Elbert Hubbard

If you work for a man, in heavens name work for him!If he pays you wages that supply you your bread and butter, work for himspeak well of him, think well of him, stand by him and stand by the institution he represents. I think if I worked for a man I would work for him. I would not work for him a part of the time, and the rest of the time work against him. I would give an undivided service or none. If put to the pinch, an ounce of loyalty is worth a pound of cleverness.

— Elbert Hubbard

The point I wish to make is this: [President William] McKinley gave Rowan a letter to be delivered to Garcia; Rowan took the letter & did not ask, Where is he at? By the Eternal! there is a man whose form should be cast in deathless bronze & the statue placed in every college of the land. It is not book-learning young men need, nor instruction about this and that, but a stiffening of the vertebrae which will cause them to be loyal to a trust, to act promptly, concentrate their energies: do the thingCarry a message to Garcia!

— Elbert Hubbard

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

— Elbert Hubbard

Marriage is easy, and divorce difficult, because this is Nature's plan. The natural law of attraction brings men and women together, and it is difficult to separate them. . . . Most couples who desire freedom only think they do: what they really want is a vacation; but they would not separate for good if they could. It is hard to part--people who have lived together grow to need each other. They want someone to quarrel with.

— Elbert Hubbard

Divorce is a heroic remedy for an awful condition. It is the culmination of a fearful tragedy. I know of nothing worse than incompatibility. There is no hell equal to the hell of having to live with a person who is not your own.

— Elbert Hubbard

If you want a piece of work well and thoroughly done, pick a busy man. The man of leisure postpones and procrastinates, and is ever making preparations and "getting things in shape"; but the ability to focus on a thing and do it is the talent of the man seemingly o'erwhelmed with work.

— Elbert Hubbard

There is only one valid reason for sending a boy to college, and that is, so he can discover for himself that there is nothing in it. A college degree, as matters now stand, is like a certificate of character--useful only to those who need it. However, there must surely come a time when degrees will be given only to those who can earn a living--and this degree will be signed by the young man's employer.

— Elbert Hubbard

The youth of twenty-one who has health, hope, ambition, and animation is not to be pitied. Poverty is only for the people who think poverty.

— Elbert Hubbard

One's thirtieth birthday and one's seventieth are days that press their message home with iron hand. With his seventieth milestone past, a man feels that his work is done, and dim voices call to him from across the Unseen. His work is done, and so illy, compared with what he had wished and expected! But the impressions made upon his heart by the day are no deeper than those his thirtieth birthday inspires. At thirty, youth, with all it palliates and excuses, is gone forever. The time for mere fooling is past; the young avoid you, or else look up to you and tempt you to grow reminiscent. You are a man and must give an account of yourself.

— Elbert Hubbard

Constant effort and frequent mistakes are the stepping stones of genius.

— Elbert Hubbard

Troubles grow by recounting them.

— Elbert Hubbard

The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.

— Elbert Hubbard

I believe there is no devil but fear.

— Elbert Hubbard

Life is a compromise between fate and free will.

— Elbert Hubbard

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

— Elbert Hubbard