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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.

-Elbert Hubbard

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In The Life Of

Elbert Hubbard

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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.

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I Pray That I May Never Meddle, Interfere, Dictate, Give Advice That Is Not Wanted, Or Assist When My Services Are Not Needed. If I Can Help People, I'll Do It By Giving Them A Chance To Help Themselves; And If I Can Uplift Or Inspire, Let It Be By Example, Inference And Suggestion, Rather Than By Injunction And Dictation. That Is To Say, I Desire To Be Radiant -- To Radiate Life!

I Believe In The Motherhood Of God.

A Legal Or Religious Ceremony By Which Two Persons Of The Opposite Sex Solemnly Agree To Harass And Spy On Each Other... Until Death Do Them Join.

The Love We Give Away Is The Only Love We Keep.

All Success Consists In This: You Are Doing Something For Somebody - Benefiting Humanity - And The Feeling Of Success Comes From The Consciousness Of This.

Man Creates Both His God And His Devil In His Own Image. His God Is Himself At His Best, And His Devil Himself At His Worst.

It Is A Curious Fact 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.

The Goal Of Evolution Is Self - Conquest

Public Opinion Is The Judgment Of The Incapable Many Opposed To That Of The Discerning Few.

Every Knock Is A Boost.

The Recipe For Perpetual Ignorance Is: Be Satisfied With Your Opinions And Content With Your Knowledge.

Religions Are Many And Diverse, But Reason And Goodness Are One.

Grammar Is The Grave Of Letters.

Writers Seldom Write The Things They Think. They Simply Write The Things They Think Other Folks Think They Think.

No One Ever Gets Far Unless He Accomplishes The Impossible At Least Once A Day.

Impossible Things

Possible And Impossible

Freedom Is The Supreme Good; Freedom From Self Imposed Limitation.

If You Work For A Man, In Heavens Name Work For Him! If He Pays You Wages That Supply Your Bread And Butter, Work For Him, Stand By Him, And Stand By The Institution He Represents.

There Is Something That Is Much More Scarce, Something Finer Far, Something Rarer Than Ability. It Is The Ability To Recognize Ability. The Sternest Comment That Can Be Made Against Employers As A Class Lies In The Fact That Men Of Ability Usually Succeed In Showing Their Worth In Spite Of Their Employer, And Not With His Assistance And Encouragement.

Jealousy Seems The Absolute Reversal Of Love. It Is The Swinging From The Sunny Warmth Of The Equator To The Frigid Cold Of The North Pole.

Happiness Is A Habit—cultivate It.

Positive Thinking

Strength And Strength's Will Are The Supreme Ethic. All Else Are Dreams From Hospital Beds, The Sly, Crawling Goodness Of Sneaking Souls.

No Man Should Dogmatize Except On The Subject Of Theology. Here He Can Take His Stand, And By Throwing The Burden Of Proof On The Opposition, He Is Invincible. We Have To Die To Find Out Whether He Is Right.

Burden Of Proof

Man, Like Deity, Creates In His Own Image.

I Wish To Live Without Hate, Whim, Jealousy, Envy, And Fear. I Wish To Be Simple, Honest, Frank, Natural . . To Face Any Obstacle And Meet Every Difficulty Unabashed And Unafraid.

I Do Not Read A Book; I Hold A Conversation With The Author.

The Only Foes That Threaten America Are The Enemies At Home, And These Are Ignorance, Superstition And Incompetence.

History: A Collection Of Epitaphs.

Lawyers Are Men Whom We Hire To Protect Us From Lawyers.

It Is The Weak Man Who Urges Compromise - Never The Strong Man.

The Hundred-point Man Is One Who Is True To Every Trust; Who Keeps His Word; Who Is Loyal To The Firm That Employs Him; Who Does Not Listen For Insults Nor Look For Slights; Who Carries A Civil Tongue In His Head; Who Is Polite To Strangers Without Being Fresh; Who Is Considerate Toward Servants; Who Is Moderate In His Eating And Drinking; Who Is Willing To Learn; Who Is Cautious And Yet Courageous.

Lovers Are Fools, But Nature Makes Them So.

Natural Joy Brings No Headaches And No Heartaches.

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.

When Certain Unmarried Men, Who Had Lost Their Capacity To Sin, Sat Indoors, Breathing Bad Air, And Passed Resolutions About What Was Right And What Wrong, Making Rules For The Guidance Of The People, Instead Of Trusting To The Natural, Happy Instincts Of The Individual, They Ushered In The Dark Ages. These Are The Gentlemen Who Blocked Human Evolution Absolutely For A Thousand Years.

Genius Is The Ability To Act Rightly Without Precedent - The Power To Do The Right Thing The First Time.

One Great, Strong, Unselfish Soul In Every Community Would Actually Redeem The World.

Freedom Is A Condition Of Mind, And The Best Way To Secure It Is To Breed It.

Wealth Is An Engine That Can Be Used For Power, If You Are An Engineer; But To Be Tied To The Fly Wheel Of An Engine Is Rather A Misfortune.

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.

A College Degree Does Not Lessen The Length Of Your Ears; It Only Conceals It.

There Are Three Sides To Every Question-where A Divorce Is Involved.

Heaven: The Coney Island Of The Christian Imagination.

I Will Gladly Lecture For Fifty Dollars, But I'll Not Be A Guest For Less Than A Hundred.

Imitation Is The Sincerest Form Of Insult.

Every Man Should Have A College Education In Order To Show Him How Little The Thing Is Really Worth.

Responsibility Is The Price Of Freedom.

Character Is The Result Of Two Things: Mental Attitude And The Way We Spend Our Time.

People Who Are Able To Do Their Own Thinking Should Not Allow Others To Do It For Them.

One Machine Can Do The Work Of Fifty Ordinary Men. No Machine Can Do The Work Of One Extraordinary Man.

It Is A Fine Thing To Have Ability, But The Ability To Discover Ability In Others Is The True Test.

Who Are The Happiest People On Earth? A Craftsman Or Artist Whistling Over A Job Well Done. A Little Child Building Sand Castles. A Mother, After A Busy Day, Bathing Her Baby. A Doctor Who Has Finished A Difficult And Dangerous Operation, And Saved A Human Life. Happiness Lies In A Constructive Job Well Done. Get Your Happiness Out Of Your Work Or You Will Never Know What Happiness Is.

Life Is A Movement Outward, An Unfolding.

The Trouble With Many Married People Is That They Are Trying To Get More Out Of Marriage Than There Is In It.

The Poor And Ignorant Will Continue To Lie And Steal As Long As The Rich And Educated Show Them How.

Seeing With Better Eyes We Can Recognize That The Offender Is A Valuable Human Being Who Struggles With The Same Needs, Pressures, And Confusions That We Struggle With. We Will Recognize That The Incident Really May Not Have Been About Us In The First Place. Instead It Was About The Wrongdoer's Misguided Attempt To Meet His Or Her Own Needs. As We Regard Offenders From This Point Of View (regardless Of Whether They Repent And Regardless Of What They Have Done Or Suffered), We Will Be In A Position To Forgive Them.

The Ineffable Joy Of Forgiving And Being Forgiven Forms An Ecstasy That Might Well Arouse The Envy Of The Gods.

Life In Abundance Comes Only Through Great Love.

Money Never Made A Fool Of Anybody; It Only Shows Them Up.

Woman's Inaptitude For Reasoning Has Not Prevented Her From Arriving At Truth; Nor Has Man's Ability To Reason Prevented Him From Floundering In Absurdity.

Parties Who Want Milk Should Not Seat Themselves On A Stool In The Middle Of The Field In Hope That The Cow Will Back Up To Them.

Prison Is A Socialist Paradise Where Equality Prevails, Everything Is Supplied, And Competition Is Eliminated.

Man's Greatest Blunder Has Been In Trying To Make Peace With The Skies Instead Of Making Peace With His Neighbors

Success Is Voltage Under Control-keeping One Hand On The Transformer Of Your Kosmic Kilowatts.

A Little More Patience, A Little More Charity For All, A Little More Devotion, A Little More Love; With Less Bowing Down To The Past, And A Silent Ignoring Of Pretended Authority; Brave Looking Forward To The Future With More Faith In Our Fellows, And The Race Will Be Ripe For A Great Burst Of Light And Life.

The Great Man Is Not So Great As Folks Think, And The Dull Man Is Not Quite So Stupid As He Seems. The Difference In Our Estimates Of Men Lies In The Fact That One Individual Is Able To Get His Goods Into The Show-window, And The Other Is Not Aware That He Has Any Show-window Or Any Goods.

Responsibiliti Es Gravitate To The Man Who Can Shoulder Them And The Power To Him Who Knows How

Never Explain - Your Friends Do Not Need It And Your Enemies Will Not Believe You Anyway.

To Have A Full Stomach And Fixed Income Are No Small Things .

The Greatest Mistake You Can Make In Life Is Continually Fearing That You'll Make One.

Half The Failures In Life Arise From Pulling In One's Horse As He Is Leaping. Happiness Is A Habit. Cultivate It.

Folks Who Never Do Any More Than They Get Paid For, Never Get Paid For Any More Than They Do

Where Parents Do Too Much For Their Children, The Children Will Not Do Much For Themselves.

As A Career, The Business Of An Orthodox Preacher Is About As Successful As That Of A Celluloid Dog Chasing An Asbestos Cat Through Hell.

An Enemy Is Anyone Who Tells The Truth About You.

Telling The Truth

A Man Is Not Paid For Having A Head And Hands, But For Using Them.

Old Ways Will Always Remain Unless Some One Invents A New Way And Then Lives And Dies For It

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.

Some Men Succeed By What They Know; Some By What They Do; And A Few By What They Are.

Politicians Regard The Public As A Cow To Be Milked

I Have No Perfect Panacea For Human Ills. And Even If I Had I Would Not Attempt To Present A System Of Philosophy Between The Soup And Fish.

Fear Is The Thought Of Admitted Inferiority.

Do You Say That Religion Is Still Needed? Then I Answer That Work, Study, Health And Love Constitute Religion. . . . Most Formal Religions Have Pronounced The Love Of Man For Woman And Woman For Man An Evil Thing. . . . They Have Said That Sickness Was Sent From God. . . . Now We Deny It All, And Again Proclaim That These Will Bring You All The Good There Is: Health, Work, Study - Love!

Insomnia Never Comes To A Man Who Has To Get Up Exactly At Six O'clock. Insomnia Troubles Only Those Who Can Sleep Any Time.

Freedom Cannot Be Bestowed - It Must Be Achieved.

We Make Our Money Out Of Our Friends. Our Enemies Will Not Do Business With Us.

God Looked Upon His Work And Saw That It Was Good. That Is Where The Clergy Take Issue With Him.

We Awaken In Others The Same Attitude Of Mind We Hold Toward Them.

Orthodoxy Is A Corpse That Doesn't Know It's Dead.

It May Happen Sometimes That A Long Debate Becomes The Cause Of A Longer Friendship. Commonly, Those Who Dispute With One Another At Last Agree.

Lost Friendship

Make Two Grins Grow Where There Was Only A Grouch Before.

Of All Blessings, No Gift Equals The Gentle, Trusting Love And Companionship Of A Good Woman.

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.

Be Pleasant Until Ten O'clock In The Morning And The Rest Of The Day Will Take Care Of Itself.

Thoroughness Characterizes All Successful Men. Genius Is The Art Of Taking Infinite Pains. All Great Achievement Has Been Characterized By Extreme Care, Infinite Painstaking, Even To The Minutest Detail.

Laughter Is Higher Than All Pain.

Every Man Is A Damn Fool For At Least Five Minutes Every Day; Wisdom Consists In Not Exceeding The Limit.

The Love You Liberate In Your Work Is The Love You Keep.

Fences Are Made For Those Who Cannot Fly.

Cultivate Only The Habits That You Are Willing Should Master You

When We Really Live Truth, We Will Cease To Talk About It.

There Is No Freedom On Earth Or In Any Star For Those Who Deny Freedom To Others.

The Great Man Is A Man Who Lives A Long Way Off.

To Make Mistakes Is Human, But To Profit From Them Is Divine.

True Life Lies In Laughter, Love And Work.

If I Supply You With A Thought, You May Remember It And You May Not. But If I Can Make You Think A Thought For Yourself, I Have Indeed Added To Your Stature.

A Good Front Is Half The Battle In Love Or War.

No Man Ever Did Or Can Do A Great Work Alone.

A Person Born With An Instinct For Poverty.

Dignity Is A Mask We Wear To Hide Our Ignorance.

Dogma Is A Lie Reiterated And Authoritatively Injected Into The Mind Of One Or More Persons Who Believe That They Believe What Someone Else Believes.

In These Days, A Man Who Says A Thing Cannot Be Done Is Quite Apt To Be Interrupted By Some Idiot Doing It.

Never Get Married In College; It's Hard To Get A Start If A Prospective Employer Finds You've Already Made One Mistake.

A Form Of Self-delusion.

Opportunities For Education Should Be Within The Reach Of Every Individual, Not For The Lucky Few.

Give Us A Religion That Will Help Us To Live - We Can Die Without Assistance.

God Will Not Look You Over For Medals Degrees Or Diplomas, But For Scars.

Do Not Dump Your Woes Upon People — Keep The Sad Story Of Your Life To Yourself. Troubles Grow By Recounting Them.

If There Is Any Better Way To Teach Virtue Than By Practicing It, I Do Not Know It.

Nature: The Unseen Intelligence Which Loved Us Into Being, And Is Disposing Of Us By The Same Token

An Ounce Of Performance Is Worth More Than A Pound Of Preachment.

Enthusiasm Is The Great Hill-climber.

We Work To Become, Not To Acquire.

Life Is A Voyage, And We Are All Sailing Under Sealed Orders. We Plan, Plot, Scheme And Arrange, And Some Fine Day Fate Steps In And Our Dreams Are Tossed Into The Yeasty Deep. We Grin And Bear It--anyway We Bear It: It Is The Only Thing To Do.

The Happiness Of This Life Depends Less On What Befalls You Than The Way In Which You Take It.

We Find What We Expect To Find, And We Receive What We Ask For.

Wealth: A Cunning Device Of Fate Whereby Men Are Made Captive, And Burdened With Responsibilites From Which Only Death Can File Their Fetters.

What People Need And What They Want May Be Very Different.... Teachers Are Those Who Educate The People To Appreciate The Things They Need.

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.

Strength Comes From Solitude, A Waiting, A Communion With The Best In Us, Which Is At One With The Divine Spark.

What People Need And What They Want May Be Very Different.

When You Once Attribute Effects To The Will Of A Personal God, You Have Let In A Lot Of Little Gods And Evils - Then Sprites, Fairies, Dryads, Naiads, Witches, Ghosts And Goblins, For Your Imagination Is Reeling, Riotous, Drunk, Afloat On The Flotsam Of Superstition. What You Know Then Doesn't Count. You Just Believe, And The More Your Believe The More Do You Plume Yourself That Fear And Faith Are Superior To Science And Seeing.

We Are Not Punished For Our Sins, But By Them.

Be Patient With The Boys - You Are Dealing With Soul-stuff.

The Newspapers Print What The People Want, And Thus Does The Savage Still Swing His Club And Flourish His Spear.

The Product Of The Head, Heart And Hand Is A Thing To Be Loved.

Gossip Is Only The Lack Of A Worthy Memory.

The Worst Thing About Medicine Is That One Kind Makes Another Necessary

Men Are Only As Great As They Are Kind.

The Thing We Fear We Bring To Pass.

Man Is Not What He Thinks He Is, But What He Thinks, He Is.

It Is Not Book Learning Young Men Need, Nor Instruction About This And That, But A Stiffening Of The Vertebra Which Will Cause Them To Be Loyal To A Trust, To Act Promptly, Concentrate Their Energies, Do A Thing.

A Man's Acts Are Usually Right, But His Reasons Seldom Are.

Impossible Things Are Simply Those Which So Far Have Never Been Done.

Impossible Things

Falling In Love Is The Beginning Of All Wisdom, All Sympathy, All Compassion, All Art, All Religion; And In It's Larger Sense Is The One Thing In Life Worth Doing.

If You Can't Answer A Man's Arguments, All Is Not Lost; You Can Still Call Him Vile Names.

A Book On Cheap Paper Does Not Convince. It Is Not Prized, It Is Like A Wheezy Doctor With Pigtail Tobacco Breath, Who Needs A Manicure.

The Home Is A Tryst-the Place Where We Retire And Shut The World Out.

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

Know What You Want To Do, Hold The Thought Firmly, And Do Every Day What Should Be Done, And Every Sunset Will See You That Much Nearer To Your Goal.

Of All The Mental And Physical Polluters Of Life, Nothing Exercises Such A Poisonous Effect As Fear.

I Would Rather Be Able To Appreciate Things I Can Not Have Than To Have Things I Am Not Able To Appreciate.

If Men Could Only Know Each Other, They Would Neither Idolize Nor Hate.

What Boy Well Raised Can Compare With Your Street Gamin Who Has The Knowledge And The Shrewdness Of A Grown-up Broker.

A Pessimist Is A Man Who Has Been Compelled To Live With An Optimist.

A Creed Is An Ossified Metaphor.

Action Is Thought Tempered By Illusion.

Logic: An Instrument Used For Bolstering A Prejudice.

A Failure Is A Man Who Has Blundered, But Is Not Able To Cash In The Experience.

Every Man Who Speaks Out Loud And Clear Is Tinting The "zeitgeist." Every Man Who Expresses What He Honestly Thinks Is True Is Changing The Spirit Of The Times. Thinkers Help Other People To Think, For They Formulate What Others Are Thinking. No Person Writes Or Thinks Alone--thought Is In The Air, But Its Expression Is Necessary To Create A Tangible Spirit Of The Times.

If Put To The Pinch, An Ounce Of Loyalty Is Worth A Pound Of Cleverness.

Loyal Customers

A Man Is As Good As He Has To Be, And A Woman Is As Bad As She Dares

Allow Motion To Equal Emotion.

An Executive Is One Who Makes An Immediate Decision And Is Sometimes Right

Play Needs Direction As Well As Work.

Love Is Not Really Blind- The Bandage Is Never So Tight But That It Can Peep.

The Difference In Men Does Not Lie In The Size Of Their Hands, Nor In The Perfection Of Their Bodies, But In This One Sublime Ability Of Concentration: To Throw The Weight In One Blow, To Live Eternity In An Hour.

Many People Fail In Life, Not For Lack Of Ability Or Brains Or Even Courage But Simply Because They Have Never Organized Their Energies Around A Goal.

Young Women With Ambitions Should Be Very Crafty And Cautious, Lest Mayhap They Be Caught In The Soft, Silken Mesh Of A Happy Marriage, And Go Down To Oblivion, Dead To The World.

Dreams Can Come True, But There Is A Secret. They're Realized Through The Magic Of Persistence, Determination, Commitment, Passion, Practice, Focus And Hard Work. They Happen A Step At A Time, Manifested Over Years, Not Weeks.

Fortitude: That Quality Of Mind Which Does Not Care What Happens So Long As It Does Not Happen To Us.

Little Minds Are Interested In The Extraordinary; Great Minds In The Commonplace.

A School Should Not Be A Preparation For Life. A School Should Be Life.

Live Truth Instead Of Professing It.

You Can Lead A Boy To College, But You Cannot Make Him Think.

Positive Anything Is Better Than Negative Nothing.

Prosperity: That Condition Which Attracts The Lively Interest Of Lawyers, And Warrants Your Being Sued For Damages, Or Indicted, Or Both.

The Heroic Man Does Not Pose; He Leaves That For The Man Who Wishes To Be Thought Heroic.

Self-discipline Is The Ability To Make Yourself Do What You Should Do, When You Should Do It, Whether You Feel Like It Or Not.

Organized Religion, Being Founded On Superstition, Is, Perforce, Not Scientific. And All That Which Is Not Scientific - That Is, Truthful - Must Be Bolstered Up By Force, Fear And Falsehood. Thus We Always Find Slavery And Organized Religion Going Hand In Hand.

Every Spirit Makes Its House, But As Afterwards The House Confines The Spirit, You Had Better Build Well.

Theology Is An Attempt To Explain A Subject By Men Who Do Not Understand It. The Intent Is Not To Tell The Truth But To Satisfy The Questioner.

Telling The Truth

I Believe The Universe Is Planned For Good.

Talent Does Things Tolerably Well; Genius Does Then Intolerably Better

An Imitator Is A Man Who Succeeds In Being An Imitation.

Mystic: A Person Who Is Puzzled Before The Obvious, But Who Understands The Non-existent.

When On The Brink Of Complete Discouragement, Success Is Discerning That...the Line Between Failure And Success Is So Fine That Often A Single Extra Effort Is All That Is Needed To Bring Victory Out Of Defeat.

The Past Is One Evil Less And One Memory More.

What We Call God's Justice Is Only Man's Idea Of What He Would Do If He Were God.

No Book Is Of Much Importance; The Vital Thing Is, What Do You Yourself Think?

History: Gossip Well Told.

God Is Good, There Is No Devil But Fear.

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.

Real Life Is In Love, Laughter, And Work.

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.

The Inspirations Of Today Are The Shams Of Tomorrow The Purpose Has Departed.

When Trouble Comes, Wise Men Take To Their Work; Weak Men Take To The Woods.

There Is Something That Is Much More Scarce, Something Finer Far, Something Rarer Than Ability. It Is The Ability To Recognize Ability.

Those Who Create Beauty Are Also They Who Possess It.

The Only Man Who Makes Money Following The Races Is One Who Does It With A Broom And Shovel.

No Good Sensible Working Bee Listens To The Advice Of A Bedbug On The Subject Of Business.

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