- The Wit & Wisdom of Elbert Hubbard
- Elbert Hubbard ran the Roycroft Shops in East Aurora, New York from 1895 until 1915. Among his credits is that of helping introduce to America the Arts and Crafts style of William Morris. The Roycrofters published fine books and magazines many written by Hubbard himself. He, excelled in the writing of mottos and epigrams. He wrote numerous booklets and magazine articles filled with his own proverbs.
- Some howl before they are hurt, others refuse to groan even afterwards.
- If you lend a willing ear to a man's troubles, you make them your own, and you do not lessen his.
- Be pleasant until ten o'clock in the morning and the rest of the day will take care of itself.
- I would rather have a big burden and a strong back
- than a weak back and a caddy to carry life's luggage.
- Requisites for strong character: bold design, constant practice, frequent mistakes.
- Many a man's reputation would not know his character if they met on the street.
- If your religion does not change you, then you had better change your religion.
- Do not dump your woes upon people - keep the sad story of your life to yourself.
- Troubles grow by recounting them.
- Men are valuable just in proportion as they are able and willing to work in harmony with other men. When a person loses his ability to cooperate with others, he has joined the Down-&-Out Club.
- Mutual favors do not cancel each other.
- The ideas that benefit a man are seldom welcomed by him on first presentation.
- Men who sit back and pride themselves on their culture haven't any to speak of.
- I am not sure just what the unpardonable sin is,
- but I believe it is a disposition to evade the payment of small bills.
- Good people are only half as good, and bad people only half as bad, as other people regard them.
- Reversing your treatment of the man you have wronged is better than asking forgiveness.
- If you have no enemies, you are apt to be in the same predicament in regard to friends.
- At the last no one can harm us but ourselves.
- If you would have friends, cultivate solitude instead of society.
- Friends and credit pursue the man who does not need them.
- Don't be selfish.If you have something that you do not want, and know some one who has no use for it,give it to that person. In this way you can be generous without expenditure or self-denial,
- and also help another to be the same.
- Human hearts are full of love, tenderness and sympathy - hold the right mental attitude and you have the key that unlocks them all. We are afloat on an ocean of Good Will-let down your buckets.
- To be gentle, generous, lenient, forgiving, and yet never relinquish the vital thing-
- this is to be great.
- A retentive memory is a good thing, but the ability to forget is the true token of greatness.
- Happiness lies in equality.
- The wide domain of happiness has never been mapped; but sorrow has been surveyed and known in every part.
- No man is a hero to his valet.
- Graft is a fool policy.
- Ignorance is not so bad as deception.
- Reserve your best thoughts for the elect few.
- If men could only know each other, they would never either idolize or hate.
- Only wise men know how to play the fool.
- I do not read a book: I hold a conversation with the author.
- Talk less and listen more.
- Get weaned - in God's name, get weaned!
- 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.
- One can endure sorrow alone, but it takes two to be glad.
- Only by giving out our joy do we make it our own - by sharing, we double it.
- Great and wise men have ever loved laughter.
- The vain, the ignorant, the dishonest, the pretentious, alone have dreaded or despised it.
- The selfish wish to govern is often mistaken for a holy zeal in the cause of humanity.
- There are some things that should never be mentioned in polite society -
- f'r instance, the doings of Polite Society.
- Helpful men are safe men.
- It is a curious fact (or it is n't) that of all the illusions that beset mankind none is quite so curious as that tendency to suppose that we are mentally and morally superior
- to those who differ from us in opinion.
- This working for a common cause dilutes the sectarian ego, dissolves village caste, makes neighbor acquainted with neighbor, and liberates a vast amount of human love, which otherwise would remain hermetically sealed.
- Things that chew the cud do not catch anything.
Copyright © 1999, Frank Granger
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