O. Henry Quotes

Art is nothing more than the shadow of humanity.

It is difficult to speak adequately or justly of London. It is not a pleasant place; it is not agreeable, or cheerful, or easy, or exempt from reproach. It is only magnificent.

I don't want everyone to like me; I should think less of myself if some people did.

I'm not against taking shots, but I am against taking bad shots.

Parsimony is enough to make the master of the golden mines as poor as he that has nothing; for a man may be brought to a morsel of bread by parsimony as well as profusion.

Were wisdom to be sold, she would give no price; every man is satisfied with the share he has from nature.

Luxury possibly may contribute to give bread to the poor; but if there were no luxury, there would be no poor.

Logic is the art of thinking well: the mind, like the body, requires to be trained before it can use its powers in the most advantageous way.

From a strictly economic point of view, buying gold in a major inflation and holding it probably presents the least risk of capital loss of any investment or speculation.

The system of capitalism, of the market economy, is a system of freedom, of justice, of productivity. But these three virtues cannot be separated. Each flows out of the other.

Contrary to age-old prejudices, the wealth of the rich is not the cause of the poverty of the poor, but helps to alleviate that poverty.

Within neoliberal narratives, youth are mostly defined as a consumer market, a drain on the economy, or stand for trouble.

For as labor cannot produce without the use of land, the denial of the equal right to the use of land is necessarily the denial of the labor to its own produce.

Poverty is the openmouthed relentless hell which yawns beneath civilized society. And it is hell enough.

Ancient art was the tyrant of Egypt, the mistress of Greece and the servant of Rome.

The price of excellence is labor, and time that of immortality.

Art among a religious race produces reliques [sic]; among a military one, trophies; among a commercial one, articles of trade.

Art, like love, excludes all competition and absorbs the man.

Teach me. Lord, my true condition; Bring me childlike to Thy knee; Stripped of every low ambition, Willing to be led by Thee.

Obsolescence is the very hallmark of progress.

The whole key of the profitable everyday living will be to discover out what's one's future to try and do, and after that do it.

Every object tells a story if you know how to read it.

The gifted man bears his gifts into the world, not for his own benefit, but for the people among whom he is placed; for the gifts are not his, he himself is a gift to the community.

Every time you try to quit smoking you are actually getting closer to staying smoke free

Too many men are afraid of being fools.

If governments would only understand that if people are left alone they'll work out their own salvation.

A customer votes everyday with his dollar. Our job is make sure he votes for us.

Any man can learn anything he will, but no man can teach except to those who want to learn.

The characteristic of coquettes is affectation governed by whim.

LOVE: A word properly applied to our delight in particular kinds of food; sometimes metaphorically spoken of the favorite objects of all our appetites.

The prudence of the best heads is often defeated by tenderness of the best hearts.

A wonder lasts but nine days, and then the puppy's eyes are open.

Money is the fruit of evil, as often as the root of it.

Wisdom is the talent of buying virtuous pleasures at the cheapest rate.

Few men are both rich and generous; fewer are both rich and humble.

To put labour and wages first and human ordomestic life second is to invert the order of God and of nature.

A habit of devout fellowship with God is the spring of all our life, and the strength of it.

Churches come and go, but there has ever been but one religion. The only religion is conscience in action.

It's when the thing itself is missing that you have to supply the word.

I had a classmate who fitted for college by the lamps of a lighthouse, which was more light, we think, than the University afforded.

If it is surely the means to the highest end we know, can any work be humble or disgusting? Will it not rather be elevating as a ladder, the means by which we are translated?

I love nature, I love the landscape, because it is so sincere. It never cheats me. It never jests. It is cheerfully, musically earnest. I lie and relie on the earth.

It requires a direct dispensation from Heaven to become a walker.

I have met with but one or two persons in the course of my life who have understood the art of Walking, that is, of taking walks,-who had a genius, so to speak, for sauntering.

The true finish is the work of time, and the use to which a thing is put. The elements are still polishing the pyramids.

If you would get exercise, go in search of the springs of life.

The fibers of all things have their tension and are strained like the strings of an instrument.

Spring. March fans it, April christens it, and May puts on its jacket and trousers.

I do not know what right I have to so much happiness, but rather hold it in reserve till the time of my desert.

Some simple dishes recommend themselves to our imaginations as well as palates.