Background Image

...

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.

-Elbert Hubbard

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

The Line Between Failure

Elbert Hubbard

...

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.

Views: 5

Topic

More From Elbert Hubbard

Many A Man's Reputation Would Not Know His Character If They Met On The Street.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

Allow Motion To Equal Emotion.

Genius Is The Capacity Of Avoiding Hard Work.

Our Finest Flowers Are Often Weeds Transplanted.

No Matter How Long You Live, Die Young.

Postponement: The Father Of Failure.

Some One Has Said That We Are Moving So Fast That When Plans Are Being Made To Perform Some Great Feat, These Plans Are Broken Into By A Youth Who Enters And Says, “i Have Done It."

Live Truth Instead Of Professing It.

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

Theology Is Classified Superstition.

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.

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

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

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.

Enthusiasm Is The Great Hill-climber.

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

What Others Say Of Me Matters Little; What I Myself Say And Do Matters Much.

Happiness Is A Habit—cultivate It.

Positive Thinking

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

Impossible Things

If You Work For A Man, In Heaven's Name Work For Him, Speak Well Of Him, And Stand By The Institution He Represents. Remember, An Ounce Of Loyalty Is Worth A Pound Of Cleverness. If You Must Growl, Condemn, And Eternally Find Fault - Resign Your Position, And When You Are Outside, Damn To Your Heart's Content - But As Long As You Are Part Of The Institution, Do Not Condemn It. If You Do, The First High Wind That Comes Along Will Blow You Away, And Probably You Will Never Know Why.

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.

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.

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

Strong Men Can Always Afford To Be Gentle. Only The Weak Are Intent On Giving As Good As They Get.

Get Happiness Out Of Your Work Or You May Never Know What Happiness Is.

Every Knock Is A Boost.

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

Our Desires Always Disappoint Us; For Though We Meet With Something That Gives Us Satisfaction, Yet It Never Thoroughly Answers Our Expectation.

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

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

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.

Enthusiasm Is Like Having Two Right Hands.

Service Culture

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.

The Reward Of A Good Deed Is In Having Done It.

Those Who Create Beauty Are Also They Who Possess It.

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

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.

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

Fear Is The Thought Of Admitted Inferiority.

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

The Final Proof Of Greatness Lies In Being Able To Endure Contumely Without Resentment.

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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.

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

The Past Is One Evil Less And One Memory More.

Your Neighbor Is The Man Who Needs You.

Art Is Not A Thing; It Is A Way.

Government Is A Kind Of Legalized Pillage.

Everything Comes Too Late For Those Who Only Wait.

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

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.

Imitation Is The Sincerest Form Of Insult.

Love, We Say, Is Life; But Love Without Hope And Faith Is Agonizing Death.

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

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

Talent Does Things Tolerably Well; Genius Does Then Intolerably Better

True Life Lies In Laughter, Love And Work.

Life Without Absorbing Occupation Is Hell; Joy Consists In Forgetting Life.

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

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.

Study: Concentration Of The Mind On Whatever Will Ultimately Put Something In Your Pocket.

Men Who Sit Back And Pride Themselves On Their Culture Haven't Any To Speak Of.

A Conservative Is A Man Who Is Too Cowardly To Fight And Too Fat To Run.

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

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.

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

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

The Man Who Knows It Can't Be Done Counts The Risk, Not The Reward.

Reversing Your Treatment Of The Man You Have Wronged Is Better Than Asking His Forgiveness.

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

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.

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

Souls Are Made Of Dawn-stuff And Starshine.

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

Lawyers Are The Jackals Of Commerce.

The Man Who Has No Problems Is Out Of The Game.

Habit: The Great Economizer Of Energy.

If Men Will Not Act For Themselves, What Will They Do When The Benefit Of Their Effort Is For All?

One Can Play Comedy, Two Are Required For Melodrama, But A Tragedy Demands Three.

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

Art Is The Beautiful Way Of Doing Things. Science Is The Effective Way Of Doing Things. Business Is The Economic Way Of Doing Things.

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.

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

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

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

Gossip Is Only The Lack Of A Worthy Memory.

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 Path Of Civilization Is Paved With Tin Cans.

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

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

The Art Of Winning In Business Is In Working Hard - Not Taking Things Too Seriously.

Put Yourself In The Other Man's Place And Then You Will Know Why He Thinks Certain Things And Does Certain Deeds.

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

This Will Never Be A Civilized Country Until We Spend More Money For Books Than We Do For Chewing Gum.

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

Don't Make Excuses, Make Good.

Life Is A Movement Outward, An Unfolding.

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

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.

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

Impossible Things

Possible And Impossible

The Cheerful Loser Is The Winner.

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.

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.

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

Two-thirds Of All Preachers, Doctors And Lawyers Are Hanging On To The Coat Tails Of Progress, Shouting, Whoa! While A Good Many Of The Rest Are Busy Strewing Banana Peels Along The Line Of March.

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

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

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.

A Creed Is An Ossified Metaphor.

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.

Christianity Supplies A Hell For The People Who Disagree With You And A Heaven For Your Friends.

I Believe That The Best Way To Prepare For A Future Life Is To Be Kind, Live One Day At A Time, And Do The Work You Can Do Best, Doing It As Well As You Can.

One Day At A Time

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

Piety Is The Tinfoil Of Pretense.

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

The Friend Is The Man Who Knows All About You, And Still Likes You.

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

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

Habit Is A Form Of Exercise.

Failure -- The Man Who Can Tell Others What To Do And How To Do It, But Never Does It Himself.

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

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

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

When A Man Sends You An Impudent Letter, Sit Right Down And Give It Back To Him With Interest Ten Times Compounded, And Then Throw Both Letters In The Wastebasket.

Positive Anything Is Better Than Negative Nothing.

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

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

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

Loyal Customers

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.

We Are Punished By Our Sins, Not For Them.

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.

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

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

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.

The Highest Reward That God Gives Us For Good Work Is The Ability To Do Better Work.

The Wise Way To Benefit Humanity Is To Attend To Your Own Affairs, And Thus Give Other People An Opportunity To Look After Theirs.

Life Consists In Molting Our Illusions. We Form Creeds Today Only To Throw Them Away Tomorrow. The Eagle Molts A Feather Because He Is Growing A Better One.

The Only Way To Retain Love Is To Give It Away.

Falling In Love

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

The Stupidity Of One Brain Multiplied By Twelve.

Victory; A Matter Of Staying Power.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Freedom Cannot Be Bestowed - It Must Be Achieved.

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.

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

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.

The Valuable Person In Any Business Is The Individual Who Can And Will Cooperate With Others.

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

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.

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.

The Man Who Doesn't Relax And Hoot A Few Hoots Voluntarily, Now And Then, Is In Great Danger Of Hooting Hoots And Standing On His Head For The Edification Of The Pathologist And Trained Nurse, A Little Later On.

Natural Joy Brings No Headaches And No Heartaches.

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.

Life Is Just One Damned Thing After Another.

Every Life Is Its Own Excuse For Being.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

Genius Is Only The Power Of Making Continuous Efforts.

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

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

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

Good Health! Whenever You Go Out Of Doors, Draw The Chin In, Carry The Crown Of Your Head High, And Fill The Lungs To The Utmost; Drink In Sunshine; Greet Your Friends With A Smile, And Put Soul Into Every Handclasp. Do Not Fear Being Misunderstood And Never Waste A Minute Thinking About Your Enemies.

Thinking About You

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

Nothing Is Permanent But Change.

The Fool Is Not The Man Who Merely Does Foolish Things. The Fool Is The Man Who Does Not Know Enough To Cash In On His Foolishness.

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

Responsibility Is The Price Of Freedom.

The Line Between Failure And Success Is So Fine That We Are Often On The Line And Do Not Know It. How Many A Person Has Thrown Up His Or Her Hands At A Time When A Little More Effort, A Little More Patience, Would Have Achieved Success. A Little More Persistence, A Little More Effort, And What Seemed Hopeless Failure May Turn To Glorious Success.

Conformists Die, But Heretics Live Forever.

I Believe In The Motherhood Of God.

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

Would You Make Men Better - Set Them An Example. The Millenium Will Never Come Until Governments Cease From Governing, And The Meddler Is At Rest.

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

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.

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.

Trending Author

Russell Simmons

Francois Rabelais

Stephen Ambrose

Category