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

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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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If there ever was an aviary overstocked with jays it is that Yaptown-on-the-Hudson, call New York. Cosmopolitan they call it, you bet. So's a piece of fly-paper. You listen close when they're buzzing and trying to pull their feet out of the sticky stuff. Little old New York's good enough for us--that's what they sing.
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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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History is bright and fiction dull with homely men who have charmed women.
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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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Humans were denied the speech of animals. The only common ground of communication upon which dogs and men can get together is in fiction.
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It ain't the roads we take it's what's inside of us that makes us turn out the way we do.
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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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A straw vote only shows which way the hot air blows.
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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.
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It was beautiful and simple, as truly great swindles are.
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Take of London fog 30 parts malaria 10 parts, gas leaks 20 parts, dewdrops gathered in a brickyard at sunrise 25 parts odor of honeysuckle 15 parts. Mix. The mixture will give you an approximate conception of a Nashville drizzle.
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A good story is like a bitter pill, with the sugar coating inside of it.
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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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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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Greenwich Village... the village of low rents and high arts.
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By nature and doctrines I am addicted to the habit of discovering choice places wherein to feed.
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He seemed to be made of sunshine and blood-red tissue and clear weather.
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