Top 461 Quotes & Sayings by Elbert Hubbard - Page 8

If men will not act for themselves, what will they do when the benefit of their effort is for all?

In the Life of Darwin by his son, there is related an incident of how the great naturalist once studied long as to just what a certain spore was. Finally he said, "It is this, for if it isn't, then what is it?" And all during his life he was never able to forget that he had been guilty of this unscientific attitude, for science is founded on certitude, not assumption.

A good front is half the battle in love or war.

A person born with an instinct for poverty.

Play needs direction as well as work.

Man is Creation's masterpiece. But who says so?

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

An executive is one who makes an immediate decision and is sometimes right

Blessed is the man who has found someone to do his work.

I will gladly lecture for fifty dollars, but I'll not be a guest for less than a hundred.

Man, like Deity, creates in his own image.

It is not deeds or acts that last: it is the written record of those deeds and acts.

A creed is an ossified metaphor.

I believe the Universe is planned for good.

All good men are anarchists. All cultured, kindly men; all gentlemen; all just men are anarchists. Jesus was an anarchist.

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

I am not sure just what the unpardonable sin is, but I believe it is a disposition to evade the payment of small bills.

One can play comedy, two are required for melodrama, but a tragedy demands three.

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

Our finest flowers are often weeds transplanted.

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.

It is not to be wondered that men have worshiped the ocean, for in his depths they have seen mirrored the image of Eternity of Infinity. Here they have seen the symbol of God's great plan of oneness with His creatures, for the sea is the union of all infinite particles, and it takes the whole to make the one.

Martyrs and persecutors are the same type of man. As to which is the persecutor and which the martyr, this is only a question of transient power.

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

Success is voltage under control-keeping one hand on the transformer of your Kosmic Kilowatts.

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

There is no freedom on earth or in any star for those who deny freedom to others.

One great, strong, unselfish soul in every community would actually redeem the world.

Every quarrel begins in nothing and ends in a struggle for supremacy.

Truth, in its struggles for recognition, passes through four distinct stages. First, we say it is damnable, dangerous, disorderly, and will surely disrupt society. Second, we declare it is heretical, infidelic and contrary to the Bible. Third, we say it is really a matter of no importance either one way or the other. Fourth, we aver that we have always upheld it and believed it.

Respectability is the dickey on the bosom of civilization.

There is a joy in going without things, a fine tang in eliminating the superfluous.

Don't lose faith in humanity; think of all the people in the United States who have never played you a single nasty trick.

It is only life and love that give love and life.

Life is a checkerboard, and the player opposite you is time. If you hesitate before moving, or neglect to move promptly, your men will be wiped off the board by time. You are playing against a partner who will not tolerate indecision!

Be patient with the boys - you are dealing with soul-stuff.

The inspirations of today are the shams of tomorrow the purpose has departed.

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

The past is one evil less and one memory more.

Every life is its own excuse for being, and to deny or refute the untrue things that are said of you is an error in judgment. All wrong recoils upon the doer, and the person who makes wrong statements about others is themselves to be pitied, not the person they vilify. It is better to be lied about than to lie. At the last no one can harm us but ourselves.

Wealth: A cunning device of Fate whereby men are made captive, and burdened with responsibilites from which only Death can file their fetters.