The often-quoted jounalist and businessman Elbert Green Hubbard (1856-1915) was born on this day in Bloomington, Illinois.

"Allow motion to equal emotion," he once said.

With limited formal education and life-long passion for reading, he became a successful entrepreneur. In 1985, he founded Roycroft Press in East Aurora, New York then expanded the Roycroft Campus to a community of multi-discipline artists and craftsmen, called "The Roycrofters."

"The brain is a commodity," observed Hubbard, "used to fertilize ideas."

In addition to creating books with ornate pages and leather or chamois covers, workers owned stock in the company and designed furniture, metalware, and other decorative objects. Soon Roycroft became synonymous with high quality and innovative artistry.

"Luck is tenacity of purpose," he said.

Hubbard published his most famous work, A Message to Garcia, in 1899 about a man during the Spanish-American War in Cuba who "went it alone and got it done." With an estimated printing of 40 million copies, the self-help book celebrate hard work, loyalty, and integrity.

"Character is the result of two things: Mental attitude and the way we spend our time," he said.

While the success of the Roycroft artist colony eventually floudered after Hubbard's death on the Lusitania in 1915, his vision perpetuated the Arts and Crafts movement and his words and philosophy live on. He said, "Love we give away is the only love we keep."

More Elbert HUBBARD Quotations

Keep trying, keep achieving.