A collection of thoughts from Elbert Hubbard, an early positive thinker and best friend to Dale Carnegie, are worthy of reading.


• Do unto others as though you were the others.
• Folks who never do any more than they get paid for, never get paid for any more than they do.
• Never explain. Your friends do not need it, and your enemies will not believe you anyway.
• It is foolish to say sharp, hasty things, but it is a great deal more foolish to write 'em. When a man sends you an impudent letter, sit right down and give it back to him with interest 10 times compounded, and then throw both letters in the wastebasket.
• Initiative is doing the right thing without being told.
• An ounce of loyalty is worth a pound of cleverness.
• God will not look you over for medals, degrees or diplomas, but for scars.
• The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.
• We help ourselves only as we help others.
• Give me the man, who, instead of always telling you what should be done, goes ahead and does it.
• Education is an achievement, not a bequest.
• There are six requisites in every happy marriage. The first is faith, and the remaining five are confidence.
• Do your work with your whole heart and you will succeed, there is so little competition.
• A retentive memory may be a good thing, but the ability to forget is a true token of greatness.


I think you can see why Elbert and I hit it off. I was saddened to see his books were last reprinted in 1923, and that he and his wife were lost when the Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk on May 7, 1915.

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