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

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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

More quotes by O. Henry

Image
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.
O. Henry
Image
Of habit, the power that keeps the earth from flying to pieces though there is some silly theory of gravitation.
O. Henry
Image
By nature and doctrines I am addicted to the habit of discovering choice places wherein to feed.
O. Henry
Image
There was clearly nothing to do but flop down on the shabby little couch and howl.
O. Henry
Image
When one loves one's Art no service seems too hard.
O. Henry
Image
Bolivar cannot carry double
O. Henry
Image
Greenwich Village... the village of low rents and high arts.
O. Henry
Image
No friendship is an accident.
O. Henry
Image
She plucked from my lapel the invisible strand of lint (the universal act of woman to proclaim ownership).
O. Henry
Image
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.
O. Henry
Image
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.
O. Henry
Image
The most notable thing about Time is that it is so purely relative. A large amount of reminiscence is, by common consent, conceded to the drowning man and it is not past belief that one may review an entire courtship while removing one's gloves.
O. Henry
Image
This fair but pitiless city of Manhattan was without a soul ... its inhabitants were manikins moved by wires and springs.
O. Henry
Image
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
Image
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.
O. Henry
Image
Except in streetcars one should never be unnecessarily rude to a lady.
O. Henry
Image
We can't buy one minute of time with cash if we could, rich people would live longer.
O. Henry
Image
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.
O. Henry
Image
Men to whom life had appeared as a reversible coat - seamy on both sides.
O. Henry
Image
Most wonderful of all are words, and how they make friends one with another.
O. Henry