O. Henry Quotes

All legislation is founded upon the principle of mutual concession.

When I can't handle events, I let them handle themselves.

Reason shows me that if my happiness is desirable and good, the equal happiness of any other person must be equally desirable.

They are Nietzsche's over-men, these primitive Albanians - something between kings and tigers.

The increase of this efficiency is essentially the problem of the manager, and the amount to which it can be increased by proper study is, in most cases, so great as to be almost incredible.

What you possess in the world will be found at the day of your death to belong to someone else. But what you are will be yours forever.

I used all diligence to arrive at London and therefore I now gave my crew a certificate under my hand, of my free and willing return, without persuasion or force by any one or more of them.

Write what you like; there is no other rule.

Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house.

In this world it is not what we take up, but what we give up, that makes us rich.

Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.

To be awake is to be alive.

Gratitude is the inward feeling of kindness received. Thankfulness is the natural impulse to express that feeling. Thanksgiving is the following of that impulse.

The physicality of a real relationship - one that encompasses mind, body and soul - ultimately makes it more fulfilling and powerful than any virtual relationship ever could be.

There has always been the same amount of light in the world. The new and missing stars, the comets and eclipses, do not affect thegeneral illumination, for only our glasses appreciate them.

It is possible to evade a multitude of sorrows by the cultivation of an insignificant life.

The sea hath its pearls The heaven hath its stars But my heart, my heart Has its love.

Surely the apple is the noblest of fruits.

Live free, child of the mist,- and with respect to knowledge we are allchildren of the mist.

Trees indeed have hearts.

Whatever needs to be maintained through force is doomed.

If a plant cannot live according to its nature, it dies; and so a man.

Your mind knows only some things. Your inner voice, your instinct, knows everything. If you listen to what you know instinctively, it will always lead you down the right path.

If [God] has work for me to do, I cannot die.

The best way to make money in business is not to think too much about making it.

While hard data may inform the intellect, it is largely soft data that generates wisdom.

For God's sake, take care of your men. If they fire, they die!

The way to learn to do things is to do things. The way to learn a trade is to work at it. Success teaches how to succeed. Begin with the determination to succeed, and the work is half done already.

Secularism denounces supernaturalism and promotes a nonreligious or antireligious basis of social organization and morality.

Communism is Judaism. The Jewish Revolution in Russia was in 1918.

Love is the river of life in this world.

It was beautiful and simple, as truly great swindles are.

There are many things I want, and the only way I will get them is to keep my head down, listen to the right people and work hard

The man who will use his skill and constructive imagination to see how much he can give for a dollar, instead of how little he can give for a dollar, is bound to succeed.

What is honour? a word. What is in that word honour? what is that honour? air. A trim reckoning! Who hath it? he that died o' Wednesday. Doth he feel it? no. Doth he hear it? no.

Show me that age and country where the rights and liberties of the people were placed on the sole chance of their rulers being good men, without a consequent loss of liberty?

There is no personal charm so great as the charm of a cheerful temperament.

Problems are only opportunities in work clothes.

Do not seek the because - in love there is no because, no reason, no explanation, no solutions.

Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac.

Life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating.

Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit.

The stars are the apexes of what triangles!

Life is 440 horsepower in a 2-cylinder engine.

There is not in the universe a more ridiculous, nor a more contemptible animal, than a proud clergyman.

Each morning sees some task begin, each evening sees it close.

I stay a little longer, as one stays, to cover up the embers that still burn.

We should take heed of pride; it is a sin that turned angels into devils.

Education is not something to prepare you for life; it is a continuous part of life.

We Americans are not God's covenant people. America has, in any event, no biblical guarantee of perpetuity.