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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.

-Elbert Hubbard

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When Certain Unmarried Men,

Elbert Hubbard

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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.

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

Men Are Only As Great As They Are Kind.

Imitation Is The Sincerest Form Of Insult.

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

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

Grammar Is The Grave Of Letters.

Every Knock Is A Boost.

I Believe The Universe Is Planned For Good.

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.

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

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

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

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

History: A Collection Of Epitaphs.

The Brain Is A Commodity Used To Fertilize Ideas.

Nothing Is Permanent But Change.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

Play Needs Direction As Well As Work.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

Live Truth Instead Of Professing It.

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

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

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

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

Library: A Place Where The Dead Lie.

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

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

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

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

Real Life Is In Love, Laughter, And Work.

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

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

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

Knowledge Is The Distilled Essence Of Our Institutions, Corroborated By Experience.

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

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

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

You Can Go Wrong By Being Too Skeptical As Readily As By Being Too Trusting. You Can Lead A Boy To College But You Cannot Make Him Think.

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

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

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

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

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

Growth Is Often A Painful Process.

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

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

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.

Natural Joy Brings No Headaches And No Heartaches.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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Art Is Nothing; It's A Way.

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

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

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

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

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

The Finest Friendships Are Between Those Who Can Do Without Each Other.

Freedom Cannot Be Bestowed - It Must Be Achieved.

Everything Comes Too Late For Those Who Only Wait.

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

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

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.

There Is A Joy In Going Without Things, A Fine Tang In Eliminating The Superfluous.

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

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I Would Rather Have A Big Burden And A Strong Back, Than A Weak Back And A Caddy To Carry Life's Luggage.

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

Allow Motion To Equal Emotion.

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

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

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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.

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.

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.

Logic: An Instrument Used For Bolstering A Prejudice.

Lovers Are Fools, But Nature Makes Them So.

The Weaknesses Of The Many Make The Leader Possible.

Logic Is One Thing And Commonsense Another.

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.

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

Those Who Create Beauty Are Also They Who Possess It.

We Are Punished By Our Sins, Not For Them.

Don't Make Excuses, Make Good.

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

Gossip Is Vice Enjoyed Vicariously

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.

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.

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

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.

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

Every Life Is Its Own Excuse For Being.

The More One Knows, The More One Simplifies.

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

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.

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

Fences Are Made For Those Who Cannot Fly.

Life Is A Compromise Between Fate And Free Will.

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

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

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

Loyal Customers

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

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

Respectability Is The Dickey On The Bosom Of Civilization.

Conformists Die, But Heretics Live Forever.

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

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

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

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

The Church Saves Sinners, But Science Seeks To Stop Their Manufacture.

Science And Religion

Souls Are Made Of Dawn-stuff And Starshine.

Action Is Thought Tempered By Illusion.

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.

Fear Clogs; Faith Liberates.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

Man, Like Deity, Creates In His Own Image.

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

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

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

The Cheerful Loser Is The Winner.

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

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

Cultivate Only The Habits That You Are Willing Should Master You

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

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

Let A Man Once See Himself As Others See Him, And All Enthusiasm Vanishes From His Heart.

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.

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.

We Work To Become, Not To Acquire.

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.

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

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?

Success Consists In The Climb.

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.

An Enemy Is Anyone Who Tells The Truth About You.

Telling The Truth

I Am Not Sure Just What The Unpardonable Sin Is, But I Believe It Is A Disposition To Evade The Payment Of Small Bills.

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

Lawyers Are The Jackals Of Commerce.

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

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

Theology Is Classified Superstition.

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

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.

There Is No Failure Except The Failure Of Trying.

Progress Comes From The Intelligent Use Of Experience.

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

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.

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