O. Henry Quotes

Experience is in the fingers and the head. The heart is inexperienced.

Failure is only an opportunity to begin again more intelligently.

Failure is a school in which the truth always grows strong.

There is no such thing as white lies a lie is as black as a coalpit and twice as foul.

Friends will not only live in harmony but in melody.

Every generation laughs at the old fashions but religiously follows the new.

Flowers may beckon towards us but they speak toward heaven and God.

The unthankful heart... discovers no mercies but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and as the magnet finds the iron so it will find in every hour some heavenly blessings!

The unthankful heart... discovers no mercies but the thankful heart... will find in every hour some heavenly blessings.

A man is rich in proportion to the things he can afford to let alone.

God pardons like a mother who kisses the offense into everlasting forgetfulness.

How often we find ourselves turning our backs on our actual friends that we may go and meet their ideal cousins.

You never know till you try to reach them how accessible men are but you must approach each man by the right door.

There is not so good an understanding between any two but the exposure by the one of a serious fault in the other will produce a misunderstanding in proportion to its heinousness.

Not only must we be good but we must also be good for something.

There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished something.

In the long run men hit only what they aim at. Therefore though they should fall immediately they had better aim at something high.

Happiness is not the end of life character is.

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

Good-humor makes all things tolerable.

If I knew ... that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good I should run for my life.

The worst thing in this world next to anarchy is government.

There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accom plished something.

It is the heart that makes a man rich. He is rich according to what he is not according to what he has.

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 humblest individual exerts some influence either for good or evil upon others.

Through our own recovered innocence we discern the innocence of our neighbours.

A tool is but the extension of a man's hand and a machine is but a complex tool. And he that invents a machine augments the power of a man and the well-being of mankind.

Anyone who stops learning is old whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.

To know that we know what we know and that we do not know what we do not know that is true knowledge.

It usually takes 100 years to make a law and then after it's done its work it usually takes 100 years to be rid of it.

A tool is but the extension of a man's hand and a machine is but a complex tool. He that invents a machine augments the power of a man and the well being of mankind.

Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life. So aim above morality. Be not simply good be good for something.

Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim above morality. Be not simply good be good for something.

Flowers have an expression of countenance as much as men or animals. Some seem to smile some have a sad expression some are pensive and diffident others again are plain honest and upright.

I frequently tramped eight or ten miles through the deepest snow to keep an appointment with a beech tree or a yellow birch or an old acquaintance among the pines.

The finest workers in stone are not copper or steel tools but the gentle touches of air and water working at their leisure with a liberal allowance of time.

For many years I was self-appointed inspector of snowstorms and rainstorms and did my duty faithfully though I never received one cent for it.

I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.

The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one comes from a strong will and the other from a strong won't.

Gnaw your own bone gnaw at it bury it unearth it gnaw it still.

Gather ye rose-buds while ye may Old time is still a-flying. And this same flower that smiles today Tomorrow will be dying.

No matter what looms ahead if you can eat today enjoy the sunlight today mix good cheer with friends today enjoy it and bless God for it.

A door that seems to stand open must be a man's size or it is not the door that Providence means for him.

Fear is a kind of bell or gong which rings the mind into quick life and avoidance upon the approach of danger. It is the soul's signal for rallying.

There is no friendship no love like that of the parent for the child.

What the mother sings to the cradle goes all the way down to the coffin.

Do what you love. Know your own bone gnaw at it bury it unearth it and gnaw it still.

Clothes and manners do not make the man but when he is made they greatly improve his appearance.

Colour which is the poet's wealth is so expensive that most take to mere outline sketches and become men of science.