We often hear of the beauties of old age, but the only old age that is beautiful is the one the man has been long preparing for by living a beautiful life. Every one of us is right now preparing for old age.… There may be a substitute somewhere in the world for Good Nature, but I do not know where it can be found. The secret of salvation is this: keep sweet, be useful, and keep busy.

About Elbert Hubbard

Elbert Green Hubbard (June 19, 1856 – May 7, 1915) was an American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher. Raised in Hudson, Illinois, he had early success as a traveling salesman for the Larkin Soap Company. Hubbard is known best as the founder of the Roycroft artisan community in East Aurora,...

More quotations from Elbert Hubbard

Enthusiasm is the great hill-climber.

—Elbert Hubbard

Don't take life too seriously. You'll never get out of it alive.

—Elbert Hubbard

Positive anything is better than negative thinking.

—Elbert Hubbard

One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man.

—Elbert Hubbard

No man needs a vacation so much as the man who has just had one.

—Elbert Hubbard

More quotations tagged with “usefulness”

Silent gratitude isn't very much to anyone.

—Gertrude Stein

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It is a very sad thing that nowadays there is so little useless information.

—Oscar Wilde

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Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something.

—Henry David Thoreau

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Art is like baby shoes. When you coat them with gold, they can no longer be worn.

—John Updike

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History

15 Dec 2013 Added
26 Oct 2026 Wording changed

Previous wording

We often hear of the beauties of old age, but the only old age that is beautiful is the one the man has been long preparing for by living a beautiful life. Every one of us is right now preparing for old age. … There may be a substitute somewhere in the world for Good Nature, but I do not know where it can be found. The secret of salvation is this: keep sweet, be useful, and keep busy.