O Henry quotes

" The magi, as you know, were wise men — wonderfully wise men — who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication. And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. Of all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi. " # Wisdom # Christmas # Friends and Friendship

" Life is sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating. " # Love

" Turn up the lights. I don't want to go home in the dark. " # Famous Last Words # Home # Love

" A straw vote only shows which way the hot air blows. " # Voting # Elections # Friends and Friendship

" What else can you expect from a town that's shut off from the world by the ocean on one side and New Jersey on the other? " # Cities and City Life # Expectation # Love

" What is the world at its best but a little round field of the moving pictures with two walking together in it? " # Imagination # Love # Dreams

" There was clearly nothing to do but flop down on the shabby little couch and howl. So Della did it. Which instigates the moral reflection that life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating. " # Nonviolence # Smile # Revolutions and Revolutionaries

" In time truth and science and nature will adapt themselves to art. Things will happen logically, and the villain be discomfited instead of being elected to the board of directors. But in the meantime fiction must not only be divorced from fact, but must pay alimony and be awarded custody of the press despatches. " # Alimony # Awards # Divorce

" He wrote love stories, a thing I have always kept free from, holding the belief that the well-known and popular sentiment is not properly matter for publication, but something to be privately handled by the alienist and the florist. " # Love # Belief # Books - Reading

" I hated Kerner, and one day I met him and we became friends. He was young and gloriously melancholy because his spirits were so high and life had so much in store for him. Yes, he was almost riotously sad. That was his youth. When a man begins to be hilarious in a sorrowful way you can bet a million that he is dyeing his hair. " # People # Friends and Friendship # Youth