William Lyon Phelps Quotes

A bibliophile of little means is likely to suffer often. Books don't slip from his hands but fly past him through the air, high as birds, high as prices.

A well-ordered life is like climbing a tower; the view halfway up is better than the view from the base, and it steadily becomes finer as the horizon expands.

God speaks to me not through the thunder and the earthquake, nor through the ocean and the stars, but through the Son of Man, and speaks in a language adapted to my imperfect sight and hearing.

I am glad my ancestors arrived on the Mayflower, but I am gladder that there are nine generations between us.

I divide all readers into two classes: those who read to remember and those who read to forget.

If happiness truly consisted in physical ease and freedom from care, then the happiest individual would not be either a man or a woman; it would be, I think, an American cow.

If I didn't start painting, I would have raised chickens.

If you develop the absolute sense of certainty that powerful beliefs provide, then you can get yourself to accomplish virtually anything, including those things that other people are certain are impossible.

In a start-up company, you basically throw out all assumptions every three weeks.

One of the secrets of life is to keep our intellectual curiosity acute.

The fear of life is the favorite disease of the 20th century.

The final test of a gentleman is his respect for those who can be of no possible service to him.

Those who decide to use leisure as a means of mental development, who love good music, good books, good pictures, good plays, good company, good conversation - what are they? They are the happiest people in the world.

Whenever it is possible, a boy should choose some occupation which he should do even if he did not need the money.