Elbert Hubbard

Self-discipline is the ability to make yourself do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not.

Positive anything is better than negative thinking.

To avoid criticism do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.

Many people fail in life, not for lack of ability or brains or even courage, but simply because they have never organised their energies around a goal.

Playing with freedom can only come after a certain amount of foundational study.

Without art, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable.

I’m just an individual who doesn’t feel that I need to have somebody qualify my work in any particular way. I’m working for me.

Great art is never produced for its own sake. It is too difficult to be worth the effort.

Go a little bit out of your depth. And when you don’t feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you’re just about in the right place to do something exciting.

I got more publicity for not doing a festival than for doing the festival.

All art inspires me. Life inspires me. The art of life, thus my own art.

To this day I’m really not sure if I was playing Ziggy [Stardust] or if Ziggy was exaggerated aspects of my own personality. A fair amount of psychological baggage was undoubtedly coming out through the character. Because I felt awkward and nervous and inadequate with myself, it felt easier to be somebody else.

Make the best of every moment. We’re not evolving. We’re not going anywhere.

The arts are at the center of a nation’s purpose and a test of civilization.

I hope the Guggenheim plan will be revived.

Artists are people driven by the tension between the desire to communicate and the desire to hide.

Life is tough and if you’re creative, it’s tougher.

I believe that all creative people have more than one passion, more than one creative talent.

They decided to establish a museum of modern art where works by contemporary artists would be shown. Mother was viewed as a very progressive person, and not everybody liked the paintings she bought.