O. Henry Quotes

Excellence does not require perfection.

Democracy is too important to leave up to the votes of the people.

The heart, like the mind, has a memory. And in it are kept the most precious keepsakes.

Nothing exposes religion more to the reproach of its enemies than the worldliness and half-heartedness of the professors of it.

The man of science has learned to believe in justification, not by faith, but by verification.

If you are on the right path, it will always be uphill.

As poetry is the harmony of words, so music is that of notes; and as poetry is a rise above prose and oratory, so is music the exaltation of poetry.

I'm a serious geek. I mean I seriously want to own a unicorn when I'm older . . . or a Pegasus . . . yeah Pegasus sounds better.

Meteorology has ever been an apple of contention, as if the violent commotions of the atmosphere induced a sympathetic effect on the minds of those who have attempted to study them.

Young love is a flame; very pretty, often very hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. The love of the older and disciplined heart is as coals, deep-burning, unquenchable.

You must not blame me if I do talk to the clouds.

I have no doubt that it is part of the destiny of the human race in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals.

Fear not that thy life shall come to an end, but rather fear that it shall never have a beginning.

A helping word to one in trouble is often like a switch on a railroad track-an inch between wreck and smooth-rolling prosperity.

The Roman jurisprudence has the longest known history of any set of human institutions.

We are all of us more or less active physiognomists.

Very hot and still the air was, Very smooth the gliding river, Motionless the sleeping shadows.

Having each some shingles of thought well dried, we sat and whittled them.

The meek are those who quietly submit themselves to God, to His Word and to His rod, who follow His directions, and comply with His designs, and are gentle toward all men.

The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.

Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other's eyes for an instant?

I will preach with my brush.

Purposelessness is the fruitful mother of crime.

The Constitution of the United States was made not merely for the generation that then existed, but for posterity- unlimited, undefined, endless, perpetual posterity.

If ever there was a time for true bipartisanship, it is today.

Love can only exist where freedom and responsibility are operating.

Understand the difference between being at work and working.

Education is essential to change, for education creates both new wants and the ability to satisfy them.

Let nothing come between you and the light.

But oftentimes celestial benedictions Assume this dark disguise.

The true harvest of my life is intangible - a little star dust caught, a portion of the rainbow I have clutched.

If we are intended for great ends, we are called to great hazards.

This world is but a canvas to our imagination.

Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.

One never knows what each day is going to bring. The important thing is to be open and ready for it.

Strategies grow initially like weeds in a garden, they are not cultivated like tomatoes in a hothouse.

A truly good book teaches me better than to read it. I must soon lay it down, and commence living on its hint. What I began by reading, I must finish by acting.

I'm yours for ever--for ever and ever. Here I stand; I'm as firm as a rock. If you'll only trust me, how little you'll be disappointed. Be mine as I am yours.

A lake is a landscape's most beautiful and expressive feature. It is Earth's eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature.

Art is long, and time is fleeting, And our hearts, though stout and brave, Still, like muffled drums, are beating Funeral marches to the grave.

Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small; Though with patience He stands waiting, with exactness grinds He all.

Corporations are social institutions. If they don't serve society, they have no business existing

God made me blind and unable to walk. BIG DEAL! He gave me the ability... the musical gifts I have... the great opportunity to meet new people.

If Parliament may take from me one shilling in the pound, what security have I for the other nineteen?

Everyone who knows me knows that I'm a hopeless romantic who listens to love ballads and doo-wop songs all the time.

All words are pegs to hang ideas on.

It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste.

If a man harbors any sort of fear, it percolates through all his thinking, damages his personality, makes him landlord to a ghost.

It is often said that second thoughts are best. So they are in matters of judgment but not in matters of conscience.

It's a complex fate, being an American, and one of the responsibilities it entails is fighting against a superstitious valuation of Europe.