William Lyon Phelps

Educator

1865-01-02 – 1943-08-21

William Lyon Phelps was an American educator, literary critic, and author associated with Yale University. He was influential in popularizing literary studies for general audiences.

Quotes by William Lyon Phelps

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.
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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.
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In a start-up company, you basically throw out all assumptions every three weeks.
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There is a strange reluctance on the part of most people to admit they enjoy life.
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A student never forgets an encouraging private word, when it is given with sincere respect and admiration.
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The final test of a gentleman is his respect for those who can be of no possible service to him.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Nature makes boys and girls lovely to look upon so they can be tolerated until they acquire some sense.
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How essential it is in youth to acquire some intellectual or artistic tastes, in order to furnish the mind, to be able to live inside a mind with attractive and interesting pictures on the walls.
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This is the final test of a gentleman: his respect for those who can be of no possible service to him.
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Two persons who love each other are in a place more holy than the interior of a church.
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Marriage is a fine and sacred thing if you make it so.
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This is the final test of a gentleman: his respect for those who can be of no possible service to him.
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Whenever it is any way possible, every boy and girl should choose as his life work some occupation which he should like to do anyhow, even if he did not need the money.
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