O. Henry Quotes
But government in which the majority rule in all cases can not be based on justice, even as far as men understand it.
Wherever a man goes, men will pursue him and paw him with their dirty institutions, and, if they can, constrain him to belong to their desperate odd-fellow society.
I only desire sincere relations with the worthiest of my acquaintance, that they may give me an opportunity once in a year to speak the truth.
The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way.
In most books, the I, of first person, is omitted; in this it will be retained; that, in respect to egotism, is the main difference.
We commonly do not remember that it is, after all, always the first person that is speaking.
I was born upon thy bank, river, My blood flows in thy stream, And thou meanderest forever, At the bottom of my dream.
The works of great poets have never been read by mankind, for only great poets can read them.
I know of no redeeming qualities in myself but a sincere love for some things, and when I am reproved I fall back on to this ground.
The work of internal government has become the task of controlling the thousands of fifth-rate men.
In the meanest are all the materials of manhood, only they are not rightly disposed.
One does every day and without a second thought, what at another time would be the event of a year, perhaps of a life.
There is an incessant influx of novelty into the world, and yet we tolerate incredible dullness.
I have been breaking silence these twenty-three years and have hardly made a rent in it.
Pity the man who has a character to support - it is worse than a large family - he is silent poor indeed.
Nature is not made after such a fashion as we would have her. We piously exaggerate her wonders, as the scenery around our home.
The moral and spiritual aspects of both personal and international relationships have a practical bearing which so-called practical men deny.
I do not define my job in any rigid terms but in terms of having the flexibility to what seems to me to be in the best interests of the company at any times.
A Creator must exist. The Big Bang ripples and subsequent scientific findings are clearly pointing to an ex nihilo creation consistent with the first few verses of the book of Genesis.
There is a middlebrow snobbery in America that praises everything on public television and disdains everything on the commercial networks as a blight.
The American temptation is to believe that foreign policy is a subdivision of psychiatry.
Some virtuous women are too liberal in their insults to a frail sister; but virtue can support itself without borrowing any assistance from the vices of other women.
It may be laid down as a general rule, that no woman who hath any great pretensions to admiration is ever well pleased in a company where she perceives herself to fill only the second place.
It is not from nature, but from education and habits, that our wants are chiefly derived.
There is scarcely any man, how much soever he may despise the character of a flatterer, but will condescend in the meanest manner to flatter himself.
His designs were strictly honourable, as the phrase is; that is, to rob a lady of her fortune by way of marriage.
There are two considerations which always imbitter the heart of an avaricious man--the one is a perpetual thirst after more riches, the other the prospect of leaving what he has already acquired.
In relations with many domestically weak countries, a radio transmitter can be a more effective form of pressure than a squadron B-52s.
A good conscience is never lawless in the worst regulated state, and will provide those laws for itself which the neglect of legislators had forgotten to supply.
There is nothing a Man of good Sense dreads so much in a Wife, as her having more Sense than himself.
There is perhaps no surer mark of folly, than to attempt to correct natural infirmities of those we love.