“To do nothing is the way to be nothing.”

Last update Nov. 2, 2021. History

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Do you have more details about the quote "To do nothing is the way to be nothing." by Nathaniel Hawthorne?
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Nathaniel Hawthorne 128
American novelist and short story writer (1804 – 1879) 1804–1864

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“There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing and be nothing.”

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Source: Elbert Hubbard, Little Journeys to the Homes of American Statesmen (1898), p. 370 http://hdl.handle.net/2027/osu.32435065322687?urlappend=%3Bseq=458: "If you would escape moral and physical assassination, do nothing, say nothing, be nothing—court obscurity, for only in oblivion does safety lie." Other versions of the saying were repeated in several of Hubbard's later writings.

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“Nothing weird about that as long as you do it in a meaningful way.”

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Context: There isn’t anything weird about my music. Weird is a skeleton in the closet, wearing a rubber mask with warts all over its nose, and all that kind of shit. That’s not what I do. The thing that makes my music unusual is that people only hear one kind of music all the time over the radio. It’s wallpaper to their lives. Audile wallpaper. There’s one acceptable beat and there are three acceptable chord progressions. There are five acceptable words: baby, love, tears, yat yat. Just because I don’t deal in those terms doesn’t mean I’m weird. So tell these people: I ain’t weird; I’m rational. I’m a person who can choose to write stuff like that, or choose to write stuff that includes all the notes on the piano played at once, followed by a cement truck driving over the piano, followed by a small atomic explosion. Nothing weird about that as long as you do it in a meaningful way.

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“But that has nothing to do with ethnicity. Who's by the way Swedish and who's an immigrant?”

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

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Glenn
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Hockey Shorts: 1,001 of the games funniest one liners
1996
70, 113 & 229
Contemporary Books
0-8092-3351-7

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“Do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing, and you'll never be criticized.”

Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher fue el escritor del jarron azul

John North Willys (as reprinted in Elbert Hubbard's Selected Writings, Part 2 (1998), pp. 331–337, Roycrofters, 1922).
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Source: Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great Vol. 3: American Statesmen

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