Quote

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.

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
Bill
Bills
Injects
Conscience
Stinging
Moral
Irritate
Story
Mosquito
Stories
Mosquitoes
Like
Bores
Drop

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History is bright and fiction dull with homely men who have charmed women.
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Whenever he saw a dollar in another man's hands he took it as a personal grudge, if he couldn't take it any other way.
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A straw vote only shows which way the hot air blows.
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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.
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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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There was clearly nothing to do but flop down on the shabby little couch and howl.
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We can't buy one minute of time with cash if we could, rich people would live longer.
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Broadway - the great sluice that washes out the dust of the gold-mines of Gotham.
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When one loves one's Art no service seems too hard.
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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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There is one day that is ours. There is one day when all we Americans who are not self-made go back to the old home to eat saleratus biscuits and marvel how much nearer to the porch the old pump looks than it used to. Thanksgiving Day is the one day that is purely American.
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Except in streetcars one should never be unnecessarily rude to a lady.
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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
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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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O all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi.
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I'll give you the whole secret to short story writing. Here it is. Rule 1: Write stories that please yourself. There is no Rule 2.
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What is the world at its best but a little round field of the moving pictures with two walking together in it?
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Whenever my patient begins to count the carriages in her funeral procession I subtract 50 per cent from the curative power of medicines.
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Women's weapon, water-drops.
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