O. Henry Quotes

"Hear! hear!" screamed the jay from a neighboring tree, where I had heard a tittering for some time, "winter has a concentrated and nutty kernel, if you know where to look for it."

It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route, and make a beaten track for ourselves.

Do not give, as many rich men do, like a hen that lays her eggs ...and then cackles.

A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind.

Live the life you've dreamed.

An unclean person is universally a slothful one.

Writing is its own reward.

We are always on the anvil; by trials God is shaping us for higher things.

Up to a certain point anxiety is good, for it promotes action. Beyond that point we freeze any fixed attitudes or rush about without thinking deeply from one decision to another.

The precise form of an individual's activity is determined, of course, by the equipment with which he came into the world. In other words, it is determined by his heredity.

No man can tell if he is rich or poor by turning to his ledger. It is the heart that makes a man rich. He is rich according to what he is, not according to what he has.

The study of butterflies-creatures selected as the types of airiness and frivolity-instead of being despised, will some day be valued as one of the most important branches of Biological science.

The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the alms-house as brightly as from the rich man's abode.

Everything my mother and father did was designed to put me where I am.

The true definition of a perennial: Any plant which, had it lived, would have bloomed year after year.

The hooded clouds, like friars, Tell their beads in drops of rain.

Hoeing: A manual method of severing roots from stems of newly planted flowers and vegetables.

No tears Dim the sweet look that Nature wears.

The law will never make a man free; it is men who have got to make the law free.

You are not called to be a canary in a cage. You are called to be an eagle, and to fly sun to sun, over continents.

What is human warfare but just this; an effort to make the laws of God and nature take sides with one party.

Ah, the souls of those that die Are but sunbeams lifted higher.

The setting of a great hope is like the setting of the sun. The brightness of our life is gone.

Build today, then strong and sure, With a firm and ample base; And ascending and secure. Shall tomorrow find its place.

If a man constantly aspires is he not elevated?

When a dog runs at you, whistle for him.

Until we lose ourselves there is no hope of finding ourselves.

The Helicon of too many poets is not a hill crowned with sunshine and visited by the Muses and the Graces, but an old, mouldering house, full of gloom and haunted by ghosts.

All passes, Art alone Enduring stays to us; The Bust out-lasts the throne,-- The coin, Tiberius.

Youth, hope, and love: To build a new life on a ruined life, To make the future fairer than the past, And make the past appear a troubled dream.

Kind messages, that pass from land to land; Kind letters, that betray the heart's deep history, In which we feel the pressure of a hand,-- One touch of fire,--and all the rest is mystery!

All sense of hearing and of sight enfold in the serene delight and quietude of sleep.

There is no light in earth or heaven but the cold light of stars; and the first watch of night is given to the red planet Mars.

Real worship is that of the heart.

It is not only that sin consists in doing evil, but in not doing the good that we know.

This is not a book in the ordinary sense of the word. No, this is a prolonged insult, a gob of spit in the face of art, a kick in the pants to God, Man, Destiny, Time, Love, Beauty... what you will.

We can either allow our youth to shoot baskets or watch them continue to shoot people.

When spring comes to Paris the humblest mortal alive must feel that he dwells in paradise.

A Friend is one who incessantly pays us the compliment of expecting from us all the virtues, and who can appreciate them in us.

It does me good to write a letter which is not a response to a demand, a gratuitous letter, so to speak, which has accumulated in me like the waters of a reservoir.

An obsession with control generally seems to reflect a fear of uncertainty.

Virtue is safe only when it is inspired.

Remember God's bounty in the year. String the pearls of His favor. Hide the dark parts, except so far as they are breaking out in light! Give this one day to thanks, to joy, to gratitude!

All perception of truth is the detection of an analogy.

Follow through: The part of the swing that takes place after the ball has been hit, but before the club has been thrown.

To 'turn around' is to end up facing the same way. Maybe that is the problem, all the turning organizations around.

Must be out-of-doors enough to get experience of wholesome reality, as a ballast to thought and sentiment. Health requires this relaxation, this aimless life.

The world rests on principles.

If you plan your work, you will not find yourself standing on the corner wondering where to go next.

It's one of the most important things at the end of the day, being able to say no to an investment.