O. Henry Quotes

A face at the window, a tap on the pane, who is it that wants me tonight in the rain?

Day is the Child of Time, And Day must cease to be: But Night is without a sire, And cannot expire, One with Eternity.

We grow like flowers, and bear desire, the odor of the human flowers.

I'm obsessed by the idea of making my mark on history. And Arsenal is my paradise.

I hope you have enjoyed watching as much as I have enjoyed taking part.

There can be no greatness in things. Things cannot be great. The only greatness is unselfish love.

We know that our senses are subject to decay, that from our middle years they are decaying all the time; but happily it is as if we didn't know and didn't believe.

There are many Green Dragons in this world of wayside inns, even as there are many White Harts, Red Lions, Silent Women and other incredible things.

We steal if we touch tomorrow. It is God's.

The highest law gives a thing to him who can use it.

Between whom there is hearty truth there is love.

A sentence should be read as if its author, had he held a plough instead of a pen, could have drawn a furrow deep and straight to the end.

It is not well for a man to pray cream and live skim milk.

Night is certainly more novel and less profane than day.

The faultfinder will find faults even in paradise.

Only he is successful in his business who makes that pursuit which affords him the highest pleasure sustain him.

Our whole life is startlingly moral. There is never an instant's truce between virtue and vice.

Men have a respect for scholarship and learning greatly out of proportion to the use they commonly serve.

What recommends commerce to me is its enterprise and bravery. It does not clasp its hands and pray to Jupiter.

Truth strikes us from behind and in the dark, as well as from before and in broad daylight.

Solitude is not measured by the miles of space that intervene between a man and his fellows.

A man that does not know how to be angry does not know how to be good.

No man is more cheated than the selfish man.

I have thought there was some advantage even in death, by which we mingle with the herd of common men.

Every year, August lashes out in volcanic fury, rising with the din of morning traffic, its great metallic wings smashing against the ground, heating the air with ever-increasing intensity.

All men are children, and of one family. The same tale sends them all to bed, and wakes them in the morning.

What we call wisdom is the result of all the wisdom of past ages. Our best institutions are like young trees growing upon the roots of the old trunks that have crumbled away.

Ignorance and bungling with love are better than wisdom and skill without.

If there is any hell more unprincipled than our rulers, and we, the ruled, I feel curious to see it.

Life in us is like the water in a river.

My enemies are worms, cool days, and most of all woodchucks.

Faith never makes a confession.

There are more quarrels smothered by just shutting your mouth, and holding it shut, than by all the wisdom in the world.

Nature is as well adapted to our weakness as to our strength.

I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well.

Violent passions are formed in solitude. In the busy world no object has time to make a deep impression.

Prayer time must be kept up as duly as meal-time.

Oh the long and dreary Winter! Oh the cold and cruel Winter!

It is not enough that your designs, nay that your actions, are intrinsically good, you must take care they shall appear so.

Serenity is when you get above all this, when it doesn't matter what they think, say or want, but when you do as you are, and see God and Devil as one.

A great memory does not make a mind, any more than a dictionary is a piece of literature.

I have found God, but he is insufficient.

Worry is the only insupportable misfortune of life.

I am being frank about myself in this book. I tell of my first mistake on page 850.

Even if it doesn't work, there is something healthy and invigorating about direct action

Libel actions, when we look at them in perspective, are an ornament of a civilized society. They have replaced, after all, at least in most cases, a resort to weapons in defense of a reputation.

Every global concern - economic, environmental or security-related - can be addressed more effectively when the U.S. and China work together.

God not only loves the obedient - He enlightens them.

Economic growth and environmental protection are not at odds. They're opposite sides of the same coin if you're looking at longer-term prosperity.

The sanctity of our battlefields, monuments, and veterans institutions is of utmost importance to preserve military history and pay respect to those who fought.