O. Henry Quotes

God save our Gracious King Long live our Noble King God save the King. Send Him victorious Happy and Glorious Long to rule over us God save the King.

I have every sympathy with the American who was so horrified by what he had read of the effects of smoking that he gave up reading.

I think what has this day brought me and what have I given it?

Each morning sees some task begin each evening sees it close Something attempted something done has earned a night's repose.

Thou driftest gently down the tides of sleep.

Noble souls through dust and heat rise from disaster and defeat the stronger.

Motives and purposes are in the brain and heart of man. Consequences are in the world of fact.

I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided and that is the lamp of experience.

The most considerable difference I note among men is not in their readiness to fall into error but in their readiness to acknowledge these inevitable lapses.

Mistakes fail in their mission of helping the person who blames them on the other fellow.

The causes of mistakes are "I didn't know" "I didn't think" and "I didn't care."

It is as absurd to argue men as to torture them into believing.

Faith is the result of the act of the will following upon a conviction that to believe is a duty.

It is by faith that poetry as well as devotion soars above this dull earth that imagination breaks through its clouds breathes a purer air and lives in a softer light.

Time is too slow for those who wait too swift for those who fear too long for those who grieve too short for those who rejoice but for those who love time is eternity.

The only artists for whom I would make way are - children. For me the paintings of children belong side by side with the works of the masters.

Every man should have a fair-sized cemetery in which to bury the faults of his friends.

Be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love and to work and to play and to look up at the stars.

Friendship needs a certain parallelism of life a community of thought a rivalry of aim.

It was such a joy to see thee. I wish I could tell how much thee is to my life. I always turn to thee as a sort of rest.

Ah how good it feels! The hand of an old friend.

Accident counts for much in companionship as in marriage.

Trust no Future howe'er pleasant! Let the dead Past bury its dead!

Act decidedly and take the consequences. No good is ever done by hesitation.

One of the reasons why so few of us ever act instead of react is because we are continually stifling our deepest impulses.

Act-act in the living present!

The ordinary man is involved in action the hero acts. An immense difference.

If you would hit the mark you must aim a little above it: Every arrow that flies feels the attraction of earth.

If you would hit the mark you must aim a little above it every arrow that flies feels the attraction of earth.

What our deepest self craves is not mere enjoyment but some supreme purpose that will enlist all our powers and give unity and direction to our life.

True happiness we are told consists in getting out of one's self but the point is not only to get out you must stay out and to stay out you must have some absorbing errand.

God is to me that creative Force behind and in the universe who manifests Himself as energy as life as order as beauty as thought as conscience as love.

The state it cannot too often be repeated does nothing and can give nothing which it does not take from somebody.

Government is a trust and the officers of the government are trustees and both the trust and the trustees are created for the benefit of the people.

Oh how a small portion of earth will hold us when we are dead who ambitiously seek after the whole world while we are living!

The heights by men reached and kept Were not attained by sudden flight But they while their companions slept Were toiling upward in the night.

Chaos often breeds life when order breeds habit.

Live all you can it's a mistake not to. It doesn't so much matter what you do in particular so long as you have your life. If you haven't had that what have you had?

True happiness we are told consists in getting out of one's self. But the point is not only to get out you must stay out. And to stay out you must have some absorbing errand.

Happiness ... consists in giving and in serving others.

There is no happiness in having or in getting but only in giving.

None so deaf as those that will not hear.

No one is so accursed by fate No one so utterly desolate But some heart though unknown Responds unto his own.

All this and Heaven too!

Three things in human life are important: The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind.

I wonder why it is that we are not all kinder to each other. ... How much the world needs it! How easily it is done!

Give what you have. To someone else it may be better than you dare to think.

Honor begets honor trust begets trust faith begets faith and hope is the mainspring of life.

If it's sanity you're after There's no recipe like Laughter. Laugh it off.

An impossibility does not disturb us until its accomplishment shows what fools we were.