O. Henry Quotes

Though the youth at last grows indifferent, the laws of the universe are not indifferent, but are forever on the side of the most sensitive.

There never was and is not likely soon to be a nation of philosophers, nor am I certain it is desirable that there should be.

We cannot put a noose around another man's neck without first hanging ourselves.

Today you may write a chapter on the advantages of traveling, and tomorrow you may write another chapter on the advantages of not traveling.

The Heavens are as deep as our aspirations are high.

The birds I heard today, which, fortunately, did not come within the scope of my science, sang as freshly as if it had been the first morning of creation.

Knowledge does not come to us in details, but in flashes of light from heaven.

Why does it [government] always crucify Christ, and excommunicate Copernicus and Luther, and pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels?

Law never made men a whit more just.

So our human life but dies down to its root, and still puts forth its green blade to eternity.

Experience is in the fingers and head. The heart is inexperienced.

I stand in awe of my body.

We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us.

Let your capital be simplicity and contentment.

Unto a life which I call natural I would gladly follow even a will-o'-the-wisp through bogs and sloughs unimaginable, but no moonnor firefly has shown me the causeway to it.

It is usually the imagination that is wounded first, rather than the heart; it being much more sensitive.

A name pronounced is the recognition of the individual to whom it belongs. He who can pronounce my name aright, he can call me, and is entitled to my love and service.

Music is perpetual, and only the hearing is intermittent.

Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine.

I heartily accept the motto, "That government is best which governs least"; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically.

After the first blush of sin comes its indifference.

Haste makes waste, no less in life than in housekeeping.

All change is a miracle to contemplate, but it is a miracle which is taking place every instant.

Nothing goes by luck in composition. It allows of no tricks. The best you can write will be the best you are.

I would give all the wealth of the world, and all the deeds of all the heroes, for one true vision.

It often happens that a man is more humanely related to a cat or dog than to any human being.

While England endeavors to cure the potato-rot, will not any endeavor to cure the brain-rot, which prevails so much more widely and fatally?

The opening of large tracts by the ice-cutters commonly causes a pond to break up earlier; for the water, agitated by the wind, even in cold weather, wears away the surrounding ice.

A true Friendship is as wise as it is tender. The parties to it yield implicitly to the guidance of their love, and know no otherlaw nor kindness.

All that is told of the sea has a fabulous sound to an inhabitant of the land and all its products have a certain fabulous quality, as if they belonged to another planet.

Keep up the fires of thought, and all will go well.

Men go back to the mountains, as they go back to sailing ships at sea, because in the mountains and on the sea they must face up.

Improve every opportunity to be melancholy.

In the long run, we only hit what we aim at.

Lose the world, get lost in it, and find your soul.

Go not to the object; let the object come to you.

In the production of the necessaries of life Nature is ready enough to assist man.

Heroes are often the most ordinary of men.

We are happy in proportion to the things we can do without.

The rarest quality in an epitaph is truth.

In a very real way, ownership is the essence of leadership. When you are ridiculously in charge, then you own whatever happens in a company, school, et cetera.

Dating is primarily a numbers game.... People usually go through a lot of people to find good relationships. That's just the way it is.

Things don't change in a marriage until the spouse who is taking responsibility for a problem that is not hers decides to say or do something about it.

A leader's responsibility is to cause a vision and mission to have tangible results in the real world.

One of the worst things you can die with is potential.

A loving trust in the Author of the Bible is the best preparation for a wise study of the Bible.

Of all human powers operating on the affairs of mankind, none is greater than that of competition.

The cancer doesn't bother me. I have great faith that the technology will beat it.

We have to be honest, we have to be truthful and speak to the one dirty secret in American life, and that is racism.

Americans are a can-do people, an enthusiastic people, a problem-solving people. And when given a direction and given a plan, they'll sign on.