L. Ron Hubbard Quotes

Lafayette Ronald Hubbard , better known as L. Ron Hubbard and often referred to by his initials, LRH, was an American author and the founder of the Church of Scientology. After establishing a career as a writer, becoming best known for his science fiction and fantasy stories, he developed a system called Dianetics which was first expounded in book form in May 1950. He subsequently developed his ideas into a wide-ranging set of doctrines and practices as part of a new religious movement that he called Scientology. His writings became the guiding texts for the Church of Scientology and a number of affiliated organizations that address such diverse topics as business administration, literacy and drug rehabilitation. The Church's dissemination of these materials led to Hubbard being listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as the most translated and published author in the world. The Guinness World Record for the most audio books published for one author is also held by Hubbard. In 2014, Hubbard was cited by Smithsonian magazine as one of the 100 most significant Americans of all time, as one of the eleven religious figures on that list.

Although many aspects of Hubbard's life story are disputed, there is general agreement about its basic outline. Born in Tilden, Nebraska, he spent much of his childhood in Helena, Montana. He traveled in Asia and the South Pacific in the late 1920s after his father, an officer in the United States Navy, was posted to the U.S. naval base on Guam. He attended George Washington University in Washington, D.C. at the start of the 1930s, before dropping out and beginning his career as a prolific writer of pulp fiction stories. He served briefly in the United States Marine Corps Reserve and was an officer in the United States Navy during World War II, briefly commanding two ships, the USS YP-422 and USS PC-815. He was removed both times when his superiors found him incapable of command. The last few months of his active service were spent in a hospital, being treated for a duodenal ulcer.

After the war, Hubbard developed a philosophy he called Dianetics, which he called "the modern science of mental health". He founded Scientology in 1952 and oversaw the growth of the Church of Scientology into a worldwide organization. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, he spent much of his time at sea on his personal fleet of ships as "Commodore" of the Sea Organization, an elite inner group of Scientologists. His expedition came to an end when Britain, Greece, Spain, Portugal, and Venezuela all closed their ports to his fleet. At one point, a court in Australia revoked the Church's status as a religion, though it was later reinstated. Hubbard returned to the United States in 1975 and went into seclusion in the California desert. In 1978, a trial court in France convicted Hubbard of fraud in absentia. Others convictions from the same trial were reversed on appeal, but Hubbard died before the court considered his case.

In 1983 Hubbard was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in an international information infiltration and theft project called "Operation Snow White". He spent the remaining years of his life on his ranch, the "Whispering Wind," near Creston, California, where he died in 1986. A small group of Scientology officials and physician Dr. Eugene Denk attended to him before his death, for a number of ailments including chronic pancreatitis. In 1986, he died at age 74 in a 1982 Blue Bird motor home, which was situated on his property.

The Church of Scientology describes Hubbard in hagiographic terms, and he portrayed himself as a pioneering explorer, world traveler, and nuclear physicist with expertise in a wide range of disciplines, including photography, art, poetry, and philosophy. In Scientology publications, he is referred to as "Founder" and "Source" of Scientology and Dianetics. His critics, including his own son Ronald DeWolf, have characterized him as a liar, a charlatan, and mentally unstable, though DeWolf later recanted those statements. Though many of Hubbard's autobiographical statements have been found to be fictitious, the Church rejects any suggestion that its account of Hubbard's life is not historical fact.

✵ 13. March 1911 – 24. January 1986   •   Other names Ron Hubbard
L. Ron Hubbard photo

Works

Science of Survival
L. Ron Hubbard
Dianetics
Dianetics
L. Ron Hubbard
Battlefield Earth
Battlefield Earth
L. Ron Hubbard
All About Radiation
L. Ron Hubbard
L. Ron Hubbard: 85   quotes 20   likes

Famous L. Ron Hubbard Quotes

“Scientology is used to increase spiritual freedom, intelligence, ability and to produce immortality.”

Dianetics And Scientology Technical Dictionary (1975); 1987 edition, p. 370.

“You don't get rich writing science fiction. If you want to get rich, you start a religion.”

Response to a question from the audience during a meeting of the Eastern Science Fiction Association on (7 November 1948), as quoted in a 1994 affidavit by Sam Moskowitz.
This statement is similar or identical to several statements http://www.bible.ca/scientology-1million-start-a-religion.htm Hubbard is reported to have made to various individuals or groups in the 1940s. Variants include:
The incident is stamped indelibly in my mind because of one statement that Ron Hubbard made. What led him to say what he did I can't recall — but in so many words Hubbard said: "I'd like to start a religion. That's where the money is!"
L. Ron Hubbard to Lloyd A. Eshbach, in 1949; as quoted by Eshbach in his autobiography Over My Shoulder: Reflections On A Science Fiction Era (1983) ISBN 1-880418-11-8 .
Y'know, we're all wasting our time writing this hack science fiction! You wanta make real money, you gotta start a religion!
As reported to Mike Jittlov by Theodore Sturgeon as a statement Hubbard made while at the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society clubhouse in the 1940s.
Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wanted to make a million dollars, the best way to do it would be start his own religion.
As quoted in the Los Angeles Times (27 August 1978)
Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wants to make a million dollars, the best way would be to start his own religion.
As quoted in the article "Scientology: Anatomy of a Frightening Cult" by Eugene H. Methvin. Reader's Digest (May 1980).
I always knew he was exceedingly anxious to hit big money — he used to say he thought the best way to do it would be to start a cult.
Sam Merwin, Editor of Thrilling Science Fiction magazine Winter of 1946-47; quoted in Bare-Faced Messiah, The True Story of L. Ron Hubbard (1987) by Russell Miller
Whenever he was talking about being hard up he often used to say that he thought the easiest way to make money would be to start a religion.
Neison Himmel, briefly a roommate of Hubbard in Pasadena during the fall of 1945, in a 1986 interview, quoted in Bare-Faced Messiah, The True Story of L. Ron Hubbard (1987) by Russell Miller.

“THE ONLY WAY YOU CAN CONTROL PEOPLE IS TO LIE TO THEM. You can write that down in your book in great big letters. The only way you can control anybody is to lie to them.”

Lecture: "Off the Time Track" (June 1952) as quoted in Journal of Scientology issue 18-G, reprinted in Technical Volumes of Dianetics & Scientology Vol. 1, p. 418.

“Ideas and not battles mark the forward progress of mankind.”

Science of Survival (1951)
Context: Ideas and not battles mark the forward progress of mankind. Individuals, and not masses, form the culture of the race.

L. Ron Hubbard Quotes about people

“Freedom is for honest people. No man who is not himself honest can be free — he is in his own trap.”

"Honest People Have Rights, Too" (8 February 1960).
Scientology Bulletins

L. Ron Hubbard: Trending quotes

“Oh yes! The one man in the world who never believes he's mad is the madman.”

In answer to the question as to whether he ever thought he might be quite mad. Granada Television documentary on Scientology http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_w-YWwC1lI#t=1503.

“I have high hopes of smashing my name into history so violently that it will take a legendary form even if all books are destroyed.”

A letter to his wife Polly (October 1938) http://bernie.cncfamily.com/sc/excalibur.htm, quoted in Bare-faced Messiah: The True Story of L. Ron Hubbard (1987), p. 81 http://www.discord.org/~lippard/bfm/bfm05.htm#81.
Context: Living is a pretty grim joke, but a joke just the same. The entire function of man is to survive. The outermost limit of endeavour is creative work. Anything less is too close to simple survival until death happens along. So I am engaged in striving to maintain equilibrium sufficient to at least realize survival in a way to astound the gods. I turned the thing up so it's up to me to survive in a big way... Foolishly perhaps, but determined none the less, I have high hopes of smashing my name into history so violently that it will take a legendary form even if all books are destroyed.

L. Ron Hubbard Quotes

“The subject of philosophy is very ancient. The word means: "The love, study or pursuit of wisdom, or of knowledge of things and their causes, whether theoretical or practical."”

All we know of science or of religion comes from philosophy. It lies behind and above all other knowledge we have or use.
My Philosophy (1965) http://www.foundingchurchdc.org/dc/ref/philo/index.htm.

“Living is a pretty grim joke, but a joke just the same.”

A letter to his wife Polly (October 1938) http://bernie.cncfamily.com/sc/excalibur.htm, quoted in Bare-faced Messiah: The True Story of L. Ron Hubbard (1987), p. 81 http://www.discord.org/~lippard/bfm/bfm05.htm#81.
Context: Living is a pretty grim joke, but a joke just the same. The entire function of man is to survive. The outermost limit of endeavour is creative work. Anything less is too close to simple survival until death happens along. So I am engaged in striving to maintain equilibrium sufficient to at least realize survival in a way to astound the gods. I turned the thing up so it's up to me to survive in a big way... Foolishly perhaps, but determined none the less, I have high hopes of smashing my name into history so violently that it will take a legendary form even if all books are destroyed.

“Here on Earth there was undoubtedly a Christ.”

One of the reasons he swept in so suddenly and he would go forward so hard is, he had a good assist in back of him in terms of an implant.
Philadelphia Doctorate Courses, lecture 24 (1952).

“There is no more ethical group on this planet than ourselves.”

Scientology Policy Letters

“Never regret yesterday. Life is in you today, and you make your tomorrow.”

The Creation Of Human Ability (1954).

“Man," said Terl, "is an endangered species.”

Battlefield Earth (1982) Ch 1.

“There are conditions worse than being unable to see, and that is imagining one sees.”

Lecture, Scientology and Effective Knowledge (15 July 1957).

“I set out to try to help my fellow man and to do what little I could to make the world a better place.”

"Why Feel Guilty?" (1969) http://www.lronhubbard.org/philo1/guilty5.htm.

“You are a spirit, then,
you Man, and not a Man
at all.
You are a spirit and you dwell
within the guts of mortal beast.”

"There Is No Compromise With Truth" ( a poem written in 1953 or 1954).

“Benzedrine often helps a case run.”

"The Intensive Processing Procedure" (1950); "Run a case" = administer Dianetics or Scientology procedures to someone.

“There is no national problem in the world today, which cannot be resolved by reason alone.”

Dianetics : The Modern Science of Mental Health (1950)

“We're playing for blood, the stake is EARTH.”

(7 November 1962).
Scientology Policy Letters

“Certainty, not data, is knowledge.”

The Factors (1967).

“There's only one remedy for crime — get rid of the psychs! They are causing it!”

"The Cause of Crime" (6 May 1982).
Scientology Bulletins

“A truly Suppressive Person or group has no rights of any kind and actions taken against them are not punishable.”

"Ethics, Suppressive Acts, Suppression of Scientology and Scientologists" (1 March 1965).
Scientology Policy Letters

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