O. Henry Quotes

The Puritan has passed; the Catholic remains.

I am looking for a lot of men who have an infinite capacity to not know what can't be done.

As in geology, so in social institutions, we may discover the causes of all past changes in the present invariable order of society.

It is an interesting question how far men would retain their relative rank if they were divested of their clothes.

It is not worth the while to let our imperfections disturb us always.

Gambling with cards or dice or stocks is all one thing. It's getting money without giving an equivalent for it.

It is remarkable how long men will believe in the bottomlessness of a pond without taking the trouble to sound it.

What is once well done is done forever.

Jazz music is as American as it gets, and so is the U.S. Postal Service. A Miles Davis stamp is a perfect marriage of two great American institutions.

It appears to be a law that you cannot have a deep sympathy with both man and nature.

Men's best successes come after their disappointments.

A friend in power is a friend lost.

Home interprets heaven. Home is heaven for beginners.

Morality is a private and costly luxury.

In an effort to eliminate the possibility of any rival growing up, some monopolists would sacrifice democracy itself.

University politics are vicious precisely because the stakes are so small.

It is a mistake for a sculptor or a painter to speak or write very often about his job. It releases tension needed for his work.

They are patriotic in time of war because it is to their interest to be so, but in time of peace they follow power and the dollar wherever they may lead.

He whose head is in heaven need not fear to put his feet into the grave.

Fashion is the science of appearance, and it inspires one with the desire to seem rather than to be.

The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.

Go forth to meet the shadowy Future without fear and with a manly heart.

We create our fate every day . . . most of the ills we suffer from are directly traceable to our own behavior.

A liberal knows that the only certainty in this life is change but believes that the change can be directed toward a constructive end.

The man who is intoxicated with life does not pass judgment, does not seek to come to a conclusion, does not impose his message on the world.

I soon found out you can't change the world. The best you can do is to learn to live with it.

The man who pauses in his honesty wants little of a villain.

The gospel is good news only if it arrives in time.

Without a Coca-Cola life is unthinkable.

Love to Christ is proved by doing the things which He commands, and not merely saying, Lord, Lord.

Your garden will reveal yourself.

The whole of nature is an endless demonstration of shape and form. It always surprises me when artists try to escape from this.

All true manliness grows around a core of divineness.

I believe the Negro blood counts, and counts to my advantage – though it has caused me at times a life of great humiliation and sorrow.

Whatever your job, it is important if it is what God wants you to do.

People would rather be wrong than be different.

Treat each player as your own son/daughter if you can...the parents have invested in you.

My environment can give me relief from sin and tension, only the Lord can cure it.

Think and then act. Never act and then alibi.

Anger is inside you, revealed by an outside source.

Today is already the tomorrow which the bad economist yesterday urged us to ignore.

There are enough women to do the childbearing and the childrearing. I know of none who can write my books.

To me the purpose of art is to produce something alive...but with a separate, and of course one hopes, with an everlasting life of its own.

Poorly paid labor is inefficient labor, the world over.

Profits are the ultimate measure of how efficiently we provide customers with the best products for their needs. Profits are required to survive and grow.

You are the untold story. You are the impassioned truth wanting to scream its existence, to be forever trapped by a strong hand clapped firmly over the mouth of my soul.

Their suffering is intense, widespread, expanding, systematic and socially sanctioned. And the victims are unable to organize in defence of their own interests.

The Israelis want security. The Arabs want dignity. And they consider the demands of each other as incompatible.

History is organized memory, and the organization is all important!

Gold is the most useless thing in the world. I am not interested in money but in the things of which money is merely a symbol.