O. Henry Quotes (49 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

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Famous O. Henry Quotes

Source: Heart of the West

“I'll give you the whole secret to short story writing. Here it is. Rule 1: Write stories that please yourself. There is no Rule 2.”

O. Henry

“Each of us, when our day's work is done, must seek our ideal, whether it be love or pinochle or lobster à la Newburg, or the sweet silence of the musty bookshelves.”

O. Henry

“Life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating.”

O. Henry book The Gift of the Magi

The Four Million (1906)
Source: "The Gift of the Magi"
Context: 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 sniffles predominating.

“I know you. I have heard of you all my life. I know now what a scourge you have been to your country. Instead of killing fools you have been murdering the youth and genius that are necessary to make a people live and grow great.”

O. Henry

"The Fool-Killer"
The Voice of the City (1908)
Context: I know you. I have heard of you all my life. I know now what a scourge you have been to your country. Instead of killing fools you have been murdering the youth and genius that are necessary to make a people live and grow great. You are a fool yourself, Holmes; you began killing off the brightest and best of our countrymen three generations ago, when the old and obsolete standards of society and honor and orthodoxy were narrow and bigoted. You proved that when you put your murderous mark upon my friend Kerner — the wisest chap I ever knew in my life.

“I hated Kerner, and one day I met him and we became friends.”

O. Henry

"The Fool-Killer"
The Voice of the City (1908)
Context: 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 riotously sad. That was his youth. When a man begins to be hilarious in a sorrowful way you can bet a million that he is dyeing his hair.

O. Henry Quotes about people

“We can't buy one minute of time with cash; if we could, rich people would live longer.”

O. Henry

Source: Selected Stories

“I wanted to paint a picture some day that people would stand before and forget that it was made of paint. I wanted it to creep into them like a bar of music and mushroom there like a soft bullet.”

O. Henry

Source: The Complete Works of O. Henry

“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 larger estimate of human interest has been preferred in marking out the field of these little stories of the "Four Million."”

O. Henry book The Four Million

Preface
The Four Million (1906)

“East is East, and West is San Francisco, according to Californians. Californians are a race of people; they are not merely inhabitants of a State.”

O. Henry

"A Municipal Report"
Strictly Business (1910)

O. Henry Quotes about time

“The most notable thing about Time is that it is so purely relative. A large amount of reminiscence is, by common consent, conceded to the drowning man; and it is not past belief that one may review an entire courtship while removing one's gloves.”

O. Henry

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

O. Henry book The Four Million

"Memoirs of a Yellow Dog"
The Four Million (1906)

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

O. Henry

“Makes the Whole World Kin,” Sixes and Sevens (1911)

“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 meantime fiction must not only be divorced from fact, but must pay alimony and be awarded custody of the press despatches.”

O. Henry

"The Plutonian Fire"
The Voice of the City (1908)

O. Henry Quotes

“But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. Of all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi.”

O. Henry book The Four Million

"The Gift of the Magi"
The Four Million (1906)
Context: 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 wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication. And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. Of all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi.

“Man is too thoroughly an egoist not to be also an egotist; if he love, the object shall know it. During a lifetime he may conceal it through stress of expediency and honour, but it shall bubble from his dying lips, though it disrupt a neighbourhood. It is known, however, that most men do not wait so long to disclose their passion.”

O. Henry book Whirligigs

"Blind Man's Holiday"
Whirligigs (1910)
Context: Man is too thoroughly an egoist not to be also an egotist; if he love, the object shall know it. During a lifetime he may conceal it through stress of expediency and honour, but it shall bubble from his dying lips, though it disrupt a neighbourhood. It is known, however, that most men do not wait so long to disclose their passion. In the case of Lorison, his particular ethics positively forbade him to declare his sentiments, but he must needs dally with the subject, and woo by innuendo at least.

“When a man begins to be hilarious in a sorrowful way you can bet a million that he is dyeing his hair.”

O. Henry

“All of us have to be prevaricators, hypocrites, and liars every day of our lives; otherwise the social structure would fall into pieces the first day. We must act in one another's presence just as we must wear clothes. It is for the best”

O. Henry

“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.”

O. Henry book The Four Million

"The Green Door" http://books.google.com/books?id=dKk_AAAAYAAJ&q=%22The+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%22&pg=PA151#v=onepage <br class="br">The Four Million (1906)

“She had
become so thoroughly annealed into his life that she was like the
air he breathed--necessary but scarcely noticed.”

O. Henry

Source: The Complete Life of John Hopkins

“He seemed to be made of sunshine and blood-red tissue and clear weather.”

O. Henry

Source: Selected Stories

“It couldn't have happened anywhere but in little old New York.”

O. Henry book Whirligigs

"A Little Local Color"
Whirligigs (1910)

“Pull up the shades so I can see New York. I don't want to go home in the dark.”

O. Henry

Last words, quoting a 1907 song by Harry Williams. (5 June 1910) Quoted in O. Henry Biography, ch. 9, Charles Alphonso Smith (1916).
Variant: Turn up the lights — I don't want to go home in the dark.

“Inject a few raisins of conversation into the tasteless dough of existence”

O. Henry

Source: Selected Stories

“Write what you like; there is no other rule.”

O. Henry

“She is pale but affectionate, clinging to his arm — always clinging to his arm. Any one can see that she is a peach and of the cling variety.”

O. Henry

"A Tempered Wind"
The Gentle Grafter (1908)

“If ever there was an aviary overstocked with jays it is that Yaptown-on-the-Hudson, called New York.”

O. Henry

"A Tempered Wind"
The Gentle Grafter (1908)

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