Quotes by O. Henry

“What is the world at its best but a little round field of the moving pictures with two walking together in it?”

“Perhaps there is no happiness in life so perfect as the martyr's.”

“Turn up the lights — I don't want to go home in the dark.”

“A burglar who respects his art always takes his time before taking anything else.”

“A straw vote only shows which way the hot air blows.”

“Take it from me — he's got the goods.”

“Not very long ago some one invented the assertion that there were only Four Hundred people in New York City who were really worth noticing. But a wiser man has arisen — the census taker — and his l...”

“One dollar and eighty-seven cents. And the next day would be Christmas.”

“There was clearly nothing to do but flop down on the shabby little couch and howl. So Della did it. Which instigates the moral reflection that life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sn...”

“The magi, as you know, were wise men — wonderfully wise men — who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt ...”

“If man knew how women pass the time when they are alone, they'd never marry.”

“The true adventurer goes forth aimless and uncalculating to meet and greet unknown fate. A fine example was the Prodigal Son—when he started back home.”

“Whenever my patient begins to count the carriages in her funeral procession I subtract 50 per cent from the curative power of medicines.”

“The lonesomest thing in all the world is a soul when it is making ready to go on its mysterious, far journey.”

“Bohemia is nothing more than the little country in which you do not live. If you try to obtain citizenship in it, at once the court and retinue pack the royal archives and treasure and move away be...”

“There are a few editor men with whom I am privileged to come in contact. It has not been long since it was their habit to come in contact with me. There is a difference.”

“In time truth and science and nature will adapt themselves to art. Things will happen logically, and the villain be discomfited instead of being elected to the board of directors. But in the meanti...”

“He wrote love stories, a thing I have always kept free from, holding the belief that the well-known and popular sentiment is not properly matter for publication, but something to be privately handl...”

“I hated Kerner, and one day I met him and we became friends. He was young and gloriously melancholy because his spirits were so high and life had so much in store for him. Yes, he was almost riotou...”

“Kerner's father was worth a couple of millions. He was willing to stand for art, but he drew the line at the factory girl. So Kerner disinherited his father and walked out to a cheap studio and liv...”