O. Henry Quotes
The man I meet with is not often so instructive as the silence he breaks.
The government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it.
Age is no better, hardly so well, qualified for an instructor as youth, for it has not profited so much as it has lost.
Man is an animal who more than any other can adapt himself to all climates and circumstances.
If a man is alive, there is always danger that he may die, though the danger must be allowed to be less in proportion as he is dead-and-alive to begin with. A man sits as many risks as he runs.
None can be an impartial or wise observer of human life but from the vantage ground of what we should call voluntary poverty.
Amid a world of noisy, shallow actors it is noble to stand aside and say, 'I will simply be.
A distinguished clergyman told me that he chose the profession of a clergyman because it afforded the most leisure for literary pursuits. I would recommend to him the profession of a governor.
I get along with Australians really well. Everyone's usually really cool, and it's always a drag to leave.
Now and then, someone is able to look at an empty space, conclude it would be a great place to start a revolution, and bravely go forward.
I tend to gravitate to the darkest or most obscure part of any venue in an effort to have my own space to experience the music on my own, free from unwanted conversations and other distractions.
We're at peak oil, peak water, peak resources, and so either we figure it out and let science lead or we head down a very bad, dark trail to where a lot of people aren't going to make it.
I think self-reliance and self-responsibility and self-accountability will help you as a parent, a teacher, as a citizen as a friend.
For many years, I tried to make New Year's resolutions. I made lists and shot for great heights: I would show altruism and exert moral strength, patience and all those other great attributes.
It is amazing to hear grown-up people rationalize homophobia and discrimination. The lengths they go to trying to prove their points take reason to its breaking point.
I think more tolerance, more people having more access to a chance to be literate, and a chance to stay healthy makes for a more peaceful planet.
A lot of Americans don't have a passport, never will have a passport. Not only will they not travel, they don't want to travel.
So, one way or another, I found myself in a few movies. I take it seriously when I'm on the set, but I don't take myself seriously as an actor.
The history of apartheid-era South Africa is incredibly sad and at times infuriatingly incomprehensible.
With any advent in technology, any technological innovation, there is the good and the bad.
Enough Americans saw fit to give president Obama a second term. I don't think there will be many people keeping their Romney/Ryan bumper stickers on their cars.
When people hold you in high esteem, it's very delicate relationship. When they meet you they're putting all their chips up. It's make or break.
To anger female voters in America is to tread on the tiger's tail. Women turn out in huge numbers, and they are well aware of how their bodies work and what they need.
The habit of expression leads to the search for something to express. Something remains as a residuum of the commonplace itself, if one strikes out every commonplace in the expression.
Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed. The imagination must be given not wings but weights.
The study of history is useful to the historian by teaching him his ignorance of women.
The tourist was the great conservative who hated novelty and adored dirt.
As if men did not die fast enough, they are ingenious at finding out ways to destroy one another.
That we cannot rise equal to situations when we are in them — that is the tragedy of life.
She took refuge on the firm ground of fiction, through which indeed there curled the blue river of truth.
Poetry is as necessary to comprehension as science. It is as impossible to live without reverence as it is without joy.
An author ought to consider himself, not as a gentleman who gives a private or eleemosynary treat, but rather as one who keeps a public ordinary, at which all persons are welcome for their money.
Is there any conflict between science and religion? There is no conflict in the mind of God, but often there is conflict in the minds of men.
He that planteth a tree is a servant of God, he provideth a kindness for many generations, and faces that he hath not seen shall bless him.
What we find to love or to hate comes to us as a substitute for something else.
Between the dark and the daylight, When the night is beginning to lower, Comes a pause in the day's occupations, That is known as the Children's Hour.