O. Henry Quotes

By the light of nature we see God as a God above us, by the light of the law we see Him as a God against us, but by the light of the gospel we see Him as Emmanuel, God with us.

Businessmen go down with their businesses because they like the old way so well they cannot change.

When truth presents itself, the wise person see the light, takes it in, and makes adjustments. The fool tries to adjust the truth so he does not have to adjust to it.

If there be any one whose power is in beauty, in purity, in goodness, it is a woman.

Things do not change; we change.

There is no man living that can not do more than he thinks he can.

Each morning sees some task begun, each evening sees it close; Something attempted, something done, has earned a night's repose.

The question is not what you look at – but how you look & whether you see.

None can know their election but by their conformity to the image of Christ; for all that are chosen are chosen to sanctification.

Adversity toughens manhood, and the characteristic of the good or the great man is not that he has been exempt from the evils of life, but that he has surmounted them.

I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience.

Back of every creation, supporting it like an arch, is faith. Enthusiasm is nothing: It comes and goes. But if one believes, then miracles occur.

I have always looked upon decay as being just as wonderful and rich an expression of life as growth.

No one ever lost out by excessive devotion to Christ.

Beware lest we mistake our prejudices for our convictions.

Faith is to rest, not in the best of God's servants, but in His unchanging Word.

In wildness is the preservation of the world.

You need never be discouraged or afraid. The way through difficulties has always been prepared for you, and you will find it if you exercise faith.

Besides alligators, the only animals to be feared are the poisonous serpents. These are certainly common enough in the forest, but no fatal accident happened during the whole time of my residence.

Humans do not engage in activities that are meaningless. If you think you see people doing things you find meaningless, look again and try to understand what the activities mean for them.

To have made even one person's life a little better, that is to succeed.

The two most important things in any company do not appear in its balance sheet: its reputation and its people.

The Yellowstone river is a beautiful river to navigate.

If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right.

Enthusiasm is the greatest asset in the world. It beats money and power and influence.

Silently, one by one, in the infinite meadows of heaven, Blossomed the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels.

The technical genius which could find answers was not cooped up in military or civilian bureaucracy, but was to be found in universities and in the people at large.

The final and conclusive evidence against evolution is the fact that the Bible denies it.

Kindness to children, love for children, goodness to children-- these are the only investments that never fail.

Impossible means that you haven't found a solution yet .

I sat at a table where were rich food and wine in abundance, and obsequious attendance, but sincerity and truth were not; and I went away hungry from the inhospitable board.

The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information.

Adjectives are the sugar of literature and adverbs the salt.

There is danger in reckless change, but greater danger in blind conservatism.

The silence sings. It is musical. I remember a night when it was audible. I heard the unspeakable.

Whoever lacks the initiative to read books stifles his own selfhood.

One might as well attempt to calculate mathematically the contingent forms of the tinkling bits of glass in a kaleidoscope as to look through the tube of the future and foretell its pattern.

Love must be as much a light as it is a flame.

Love gives itself; it is not bought.

If I had to live my life in anticipation of what others thought of me, little would get done.

We are all sculptors and painters, and our material is our own flesh and blood and bone.

It is not enough for us to be where God is worshipped, if we do not ourselves worship him.

Being a Christian... is a character which I prize far above all this world has or can boast.

I can't understand why Scholes has never won the player of the year award. He should have won it long ago. Maybe it's because he doesn't seek the limelight like some of the other 'stars'.

Encourage literally came from "in courage." The courage is put "into" you from outside. Our character and abilities grow through internalizing from others what we do not possess in ourselves.

Turn up the lights. I don't want to go home in the dark.

The important thing is somehow to begin.

An artist is always alone - if he is an artist. No, what the artist needs is loneliness.

Laissez faire (in its full true meaning) opens the way to the realization of the noble dreams of socialism.

As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.