Quotes from Elbert Hubbard

A retentive memory may be a good thing, but the ability to forget is the true token of greatness.

Government is a kind of legalized pillage.

You can lead a boy to college, but you cannot make him think.

It does not take much strength to do things, but it requires great strength to decide on what to do.

No great spiritual event befalls those who do not summon it.

Get happiness out of your work or you may never know what happiness is.

Life without absorbing occupation is hell.

History: a collection of epitaphs.

Charity: a thing that begins at home, and usually stays there.

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.

The wise way to benefit humanity is to attend to your own affairs, and thus give other people an opportunity to look after theirs.

The stupidity of one brain multiplied by twelve.

Heaven: The Coney Island of the Christian imagination.

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 brain is a commodity used to fertilize ideas.

Fear clogs; Faith liberates.

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 ounce of performance is worth more than a pound of preachment.

The valuable person in any business is the individual who can and will cooperate with others.

Impossible things are simply those which so far have never been done.

Martyrs and persecutors are the same type of man. As to which is the persecutor and which the martyr, this is only a question of transient power.

Nature: The unseen intelligence which loved us into being, and is disposing of us by the same token

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.

Miracle: An event described by those to whom it was told by men who did not see it.