Quotes from William Lyon Phelps

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.

You can be deprived of your money, your job and your home by someone else, but remember that no one can ever take away your honor.

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

The highest happiness on earth is marriage.

A cat pours his body on the floor like water.

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

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

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.

A student never forgets an encouraging private word, when it is given with sincere respect and admiration.

You can learn more about human nature by reading the Bible than by living in New York.

Nature makes boys and girls lovely to look upon so they can be tolerated until they acquire some sense.

There is a strange reluctance on the part of most people to admit that they enjoy life.

The fear of life is the favorite disease of the twentieth century.

This is the first test of a gentleman his respect for those who can be of no possible value 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.

The happiest people are those who think the most interesting thoughts. Those who decide to use leisure as a means of mental development, who love good music, good books, good pictures, good company, good conversation, are the happiest people in the world. And they are not only happy in themselves, they are the cause of happiness in others.

The amazing activity of the cat is delicately balanced by his capacity for relaxation. Every household should contain a cat, not only for decorative and domestic values, but because the cat in quiescence is medicinal to irritable, tense, tortured men and women.

This is the final test of a gentleman: His respect for those who can be of no possible service to him.

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

Nature makes boys and girls lovely to look upon so they can be tolerated until they acquire some sense. William Lyon Phelps

The latest edition of a work of science is the most valuable; of literature, the earliest.

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.

The happiest people in this world are those who have the most interesting thoughts.

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