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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.

-Elbert Hubbard

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The Man Who Is

Elbert Hubbard

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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.

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More From Elbert Hubbard

History: A Collection Of Epitaphs.

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

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.

The Cheerful Loser Is The Winner.

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.

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.

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.

In A State Of Nature, The Weakest Go To The Wall; In A State Of Over-refinement, Both The Weak And The Strong Go To The Gutter.

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

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

Art Is Nothing; It's A Way.

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.

Responsibility Is The Price Of Freedom.

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

The Finest Flowers Are Those Transplanted, For Transplanting Means Difficulty, A Readjusting To New Conditions, And Through The Effort Put Forth To Find Adjustment Does The Plant Progress.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Path Of Civilization Is Paved With Tin Cans.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

Nothing Is Permanent But Change.

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

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

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

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

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

Men Are Only As Great As They Are Kind.

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

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

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

The Weaknesses Of The Many Make The Leader Possible.

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.

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

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

The Man Who Is So Run Down That He Needs A Vacation Can Never Adjust Or Reform Himself In Two Weeks. What He Really Needs Is To Re-transform His Life.

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

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

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

A Creed Is An Ossified Metaphor.

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

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

As We Grow Better, We Meet Better People.

The Supernatural Is The Natural Not Yet Understood.

Success Consists In The Climb.

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.

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.

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

Imitation Is The Sincerest Form Of Insult.

It Does Not Take Much Strength To Do Things, But It Requires Great Strength To Decide On What To Do.

Real Life Is In Love, Laughter, And Work.

The Past Is One Evil Less And One Memory More.

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

A Woman Will Doubt Everything You Say Except It Be Compliments To Herself.

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

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

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

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.

Reason: The Arithmetic Of The Emotions.

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

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.

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.

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.

Positive Anything Is Better Than Negative Nothing.

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

Do Not Take Life Too Seriously. You Will Never Get Out Of It Alive.

Luck Is Tenacity Of Purpose.

To Subjugate Another Is To Subjugate Yourself.

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

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.

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.

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 Object Of Teaching A Child Is To Enable Him To Get Along Without His Teacher.

If It Was Woman Who Put Man Out Of Paradise, It Is Still Woman, And Woman Only, Who Can Lead Him Back.

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

The Mintage Of Wisdom Is To Know That Rest Is Rust, And That Real Life Is Love, Laughter, And Work.

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

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

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

An American Religion: Work, Play, Breathe, Bathe, Study, Live, Laugh, And Love.

It Is Easy To Get Everything You Want, Provided You First Learn To Do Without The Things You Cannot Get.

Laughter Is Higher Than All Pain.

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

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

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

Falling In Love

Fear Clogs; Faith Liberates.

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

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.

Victory; A Matter Of Staying Power.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

Love Grows By Giving. The Love We Give Away Is The Only Love We Keep. The Only Way To Retain Love Is To Give It Away.

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

There Is No Failure Except The Failure Of Trying.

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

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.

Art Is Not A Thing; It Is A Way.

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

I Have Noticed That Youngsters Given To The Climbing Habit Usually Do Something When They Grow Up

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

Polygamy: An Endeavour To Get More Out Of Life Than There Is In It

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

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

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

If We Cannot Be Powerful And Happy And Prey On Others, We Invent Conscience And Prey On Ourselves.

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

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

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

Genius Is The Capacity Of Avoiding Hard Work.

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

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

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

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

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

The Artist Needs No Religion Beyond His Work.

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

I Believe The Universe Is Planned For Good.

Natural Joy Brings No Headaches And No Heartaches.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

God — The John Doe Of Philosophy And Religion.

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

Respectability Is The Dickey On The Bosom Of Civilization.

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.

Gossip Is Vice Enjoyed Vicariously

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

Die, V.: To Stop Sinning Suddenly.

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

Impossible Things

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

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

Enthusiasm Is Like Having Two Right Hands.

Service Culture

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

A Retentive Memory May Be A Good Thing, But The Ability To Forget Is The True Token Of Greatness.

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

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

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.

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

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

Those Who Do Unlawful Acts Are No More Sinners In The Eyes Of God Than We Who Think Them.

Fences Are Made For Those Who Cannot Fly.

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

Congratulations

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

As A Rule, The Man Who Can Do All Things Equally Well Is A Very Mediocre Individual.

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.

Friendship, Like Credit, Is Highest When It Is Not Used.

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

Growth Is Often A Painful Process.

Conformists Die, But Heretics Live Forever.

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.

Government Is A Kind Of Legalized Pillage.

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

Those Who Create Beauty Are Also They Who Possess It.

If You Work For A Man, In Heavens Name Work For Him! If He Pays You Wages That Supply You Your Bread And Butter, Work For Him Speak Well Of Him, Think Well Of Him, Stand By Him And Stand By The Institution He Represents. I Think If I Worked For A Man I Would Work For Him. I Would Not Work For Him A Part Of The Time, And The Rest Of The Time Work Against Him. I Would Give An Undivided Service Or None. If Put To The Pinch, An Ounce Of Loyalty Is Worth A Pound Of Cleverness.

Rivalry Is The Life Of Trade, And The Death Of The Trader.

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.

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.

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

Live Truth Instead Of Professing It.

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

Life Is A Movement Outward, An Unfolding.

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.

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

Cultivate Only The Habits That You Are Willing Should Master You

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.

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

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.

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

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