30 Inspiring O. Henry Quotes (Free List)

O. Henry quotes are thought-provoking, memorable and inspiring. From views on society and politics to thoughts on love and life, O. Henry has a lot to say. In this list we present the 30 best O. Henry quotes, in no particular order. Let yourself get inspired!

(And check out our page with O. Henry quotes per category if you only want to read quotes from a certain category, such as funny, life, love, politics, and more).

O. Henry quotes

No friendship is an accident.

— O. Henry, Heart of the West

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

— O. Henry

I wanted to paint a picture some day that people would stand before and forget that it was made of paint. I wanted it to creep into them like a bar of music and mushroom there like a soft bullet.

— O. Henry, The Complete Works of O. Henry

And most wonderful of all are words, and how they make friends one with another, being oft associated, until not even obituary notices them do part.

— O. Henry, Whirligigs

If men knew how women pass the time when they are alone, they’d never marry.

— O. Henry, The Four Million

To a woman nothing seems quite impossible to the powers of the man she worships.

— O. Henry

I see the game now. You can’t write with ink, and you can’t write with your own heart’s blood, but you can write with the heart’s blood of some one else. You have to be a cad before you can be an artist. O’Henry ‘The Plutonian Fire’ (1905)

— O. Henry

The magi, as you know, were wise men–wonderfully wise men–who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication. 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. O all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi.

— O. Henry, The Gift of the Magi

We may achieve climate, but weather is thrust upon us. Santone, then, cannot be blamed for this cold gray fog that came and kissed the lips of the three thousand, and then delivered them to the cross. That night the tubercles, whose ravages hope holds in check, multiplied. The writhing fingers of the pale mist did not go thence bloodless. Many of the wooers of ozone capitulated with the enemy that night, turning their faces to the wall in that dumb, isolated apathy that so terrifies their watchers. On the red stream of Hemorrhagia a few souls drifted away, leaving behind pathetic heaps, white and chill as the fog itself. Two or three came to view this atmospheric wraith as the ghost of impossible joys, sent to whisper to them of the egregious folly it is to inhale breath into the lungs, only to exhale it again, and these used whatever came handy to their relief, pistols, gas or the beneficent muriate. – A Fog in Santone (1898-1901)

— O. Henry, Short Stories

The Give and Take Athletic Association lived up to its name. The hall of the association in Orchard street was fitted out with muscle- making inventions. With the fibres thus builded up the members were wont to engage the police and rival social and athletic organisations in joyous combat. Between these more serious occupations the Saturday night hop with the paper-box factory girls came as a refining influence and as an efficient screen.

— O. Henry, The Complete Works of O. Henry

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

It couldn’t have happened anywhere but in little old New York.

— O. Henry

Pull up the shades so I can see New York. I don’t want to go home in the dark.

— O. Henry

It’ll be a great place if they ever finish it.

— O. Henry

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

— O. Henry

Greenwich Village… the village of low rents and high arts.

— O. Henry, The Last Leaf

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.

— O. Henry, The Complete Works of O. Henry

She hadbecome so thoroughly annealed into his life that she was like theair he breathed–necessary but scarcely noticed.

— O. Henry, The Complete Life of John Hopkins

If ever there was an aviary overstocked with jays it is that Yaptown-on-the-Hudson called New York.

— O. Henry

My advice to you if you should ever be in a hold up is to line up with the cowards and save your bravery for an occasion when it may be of some benefit to you.

— O. Henry

You can’t appreciate home until 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.

— O. Henry

Life is made up of sobs sniffles and smiles with sniffles predominating.

— O. Henry

If there ever was an aviary overstocked with jays it is that Yaptown-on-the-Hudson called New York.

— O. Henry

Life is made up of sobs sniffles and smiles with sniffles predominating.

— O. Henry

Love and business and family and religion and art and patriotism are nothing but shadows of words when a man’s starving!

— O. Henry

By nature and doctrines I am addicted to the habit of discovering choice places wherein to feed.

— O. Henry

There is one day that is ours. Thanksgiving Day is the one day that is purely American.

— O. Henry

Turn up the lights. I don’t want to go home in the dark.

— O. Henry

If men knew how women pass the time when they are alone, they’d never marry.

— O. Henry

Life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating.

— O. Henry

We may achieve climate, but weather is thrust upon us.

— O. Henry