Today marks the birthday of Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915,) a popular American salesman, author, and philosopher from the turn of the twentieth century.
This self-described “business man with a literary attachment” had an unusual career. Hubbard was a brilliant marketer and salesperson for a soap company. At age 37, he sold his shares in the company to establish an arts and crafts community called Roycroft in East Aurora, New York. Roycroft attracted publishers, bookbinders, and artisans who, although not paid well, had a great deal of freedom to experiment with and refine their trade-skills.
Hubbard wrote six novels and hundreds of inspirational biographical essays called Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great. His A Message to Garcia (1899) was a bestselling inspirational essay on sales and marketing. His satirical newspaper The Philistine: A Periodical of Protest had a monthly circulation of over 100,000.
In 1915, Hubbard died on a voyage from New York to Liverpool aboard the RMS Lusitania when a German submarine torpedoed it off the coast of Ireland. He is the author of “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade,” a popular proverb that urges optimism in the face of difficulty.
Inspirational Quotations by Elbert Hubbard
The best preparation for good work tomorrow is to do good work today.
—Elbert Hubbard (American Writer)
The happiness of this life depends less on what befalls you than the way in which you take it.
—Elbert Hubbard (American Writer)
The ineffable joy of forgiving and being forgiven forms an ecstasy that might well arouse the envy of the gods.
—Elbert Hubbard (American Writer)
Be pleasant until ten o’clock in the morning and the rest of the day will take care of itself.
—Elbert Hubbard (American Writer)
It does not take much strength to do things, but it requires a great deal of strength to decide what to do.
—Elbert Hubbard (American Writer)
We awaken in others the same attitude of mind we hold toward them.
—Elbert Hubbard (American Writer)
Live truth instead of professing it.
—Elbert Hubbard (American Writer)
Never explain—your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyhow.
—Elbert Hubbard (American Writer)
Do not take life too seriously—you will never get out of it alive.
—Elbert Hubbard (American Writer)
Folks who never do any more than they get paid for, never get paid for anymore than they do.
—Elbert Hubbard (American Writer)
Where parents do too much for their children, the children will not do much for themselves.
—Elbert Hubbard (American Writer)
The path of least resistance is what makes rivers run crooked.
—Elbert Hubbard (American Writer)
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 (American Writer)
Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped.
—Elbert Hubbard (American Writer)
If you err it is not for me to punish you. We are punished by our sins not for them.
—Elbert Hubbard (American Writer)
The best way to prepare for life is to begin to live.
—Elbert Hubbard (American Writer)
We find what we expect to find, and we receive what we ask for.
—Elbert Hubbard (American Writer)
He picked up the lemons that Fate had sent him and started a lemonade-stand.
—Elbert Hubbard (American Writer)
Money never made a fool of anybody; it only shows them up.
—Elbert Hubbard (American Writer)
Habit is a form of exercise.
—Elbert Hubbard (American Writer)
The cheerful loser is the winner.
—Elbert Hubbard (American Writer)
Genius is often only the power of making continuous efforts. The line between failure and success is so fine that we scarcely know when we pass it—so fine that we are often on the line and do not know it. 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. As the tide goes clear out, so it comes clear in. In business sometimes prospects may seem darkest when really they are on the turn. 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.
—Elbert Hubbard (American Writer)
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.
—Elbert Hubbard (American Writer)
What others say of me matters little, what I myself say and do matters much.
—Elbert Hubbard (American Writer)
People who are able to do their own thinking should not allow others to do it for them.
—Elbert Hubbard (American Writer)
A retentive memory may be a good thing, but the ability to forget is the true token of greatness.
—Elbert Hubbard (American Writer)
The reason men oppose progress is not that they hate progress, but that they love inertia.
—Elbert Hubbard (American Writer)
If you want work well done, select a busy man; the other kind has no time.
—Elbert Hubbard (American Writer)
Character is the result of two things: mental attitude and the way we spend our time.
—Elbert Hubbard (American Writer)
I believe in my own divinity—and yours.
—Elbert Hubbard (American Writer)
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.
—Elbert Hubbard (American Writer)
Constant effort and frequent mistakes are the stepping stones of genius.
—Elbert Hubbard (American Writer)
Some men succeed by what they know; some by what they do; and a few by what they are.
—Elbert Hubbard (American Writer)
Knowledge is the distilled essence of our intuitions, corroborated by experience.
—Elbert Hubbard (American Writer)
Luck is tenacity of purpose.
—Elbert Hubbard (American Writer)
Life is a compromise between fate and free will.
—Elbert Hubbard (American Writer)
Your friend is who man who knows all about you, and still likes you.
—Elbert Hubbard (American Writer)