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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.

-Elbert Hubbard

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Many People Fail In

Elbert Hubbard

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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.

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Fear Is The Thought Of Admitted Inferiority.

There Have Always Existed Three Ways Of Keeping The People Loving And Loyal. One Is To Leave Them Alone, To Trust Them And Not To Interfere. This Plan, However, Has Very Seldom Been Practised, Because The Politicians Regard The Public As A Cow To Be Milked, And Something Must Be Done To Make It Stand Quiet.

Action Is Thought Tempered By Illusion.

Wisdom Must Go With Sympathy, Else The Emotions Will Become Maudlin And Pity May Be Wasted On A Poodle Instead Of A Child-on A Field-mouse Instead Of A Human Soul.

Miracle: An Event Described By Those To Whom It Was Told By Men Who Did Not See It.

The Man Who Is Anybody And Who Does Anything Is Surely Going To Be Criticized, Vilified, And Misunderstood. This Is A Part Of The Penalty For Greatness, And Every Great Man Understands It; And Understands, Too, That It Is No Proof Of Greatness. The Final Proof Of Greatness Lies In Being Able To Endure Contumely Without Resentment.

Be Yourself And Think For Yourself, And While Your Conclusions May Not Be Infallible They Will Be Nearer Right Than The Inclusions Forced Upon You By Those Who Have A Personal Interest In Keeping You In Ignorance.

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.

Piety Is The Tinfoil Of Pretense.

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

As We Grow Better, We Meet Better People.

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 Woman Who Cannot Tell A Lie In Defense Of Her Husband, Is Unworthy Of The Name Of Wife.

God — The John Doe Of Philosophy And Religion.

It Does Not Make Much Difference What A Person Studies-all Knowledge Is Related, And The Man Who Studies Anything, If He Keeps At It, Will Be Learned.

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

I Believe It Is Possible That I Shall Make Other Creeds, And Change This One, Or Add To It, From Time To Time, As New Light May Come To Me.

The Cure For Grief Is Motion.

The Brain Is A Commodity Used To Fertilize Ideas.

Most Reformers Wore Rubber Boots And Stood On Glass When God Sent A Current Of Commonsense Through The Universe.

Meanness Is More In Half-doing Than In Omitting Acts Of Generosity.

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

Every Quarrel Begins In Nothing And Ends In A Struggle For Supremacy.

The Average Woman Sees Only The Weak Points In A Strong Man, And The Good Points In A Weak One.

The More One Knows, The More One Simplifies.

Art Is Not A Thing; It Is A Way.

All Noise Is Waste. So Cultivate Quietness In Your Speech, In Your Thoughts, In Your Emotions. Speak Habitually Low. Wait For Attention And Then You Low Words Will Be Charged With Dynamite.

Laughter Is Higher Than All Pain.

There Is No Failure Except The Failure Of Trying.

Success Consists In The Climb.

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

Cultivate Only The Habits That You Are Willing Should Master You

Charity: A Thing That Begins At Home, And Usually Stays There.

Genius Is Only The Power Of Making Continuous Efforts.

Respectability Is The Dickey On The Bosom Of Civilization.

No Man Needs A Vacation So Much As The Man Who Has Just Had One.

No Matter How Long You Live, Die Young.

Some Men Can Get Results If Kindly Encouraged, But Give Me The Kind That Do Things In Spite Of Hell.

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

One Thing Is Sure, There Are Just Two Respectable Ways To Die. One Is Of Old Age, And The Other Is By Accident.

Conformists Die, But Heretics Live Forever.

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.

I Believe In Salvation Through Economic, Social, And Spiritual Freedom.

The Teacher Is One Who Makes Two Ideas Grow Where Only One Grew Before.

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!

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.

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

The Businessman Is One Who Supplies Something Great And Good To The World, And Collects From The World For The Goods.

Editor: A Person Employed By A Newspaper, Whose Business It Is To Separate The Wheat From The Chaff, And To See That The Chaff Is Printed.

The Path Of Civilization Is Paved With Tin Cans.

Nothing Is Permanent But Change.

War Is The Sure Result Of The Existence Of Armed Men. That Country Which Maintains A Large Standing Army Will Sooner Or Later Have A War. The Man Who Prides Himself On Fisticuffs Is Going, Some Day, To Meet A Man Who Considers Himself The Better Man, And They Will Test The Issue.

The Stupidity Of One Brain Multiplied By Twelve.

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

Progress Comes From The Intelligent Use Of Experience.

There Is A Wild, Splendid, Intoxicating Joy That Follows Work Well Done.

All Good Men Are Anarchists. All Cultured, Kindly Men; All Gentlemen; All Just Men Are Anarchists. Jesus Was An Anarchist.

The Best Way To Prepare For Life Is To Begin To Live.

I Believe The Only Way We Can Reach The Kingdom Of Heaven Is To Have The Kingdom Of Heaven In Our Hearts.

Pray That Success Will Not Come Any Faster Than You Are Able To Endure It.

Congratulations

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

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

If You Want Work Well Done, Select A Busy Man - The Other Kind Has No Time.

Perfume: Any Smell That Is Used To Drown A Worse One.

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

Constant Effort And Frequent Mistakes Are The Stepping Stones To Genius.

Formal Religion Was Organized For Slaves: It Offered Them Consolation Which Earth Did Not Provide.

If You Don't Advertise Yourself You Will Be Advertised By Your Loving Enemies.

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

A Poor Man Who Eats Too Much, As Contradistinguished From A Gourmand, Who Is A Rich Man Who ''lives Well.''

To Subjugate Another Is To Subjugate Yourself.

Politicians Regard The Public As A Cow To Be Milked

If You Have No Enemies You Are Apt To Be In The Same Predicament In Regard To Friends.

Lovers Are Fools, But Nature Makes Them So.

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

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

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

Human Service Is The Highest Form Of Self-interest For The Person Who Serves.

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.

Enthusiasm Is The Great Hill-climber.

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.

To Avoid Criticism, Do Nothing, Say Nothing And Be Nothing.

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

Every Tyrant Who Ever Lived Has Believed In Freedom — For Himself.

To Know The Great Men Dead Is Compensation For Having To Live With The Mediocre.

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.

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.

Often We Can Help Each Other Most By Leaving Each Other Alone; At Other Times We Need The Hand-grasp And The Word Of Cheer.

A Person May Be Very Secretive And Yet Have No Secrets.

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

Whom The Gods Love Die Young No Matter How Long They Live.

Optimism Is A Kind Of Heart Stimulant - The Digitalis Of Failure.

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

To Supply A Thought Is Mental Massage; But To Evolve A Thought Of Your Own Is An Achievement. Thinking Is A Brain Exercise And No Faculty Grows Save As It Is Exercised.

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

God Is Good, There Is No Devil But Fear.

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

Life Is A Movement Outward, An Unfolding.

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

A Friend Is One Who Knows You And Loves You Just The Same.

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.

All Wages Are Based Primarily On Productive Power. Anything Else Would Be Charity.

Logic: An Instrument Used For Bolstering A Prejudice.

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

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.

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

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!

A Person Born With An Instinct For Poverty.

Art Is Nothing; It's A Way.

Lawyers Are The Jackals Of Commerce.

Every Knock Is A Boost.

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

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

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

Pessimist: One Who Has Been Intimately Acquainted With An Optimist.

Down In Their Hearts, Wise Men Know This Truth: The Only Way To Help Yourself Is To Help Others.

A Little More Persistence, A Little More Effort, And What Seemed Hopeless Failure May Turn To Glorious Success.

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

It Is Not Deeds Or Acts That Last: It Is The Written Record Of Those Deeds And Acts.

The Reason Men Oppose Progress Is Not That They Hate Progress, But That They Love Inertia.

Football: A Sport That Bears The Same Relation To Education That Bullfighting Does To Agriculture.

Our Finest Flowers Are Often Weeds Transplanted.

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.

He Who Does Not Understand Your Silence Will Probably Not Understand Your Words.

Most Diseases Are The Result Of Medication Which Has Been Prescribed To Relieve And Take Away A Beneficent And Warning Symptom On The Part Of Nature.

Laws That Do Not Embody Public Opinion Can Never Be Enforced.

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

We Will Not Be Dictated To By Men With Less Intelligence, Energy, Initiative And Ambition Than We Ourselves Possess.

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.

Not Only Does Beauty Fade, But It Leaves A Record Upon The Face As To What Became Of It.

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

We Are Punished By Our Sins, Not For Them.

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.

The Cheerful Loser Is The Winner.

The Past Is One Evil Less And One Memory More.

The Teacher Is The One Who Gets The Most Out Of The Lessons, And That The True Teacher Is A Learner.

Live Truth Instead Of Professing It.

Gossip Is Only The Lack Of A Worthy Memory.

Man Is Creation's Masterpiece. But Who Says So?

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

He Who Influences The Thought Of His Times Influences The Times That Follow.

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

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

Academic Education Is The Act Of Memorizing Things Read In Books, And Things Told By College Professors Who Got Their Education Mostly By Memorizing Things Read In Books.

Don't Lose Faith In Humanity; Think Of All The People In The United States Who Have Never Played You A Single Nasty Trick.

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

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.

Life Is A Checkerboard, And The Player Opposite You Is Time. If You Hesitate Before Moving, Or Neglect To Move Promptly, Your Men Will Be Wiped Off The Board By Time. You Are Playing Against A Partner Who Will Not Tolerate Indecision!

In Order To Have Friends, You Must First Be One.

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

A Committee Is A Thing Which Takes A Week To Do What One Good Man Can Do In An Hour.

The Average Man Plays To The Gallery Of His Own Self-esteem.

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.

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 New Definition Of A Heathen Is A Man Who Has Never Played Baseball.

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.

Wise Man: One Who Sees The Storm Coming Before The Clouds Appear.

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.

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

Allow Motion To Equal Emotion.

I Believe In Courtesy, In Kindness, In Generosity, In Good Cheer, In Friendship And In Honest Competition. I Believe There Is Something Doing Somewhere, For Every Man Ready To Do It. I Believe I'm Ready, Right Now.

Growth Is Often A Painful Process.

Orthodoxy: That Peculiar Condition Where The Patient Can Neither Eliminate An Old Idea Nor Absorb A New One.

The Artist Needs No Religion Beyond His Work.

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

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

Yesterday Woman Was A Chattel. Now She Is, In Law, A Minor. Tomorrow She Will Be Free, Or Partially So--that Is To Say, As Free As Man.

No Great Spiritual Event Befalls Those Who Do Not Summon It.

A Goal Without A Plan Is A Dream.

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.

One Can Endure Sorrow Alone, But It Takes Two To Be Glad.

Habit: The Great Economizer Of Energy.

Most People Like Hard Work, Particularly When They're Paying For It.

A Form Of Self-delusion.

The Sculptor Produces The Beautiful Statue By Chipping Away Such Parts Of The Marble Block As Are Not Needed - It Is A Process Of Elimination.

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

If You Have Health, You Probably Will Be Happy, And If You Have Health And Happiness, You Have All The Wealth You Need, Even If It Is Not All You Want.

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

Every Life Is Its Own Excuse For Being.

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.

Your Enemy Is One Who Misunderstands You; Why Should You Not Rise Above The Fog And See His Error And Respect Him For The Good Qualities You Find In Him?

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

Happiness Is A Habit—cultivate It.

Positive Thinking

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

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.

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

I Rather Like The World. The Flesh Is Pleasing And The Devil Does Not Trouble Me.

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.

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

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

Success Is The Most Natural Thing In The World. The Person Who Does Not Succeed Has Placed Himself In Opposition To The Laws Of The Universe.

So Long As Governments Set The Example Of Killing Their Enemies, Private Individuals Will Occasionally Kill Theirs.

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.

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

Prophecy - To Observe That Which Has Passed, And Guess It Will Happen Again.

Success - To Rise From The Illusion Of Pursuit To The Disillusion Of Possession.

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

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

Life Is A Compromise Between Fate And Free Will.

Do Your Work With Your Whole Heart, And You Will Succeed - There's So Little Competition.

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