hope that the cow will back up to them.
To make mistakes is human, but to profit from them is divine.
The more one knows, the more one simplifies.
Self-discipline is the ability to make yourself do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not.
Every man should have a college education in order to show him how little the thing is really worth.
What others say of me matters little; what I myself say and do matters much.
Man is not what he thinks he is, but what he thinks, he is.
A woman will doubt everything you say except it be compliments to herself.
When on the brink of complete discouragement, success is discerning that...the line between failure and success is so fine that often a single extra effort is all that is needed to bring victory out of defeat.
Dignity is a mask we wear to hide our ignorance.
A school should not be a preparation for life. A school should be life.
People who are able to do their own thinking should not allow others to do it for them.
In order to have friends, you must first be one. (Quote Meaning)
Wise Man: One who sees the storm coming before the clouds appear.
Down in their hearts, wise men know this truth: the only way to help yourself is to help others.
A failure is a man who has blundered, but is not able to cash in the experience.
All success consists in this: You are doing something for somebody - benefiting humanity - and the feeling of success comes from the consciousness of this.
I do not read a book; I hold a conversation with the author.
There is something that is much more scarce, something finer far, something rarer than ability. It is the ability to recognize ability.
Faith is the effort to believe what your common sense tells you is not true.
Men are rich only as they give. He who gives great service gets great rewards.
Reason: The arithmetic of the emotions.
Of all the mental and physical polluters of life, nothing exercises such a poisonous effect as fear.
Strong men can always afford to be gentle. Only the weak are intent on giving as good as they get.
The fool is not the man who merely does foolish things. The fool is the man who does not know enough to cash in on his foolishness.
A goal without a plan is a dream. (Meaning)
No one ever gets far unless he accomplishes the impossible at least once a day.
Get happiness out of your work or you may never know what happiness is.
Life is a compromise between fate and free will. (Quote Meaning)
Politicians regard the public as a cow to be milked
No man needs a vacation so much as the man who has just had one.
What people need and what they want may be very different.
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.
Our desires always disappoint us; for though we meet with something that gives us satisfaction, yet it never thoroughly answers our expectation.
I believe that the best way to prepare for a Future Life is to be kind, live one day at a time, and do the work you can do best, doing it as well as you can.
One can endure sorrow alone, but it takes two to be glad.
Theology is Classified Superstition.
The worst thing about medicine is that one kind makes another necessary
Cultivate only the habits that you are willing should master you
No man ever did or can do a great work alone.
An ounce of performance is worth more than a pound of preachment.
Genius is the capacity of avoiding hard work. (Meaning)
We make our money out of our friends. Our enemies will not do business with us.
Lovers are fools, but Nature makes them so.
Luck is tenacity of purpose. (Quote Meaning)
The man who has no problems is out of the game.
Growth is often a painful process. (Meaning)
Academic education is the act of memorizing things read in books, and things told by college professors who got their education mostly by memorizing things read in books.
There was one who thought himself above me, and he was above me until he had that thought.
Love is not really blind- the bandage is never so tight but that it can peep.
God — the John Doe of philosophy and religion.
The average woman sees only the weak points in a strong man, and the good points in a weak one.
Anyone who idolizes you is going to hate you when he discovers that you are fallible. He never forgives. He has deceived himself, and he blames you for it.
Formal religion was organized for slaves: it offered them consolation which earth did not provide.
We will not be dictated to by men with less intelligence, energy, initiative and ambition than we ourselves possess.
Impossible things are simply those which so far have never been done.
Do not dump your woes upon people — keep the sad story of your life to yourself. Troubles grow by recounting them.
The valuable person in any business is the individual who can and will cooperate with others.
Some men can get results if kindly encouraged, but give me the kind that do things in spite of hell.
Business is a fight, a continual struggle, just as life is (Quote Meaning)
The happiness of this life depends less on what befalls you than the way in which you take it.
The man who knows it can't be done counts the risk, not the reward.
The line between failure and success is so fine that we are often on the line and do not know it. How many a person has thrown up his or her hands at a time when a little more effort, a little more patience, would have achieved success. A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success.
All wages are based primarily on productive power. Anything else would be charity.
The thing we fear we bring to pass.
Failure -- The man who can tell others what to do and how to do it, but never does it himself.
If your religion does not change you, then you had better change your religion.
Money never made a fool of anybody; it only shows them up.
There is something that is much more scarce, something finer far, something rarer than ability. It is the ability to recognize ability. The sternest comment that can be made against employers as a class lies in the fact that men of Ability usually succeed in showing their worth in spite of their employer, and not with his assistance and encouragement.
What we call God's justice is only man's idea of what he would do if he were God.
I believe it is possible that I shall make other creeds, and change this one, or add to it, from time to time, as new light may come to me.
― Elbert Hubbard Quotes
Chief Editor
Tal Gur is an author, founder, and impact-driven entrepreneur at heart. After trading his daily grind for a life of his own daring design, he spent a decade pursuing 100 major life goals around the globe. His journey and most recent book, The Art of Fully Living, has led him to found Elevate Society.
