A student never forgets an encouraging private word, when it is given with sincere respect and admiration.
Category Archive: William Lyon Phelps
The belief that youth is the happiest time of life is founded on a fallacy. The happiest person is the person who thinks the most interesting thoughts, and we grow happier as we grow older.
Nature makes boys and girls lovely to look upon so they can be tolerated until they acquire some sense.
The happiest people in this world are those who have the most interesting thoughts.
In a start-up company, you basically throw out all assumptions every three weeks.
If I were running the world I would have it rain only between 2 and 5 a.m. Anyone who was out then ought to get wet.
If I didn’t start painting, I would have raised chickens.
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.
One of the secrets of life is to keep our intellectual curiosity acute.
This is the final test of a gentleman: his respect for those who can be of no possible service to him.