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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.

-Elbert Hubbard

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The Great Big Black

Elbert Hubbard

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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.

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Genius May Have Its Limitations, But Stupidity Is Not Thus Handicapped.

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Those Who Create Beauty Are Also They Who Possess It.

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

If You Suffer, Thank God! It Is A Sure Sign That You Are Alive.

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Theology, By Diverting The Attention Of Men From This Life To Another, And By Endeavoring To Coerce All Men Into One Religion, Constantly Preaching That This World Is Full Of Misery, But The Next World Would Be Beautiful - Or Not, As The Case May Be - Has Forced On Men The Thought Of Fear Where Otherwise There Might Have Been The Happy Abandon Of Nature.

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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.

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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.

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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.

True Life Lies In Laughter, Love And Work.

Fear Clogs; Faith Liberates.

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The Best Preparation For Good Work Tomorrow Is To Do Good Work Today.

Play Needs Direction As Well As Work.

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

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.

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

Don't Make Excuses, Make Good.

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

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

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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.

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.

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

The Secret Of Success Is This: There Is No Secret Of Success.

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The Cheerful Loser Is The Winner.

Habit: The Great Economizer Of Energy.

There Was One Who Thought Himself Above Me, And He Was Above Me Until He Had That Thought.

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

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Government Is A Kind Of Legalized Pillage.

Fear Is The Thought Of Admitted Inferiority.

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Action Is Thought Tempered By Illusion.

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Punishment - The Justice That The Guilty Deal Out To Those That Are Caught.

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

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

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Time Is An Eternal Guest That Banquets On Our Ideals And Bodies.

Blessed Is The Man Who Has Found Someone To Do His Work.

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Nothing Is Permanent But Change.

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

Natural Joy Brings No Headaches And No Heartaches.

Postponement: The Father Of Failure.

It Is Always The Nearest, Plainest And Simplest Principles That Learned Men Comprehend Last.

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Enthusiasm Is The Great Hill-climber.

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A Creed Is An Ossified Metaphor.

Happiness Is A Habit—cultivate It.

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Philosophy Rests On A Proposition That Whatever Is Is Right. Preaching Begins By Assuming That Whatever Is Is Wrong.

Destruction, Violence, Ravages, Murder, Are Perpetrated By Statute Law.

Habit Is A Form Of Exercise.

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I Believe In The Hands That Work, In The Brains That Think, And In The Hearts That Love...i Believe In Sunshine, Fresh Air, Friendship, Calm Sleep, Beautiful Thoughts.

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

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

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

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

Library: A Place Where The Dead Lie.

I Believe In The Motherhood Of God.

Business Is A Fight, A Continual Struggle, Just As Life Is

Self-control Is The Ability To Restrain A Laugh At The Wrong Place.

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

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

The Thing We Fear We Bring To Pass.

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

We Never Ask God To Forgive Anybody Except When We Haven't.

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

Life Is A Paradox. Every Truth Has Its Counterpart Which Contradicts It; And Every Philosopher Supplies The Logic His Own Undoing.

The Average Man Believes A Thing First, And Then Searches For Proof To Bolster His Opinion

Where Much Is Expected From An Individual, He May Rise To The Level Of Events And Make The Dream Come True.

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.

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.

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

Morality Is The Thing Upon Which Your Friends Smile, And Immorality Is The Thing Upon Which They Frown

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.

It's Pretty Hard To Be Efficient Without Being Obnoxious.

A Man Who Marries A Woman To Educate Her Falls Victim To The Same Fallacy As The Woman Who Marries A Man To Reform Him.

Respectability Is The Dickey On The Bosom Of Civilization.

In God's Great Vaudeville, Mother Is The Headliner.

We Work To Become, Not To Acquire.

Heaven: The Coney Island Of The Christian Imagination.

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

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?

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

Positive Anything Is Better Than Negative Nothing.

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

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

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

Luck Is Tenacity Of Purpose.

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Genius Is Only The Power Of Making Continuous Efforts.

There Is No Failure Except The Failure Of Trying.

You Had Better Be A Round Peg In A Square Hole Than A Square Peg In A Square Hole. The Latter Is In For Life, While The First Is Only An Indeterminate Sentence.

Everything Comes Too Late For Those Who Only Wait.

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

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Men Whose Lives Are Doubtful Want A Strong Government And A Hot Religion

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

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

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

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

If Your Religion Does Not Change You, Then You Had Better Change Your Religion.

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