Happiness Quote by Elbert Hubbard

Forgiveness, in Elbert Hubbard's hands, isn't a moral chore or a polite closing of the books. It's a dare: a human pleasure so intense it trespasses on the territory of myth. By calling it "ineffable joy", Hubbard claims the feeling escapes language, then promptly tries to capture it anyway - a classic late-19th-century move, when American self-improvement writing blended religious sentiment with a kind of psychological salesmanship. The word "ecstasy" does the heavy lifting: forgiveness becomes not just ethical, but visceral, almost erotic in its intensity.

The sly pivot is "and being forgiven". Hubbard refuses the popular fantasy that virtue is a one-way performance. He makes the recipient's surrender part of the high. That subtext matters: to be forgiven is to admit you needed it, to accept dependence, to let someone else revise your story. In a culture infatuated with self-reliance, that's a quiet provocation.

Then comes the flourish: "envy of the gods". Hubbard borrows the old idea that gods are jealous of human happiness, but he flips the hierarchy. The gods aren't wiser; they're deprived. Immortals can't taste the specific relief humans get only because humans can fail, regret, and repair. The intent isn't theological; it's motivational. He's reframing forgiveness as a power move available to ordinary people, a private rapture that makes hard humility feel like winning.