O. Henry Quotes (1862-1910)

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

“She plucked from my lapel the invisible strand of lint (the universal act of woman to proclaim ownership).”

“It ain't the roads we take; it's what's inside of us that makes us turn out the way we do.”

“The lonesomest thing in all the world is a soul when it is making ready to go on its mysterious, far journey.”

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

“Whenever my patient begins to count the carriages in her funeral procession I subtract 50 per cent from the curative power of medicines.”

“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.”

“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.”

“A story with a moral appended is like the bill of a mosquito. It bores you, and then injects a stinging drop to irritate your conscience.”

“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.”

“There are a few editor men with whom I am privileged to come in contact. It has not been long since it was their habit to come in contact with me. There is a difference.”

“Bohemia is nothing more than the little country in which you do not live. If you try to obtain citizenship in it, at once the court and retinue pack the royal archives and treasure and move away beyond the hills.”