Hubbard Art Quotes

Art is not a thing; it is a way.

It does not take much strength to do things, but it requires a great deal of strength to decide what to do. —Elbert Hubbard

Art is the beautiful way of doing things. Science is the effective way of doing things. Business is the economic way of doing things.

In practicing the art of confusion, there is no better weapon than poetry.

You are on my side," she says. "What side is that?" I ask. "The winning side," she says, and smiles. "The team of the artists." "Who are we playing?" "The barbarians," she says. "We are always playing them.

It does not take much strength to do things, but it requires a great deal of strength to decide what to do.—Elbert Hubbard

The booty call Commandments:” Thou shall get out before the sun rises. Thou shalt not ask “can we can go out to eat?” Thou shalt never ask, “can we see each other from now on?!” Thou shalt not kiss and hold hands. Thou shall refrain from using the terms “make love, in love and I love.” Thou shalt not ever cuddle. Thou shall never come over unexpected. Thou shall scream my name. Thou shalt not ask to walk thee to thy car. If someone cometh over whilst thou art there, thou art my cousin from out of town.

Economics are as simple as they are not obscured. And as confused as they are made to serve a selfish purpose. Any child can understand—and practice—the basic principles of economics. But grown men, huge with the stature of Government or Chain Banks, find it very useful to obscure the subject beyond all comprehension. The things that are done in the name of 'economic necessity' would shame Satan. For they are done by the selfish few to deny the many. Economics easily evolve into the science of making people miserable. Nine-tenths of life are economic. The remaining one-tenth is social-political. If there is this fruitful source of suppression loose upon the world and if it makes people unhappy, then it is a legitimate field for comment in Scientology as it must form a large 'misunderstood' in our daily lives. Let us see how involved it can be made. If Mankind increases in number and if property and goods increase, then money must also increase unless we are to arrive at a point where none can buy. Yet money is pegged to a metal of which there is just so much and no more—gold. So if Man's expansion is to be checked, it will be checked simply by running out of this metal. And aside from art uses and superstition, the metal, gold, has almost no practical value. Iron is far more useful, but as it is one of the most common elements about, it would not serve the purpose of suppression of Man's growth. MONEY IS SIMPLY A SYMBOL THAT PEOPLE ARE CONFIDENT CAN BE CONVERTED INTO GOODS.

I was quite surprised when Emily told me you were wearing trousers when you arrived,” the old woman says. She’s cutting into her ham, her hands delicately gripping the silverware. “How terribly embarrassing.” Wow. Rude, much? Why does she have to talk to me at all? Let’s just shovel a bunch of breakfast in our mouths and get out of here. I need to leave now. But she’s staring at me, waiting for a response. She’s sitting back in her chair, carefully bringing tiny bites of food to her mouth without leaning forward the slightest bit. Well, I might as well stick with my story. “Yes, um, my nicer things were lost. I had no other choice.” The lady takes a bite of food, and for one blissful second I think she’s going to leave me alone. But alas, I am not that lucky. “I trust your father has seen to it that your studies are not neglected?” Another tiny bite. This lady eats like a bird. In comparison, I feel like a caveman with a drumstick. I nod my head, trying to think of something safe to say. “Yes, of course. I’m particularly talented in science and math.” Her mouth curls up in disdain. “Such…masculine topics! Has he not taught you the arts? French? Music?” Masculine? God, who does this lady think she is? She’s lucky I have to be nice to her.

Cordy grins as all eyes turn to her. “The original cover art of David Bowie’s Diamond Dogs had a dog whose...manliness,” Cordy winks, “was clearly visible. A few hundred copies of the cover were run before the record label noticed and told them to airbrush the dog’s nuts. Those albums were supposed to be destroyed, but some were smuggled out. The last time one came on the market a few years ago, it sold for five grand. But since Bowie’s death, they’re supposed to be worth even more.” “And you have one?” I ask. “I think so. Somewhere in there.

Modeling the world mathematically is as uniquely a human trait as language or art, but you would rarely find anyone complaining of being “reduced to a poem” or “reduced to a painting.

We will feel conviction about the things we create only if we keep discovering, within those creations, new reasons for wanting them to be that way.

When a work of painting, music or other form attains two-way communication, it is truly art. One occasionally hears an artist being criticized on the basis that his work is too 'literal' or too 'common.' But one has rarely if ever heard any definition of 'literal' or 'common.' And there are many artists simply hung up on this, protesting it. Also, some avant-garde schools go completely over the cliff in avoiding anything 'literal' or 'common'—and indeed go completely out of communication! The return flow from the person viewing a work would be contribution. True art always elicits a contribution from those who view or hear or experience it. By contribution is meant 'adding to it.’ An illustration is 'literal' in that it tells everything there is to know. Let us say the illustration is a picture of a tiger approaching a chained girl. It does not really matter how well the painting is executed, it remains an illustration and it is literal. But now let us take a small portion out of the scene and enlarge it. Let us take, say, the head of the tiger with its baleful eye and snarl. Suddenly we no longer have an illustration. It is no longer 'literal.' And the reason lies in the fact that the viewer can fit this expression into his own concepts, ideas or experience: he can supply the why of the snarl, he can compare the head to someone he knows. In short, he can CONTRIBUTE to the head. The skill with which the head is executed determines the degree of response. Because the viewer can contribute to the picture, it is art. In music, the hearer can contribute his own emotion or motion. And even if the music is only a single drum, if it elicits a contribution of emotion or motion, it is truly art.