Quote

All of us have to be prevaricators, hypocrites, and liars every day of our lives otherwise the social structure would fall into pieces the first day. We must act in one another's presence just as we must wear clothes. It is for the best

O. Henry

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O. Henry
Age: 47 †
Born: 1862
Born: September 11
Died: 1910
Died: June 5
Journalist
Writer
Greensboro
North Carolina
William Sydney Porter
Olivier Henry
Oliver Henry
Every
Lives
Hypocrite
Would
Fall
Liars
Social
Presence
Another
Otherwise
Best
Structure
Firsts
Wear
First
Clothes
Must
Pieces
Hypocrites

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Beauty is Nature in perfection circularity is its chief attribute. Behold the full moon, the enchanting golf ball, the domes of splendid temples, the huckleberry pie, the wedding ring, the circus ring, the ring for the waiter, and the round of drinks.
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Each of us, when our day's work is done, must seek our ideal, whether it be love or pinochle or lobster à la Newburg, or the sweet silence of the musty bookshelves.
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When I see a shipwreck, I like to know what caused the disaster...I learned nothing but the glow that wrapped her face when the soup came. That's the story.
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Write what you like there is no other rule.
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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.
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You can't appreciate home till you've left it, money till it's spent, your wife till she's joined a woman's club, nor Old Glory till you see it hanging on a broomstick on the shanty of a consul in a foreign town.
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History is bright and fiction dull with homely men who have charmed women.
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Now, girls, if you want to observe a young man hustle out after a pick and shovel, just tell him that your heart is in some other fellow's grave. Young men are grave-robbers by nature.
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Except in streetcars one should never be unnecessarily rude to a lady.
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She plucked from my lapel the invisible strand of lint (the universal act of woman to proclaim ownership).
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Of habit, the power that keeps the earth from flying to pieces though there is some silly theory of gravitation.
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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.
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Young artists must pave their way to Art by drawing pictures for magazine stories that young authors write to pave their way to Literature.
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Love and business and family and religion and art and patriotism are nothing but shadows of words when a man's starving!
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It's said that love makes the world go around. Let me tell you, the announcement lacks verification. It's the wind from the dinner horn that does it.
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It was beautiful and simple, as truly great swindles are.
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Women's weapon, water-drops.
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The lonesomest thing in all the world is a soul when it is making ready to go on its mysterious, far journey.
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