Elbert Hubbard Quotes

If individuals can take from a common pot regardless of how much they put in it, each person has an incentive to be a free rider, to do as little as possible and take as much as possible because what one fails to take will be taken by someone else.

Of all the fictions we heard last week in Tampa, the one I find most troubling is this: If we all just go our own way, our nation will be stronger for it. Because if we sever the threads that connect us, the only people who will go far are those who are already ahead.

We hope the world will act in the spirit of enlightened self-interest.

Everyone thinks chiefly of his own, hardly ever of the public interest.

Join cooperatively with one another, put aside self-interest, and take on service to the public …

We need leaders who appeal to us to think about something other than narrow self-interest but instead focus upon the greater good.

Liberals genuinely believe that this country is about helping one another out and doing it for the greater good.

Make sure your intentions are not only for yourself, but also for the common good.

The benefit of one is the benefit of all, and the neglect of one is the neglect of all.

I think Americans generally are not used to working very hard, in terms of working for the collective. I think in our country we have taken individualism to its farthest reaches, possibly.

I try to persuade people to act in ways that are not only in their own interest, but in the interest of society at large.

A nation is formed by the willingness of each of us to share in the responsibility for upholding the common good.

Private passions tire and exhaust themselves, public ones never.

Every man is to be considered in two capacities, the private and public; as designed to pursue his own interest, and likewise to contribute to the good of others.

Nobody in Europe will be abandoned. Nobody in Europe will be excluded. Europe only succeeds if we work together.

You have tremendous flexibility in defining both the greater good and the greater community. If you don't succeed in this, then you will continue to pull that heavy wagon up the mountain, and despite the fact that you are pulling it, it will somehow run over your own foot.

We too often prefer the individual thrill to collective responsibility.

Seek a common good beyond your comfort.

It is ... difficult to induce a number of free beings to co-operate for their mutual benefit.

It's hard to mobilize various interest groups ... when its for the benefit of everyone.

Government is just people acting on behalf of others rather than acting on behalf of themselves.

One man will carry two buckets of water for his own use, Two men will carry one for their joint use; Three men will carry none for anybody's use.

Our Union cannot safely stand on the cold calculation of interest alone.

… men who are governed by self-interest will combine, whether white or black, and the generous and selfless will similarly unite

on the ground of both humanity and self-interest…. [There will be] a benefit done to our people by giving them something to think of which isn’t material gain..