O. Henry Quotes

It is pitiful when a man bears a name for convenience merely, who has earned neither name nor fame.

Every man will be a poet if he can; otherwise a philosopher or man of science. This proves the superiority of the poet.

Truth, Goodness, Beauty - those celestial thrins,Continually are born; e'en now the Universe,With thousand throats, and eke with greener smiles,Its joy confesses at their recent birth.

It is the art of mankind to polish the world, and every one who works is scrubbing in some part.

Could slavery suggest a more complete servility than some of these journals exhibit? Is there any dust which their conduct does not lick, and make fouler still with its slime?

The imagination never forgets; it is a re-membering. It is not foundationless, but most reasonable, and it alone uses all the knowledge of the intellect.

The virtue which we appreciate, we to some extent appropriate.

As in many countries precious metals belong to the crown, so here more precious natural objects of rare beauty should belong to the public.

I am no more lonely than the loon in the pond that laughs so loud, or than Walden Pond itself. What company has that lonely lake,I pray?

Almost any man knows how to earn money, but not one in a million knows how to spend it.

We need the tonic of wildness.

The whole body of what is now called moral or ethical truth existed in the golden age as abstract science. Or, if we prefer, we may say that the laws of Nature are the purest morality.

Some show their kindness to the poor by employing them in their kitchens. Would they not be kinder if they employed themselves there?

My spirits infallibly rise in proportion to the outward dreariness. Give me the ocean, the desert, or the wilderness!

I always see those of whom I have heard well with a slight disappointment. They are so much better than the great herd, and yet the heavens are not shivered into diamonds over their heads.

Even trees do not die without a groan.

As every season seems best to us in its turn, so the coming in of spring is like the creation of Cosmos out of Chaos and the realization of the Golden Age.

What exercise is to the body, employment is to the mind and morals.

The tavern will compare favorably with the church.

The life without men praise and regard as successful is but one kind. Why should we exaggerate any one kind at the expense of the others?

Whatever beauty we behold, the more it is distant, serene, and cold, the purer and more durable it is. It is better to warm ourselves with ice than with fire.

The thoughtful man becomes a hermit in the thoroughfares of the marketplace.

Let us spend one day as deliberately as Nature.

Man flows at once to God when the channel of purity is open.

The young pines springing up in the corn-fields from year to year are to me a refreshing fact.

Look not to legislatures and churches for your guidance, nor to any soulless incorporated bodies, but to inspirited or inspired ones.

I have made a short excursion into the new world which the Indian dwells in, or is. He begins where we leave off.

At present our only true names are nicknames.

Many have believed that Walden reached quite through to the other side of the globe.

Not secondary to the sun, she gives us his blaze again, Void of its flame, and sheds a softer day... In Heaven queen she is among the spheres; She, mistress-like, makes all things to be pure.

There are as many strata at different levels of life as there are leaves in a book. When on the higher levels we can remember the lower levels, but when on the lower we cannot remember the higher.

A slight sound at evening lifts me up by the ears, and makes life seem inexpressibly serene and grand. It may be Uranus, or it may be in the shutter.

Our village life would stagnate if it were not for the unexplored forests and meadows which surround it.

Writing is a business and should be practiced as such. On days when you think you can’t possibly write a line you do it anyhow.

I don't believe all this nonsense about market timing. Just buy good value and when the market is ready that value will be recognized.

A speech is entertaining only when serenely detached from all information.

Success is a fruit of slow growth.

The highest friendship must always lead us to the highest pleasure.

Penny saved is a penny got.

No one hath seen beauty in its highest lustre who hath never seen it in distress.

I describe not men, but manners; not an individual, but a species.

A man may go to heaven with half the pains it cost him to purchase hell.

The only source of the true Ridiculous (as it appears to me) is affectation

Wicked companions invite us to hell.

The constant desire of pleasing which is the peculiar quality of some, may be called the happiest of all desires in this that it rarely fails of attaining its end when not disgraced by affectation.

A good man therefore is a standing lesson to us all.

These are called the pious frauds of friendship.

Nothing can be so quick and sudden as the operations of the mind, especially when hope, or fear, or jealousy, to which the other two are but journeymen, set it to work.

What was said by the Latin poet of labor--that it conquers all things--is much more true when applied to impudence.

Money the root of all evil, unless used for good purpose