O. Henry Quotes
If anything ail a man, so that he does not perform his functions, if he have a pain in his bowels even,- for that is the seat of sympathy,-he forthwith sets about reforming the world.
By religion I mean perfected manhood,--the quickening of the soul by the influence of the Divine Spirit.
No discovery of modern psychology is, in my opinion, so important as its scientific proof of the necessity of self-sacrifice (or discipline) to self-realization and happiness.
I was more independent than any farmer in Concord, for I was not anchored to a house or farm, but could follow the bent of my genius, which is a very crooked one, every moment.
I have myself to respect, but to myself I am not amiable; but my friend is my amiableness personified.
Let Harlequin be taken with a fit of the colic, and his trappings will have to serve that mood too.
It is dry, hazy June weather. We are more of the earth, farther from heaven these days.
In ancient days the Pythagoreans were used to change names with each other,--fancying that each would share the virtues they admired in the other.
We tell our thoughts, like our children, to put on their hats and coats before they go out.
There is an orientalism in the most restless pioneer, and the farthest west is but the farthest east.
A congressman is a pig. The only way to get his snout from the trough is to rap it sharply with a stick.
It is through chance that, from among the various individuals of which each of us is composed, one emerges rather than another.
I believe in maximum flexibility, so I reserve the right to change my position on any subject when the external environment relating to any topic changes too.
It can happen anytime, anywhere. I mean, you don't have to be in front of stuff that's going to make a good photograph. It's possible anywhere.
Holiness does not consist in doing uncommon things, but in doing every thing with purity of heart.
Blessed are the people whose leaders can look destiny in the eye without flinching but also without attempting to play God.
I make my own time. I make my own terms. I cannot see how God or Nature can ever get the start of me.
If I should ever be captured, I want no negotiation - and if I should request a negotiation from captivity they should consider that a sign of duress.
Many men build as cathedrals are built-the part nearest the ground finished, but that part which soars toward heaven, the turrets and the spires, forever incomplete.
It is a higher exhibition of Christian manliness to be able to bear trouble than to get rid of it.
A newspaper consists of just the same number of words, whether there be any news in it or not.
In 1833, protection was abandoned, and a tariff was established by which it was provided that we should, in a few years, have a system of merely revenue duties.
Our decisions, once executed, can never be erased. This is because such selections introduce a new series of conditions setting in motion events which cannot later be recalled.
The perch swallows the grub-worm, the pickerel swallows the perch, and the fisherman swallows the pickerel; and so all the chinks in the scale of being are filled.
Dancing begets warmth, which is the parent of wantonness. It is, Sir, the great grandfather of cuckoldom.
Whether the flower looks better in the nosegay than in the meadow where it grew and we had to wet our feet to get it! Is the scholastic air any advantage?
A rich man without charity is a rogue; and perhaps it would be no difficult matter to prove that he is also a fool.