32 quotes
Men who marry for gratification, propagation or the matter of buttons or socks, must expect to cope with and deal in a certain amount of quibble, subterfuge, concealments, and double, deep-dyed prevarication.
The Note Book of Elbert Hubbard (1927)
The way to learn to earn a living is to go at it and earn a living.
The Note Book of Elbert Hubbard (1927)
Respectability is the dickey on the bosom of civilization.
The Note Book of Elbert Hubbard (1927)
Perfume; Any smell that is used to drown a worse one.
The Note Book of Elbert Hubbard (1927)
Our admiration is so given to dead martyrs that we have little time for living heroes.
The Note Book of Elbert Hubbard (1927)
Atheist: Any man who does not believe in himself.
The Note Book of Elbert Hubbard (1927)
Why not be a top-notcher? A top-notcher is simply an individual who works for the institution of which he is a part, not against it.
The Note Book of Elbert Hubbard (1927)
The great Big Black Things that have loomed against the horizon of my life, threatening to devour me, simply loomed and nothing more. The things that have really made me miss my train have always been sweet, soft, pretty, pleasant things of which I was not in the least afraid.
The Note Book of Elbert Hubbard (1927)
To remain on earth you must be useful, otherwise Nature regards you as old metal, and is only watching for a chance to melt you over.
The Note Book of Elbert Hubbard (1927)
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.
The Note Book of Elbert Hubbard (1927)
Do not go out of your way to do good whenever it comes your way. Men who make a business of doing good to others are apt to hate others in the same occupation. 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.
The Note Book of Elbert Hubbard (1927)
The weaknesses of the many make the leader possible—and 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. Discipleship is a degenerating process to all parties concerned. People who are able to do their own thinking should not allow others to do it for them.
The Note Book of Elbert Hubbard (1927)