Quotes from O. Henry

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

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.

But the best, in my opinion, was the home life in the little flat--the ardent, voluble chats after the day's study; the cozy dinners and fresh, light breakfasts; the interchange of ambitions--ambitions interwoven each with the other's or else inconsiderable--the mutual help and inspiration; and--overlook my artlessness--stuffed olives and cheese sandwiches at 11 p.m.

One dollar and eighty-seven cents.

If you live in an atmosphere of luxury, luxury is yours whether your money pays for it, or another's.

Ransie was a narrow six feet of sallow brown skin and yellow hair. The imperturbability of the mountains hung upon him like a suit of armor. The woman was calicoed, angled, snuff-brushed, and weary with unknown desires. Through it all gleamed a faint protest of cheated youth unconscious of its loss.

Well, little old Noisyville-on-the Subway is good enough for me.

It did not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had that word on the lookout for the mendicancy squad.

Oh, come off your perch! said the other man, who wore glasses. Your premises won't come out in the wash. You wind-jammers who apply bandy-legged theories to concrete categorical syllogisms send logical conclusions skallybootin' into the infinitesimal ragbag. You can't pull my leg with an old sophism with whiskers on it.

He had become enveloped in the Indian Summer of the Soul.

expecting anything so fine and wonderful to be turning the corner upon me? I came near being found unworthy. Hard by, says he, is a café, snug and suitable for the entertainment of idiosyncrasies. Let us go there and have drink while we discuss the unavailability of the categorical. So saying, he marched me and Tobin to the back room of a saloon, and ordered the drinks, and laid the money on the table. He looks at me and Tobin like brothers of his, and we have the segars.

Scattered upon the flimsy dresser scarf were half a dozen hairpins—those discreet, indistinguishable friends of womankind, feminine of gender, infinite of mood and uncommunicative of tense.

Maybe the hairs of my head were numbered," she went on with sudden serious sweetness, "but nobody could ever count my love for you. Shall I put the chops on, Jim?

Oh, I know what to do when I see victuals coming toward me in little old Bagdad-on-the-Subway. I strike the asphalt three times with my forehead and get ready to spiel yarns for my supper.

I hate it as one hates sin or pestilence or--the color work in a ten-cent magazine.

Twenty dollars a week doesn't go far.

Pennies saved one and two at a time

In a little district west of Washington Square the streets have run crazy and broken themselves into small strips called places.

But now he was little more than a whimpering oyster led to be devoured on the sands of a Southern sea by the artful walrus, Circumstance, and the implacable carpenter, Fate.

Of course there are two sides to the question. Let us look at the other. We often hear "shop-girls" spoken of. No such persons exist. There are girls who work in shops. They make their living that way. But why turn their occupation into an adjective? Let us be fair. We do not refer to the girls who live on Fifth Avenue as "marriage-girls.

it shall be a duty and a pleasing sport to wander with Momus beneath the tropic stars where Melpomene once stalked austere.

It's an awful thing to hear a strong, desperate, fat man scream incontinently in a cave at daybreak.

little more than a whimpering oyster led to be devoured on the sands of a Southern sea by the artful walrus, Circumstance, and the implacable carpenter, Fate.

Jimmy Valentine looked into her eyes, forgetting at once what he was. He became another man.