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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.
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
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In the Big City a man will disappear with the suddenness and completeness of the flame of a candle that is blown out.
O. Henry -
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.
O. Henry -
If you can't write a story that pleases yourself, you will never please the public. But in writing the story forget the public.
O. Henry -
O all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi.
O. Henry -
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.
O. Henry -
I'll give you the sole secret of short-story writing, and here it is: Rule 1. Write stories that please yourself. There is no rule 2. The technical points you can get from Bliss Perry. If you can't write a story that pleases yourself, you will never please the public. But in writing the story forget the public.
O. Henry
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There is this difference between the grief of youth and that of old age; youth's burden is lightened by as much of it as another shares; old age may give and give, but the sorrow remains the same.
O. Henry -
There is a saying that no man has tasted the full flavor of life until he has known poverty, love, and war.
O. Henry -
You'd think New York people was all wise; but no, they can't get a chance to learn. Every thing's too compressed. Even the hayseeds are bailed hayseeds. But what else can you expect from a town that's shut off from the world by the ocean on one side and New Jersey on the other?
O. Henry -
Humans were denied the speech of animals. The only common ground of communication upon which dogs and men can get together is in fiction.
O. Henry -
Not very long ago some one invented the assertion that there were only 'Four Hundred' people in New York City who were really worth noticing. But a wiser man has arisen - the census taker - and his larger estimate of human interest has been preferred in marking out the field of these little stories of the 'Four Million.'
O. Henry -
It was beautiful and simple as all truly great swindles are.
O. Henry
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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.
O. Henry -
This fair but pitiless city of Manhattan was without a soul ... its inhabitants were manikins moved by wires and springs.
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 -
Bride knoweth bride at the glance of an eye. And between them swiftly passes comfort and meaning in a language that man and widows wot not of.
O. Henry -
Perhaps there is no happiness in life so perfect as the martyr's.
O. Henry -
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.
O. Henry
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What else can you expect from a town thats shut off from the world by the ocean on one side and New Jersey on the other?
O. Henry -
If you live in an atmosphere of luxury, luxury is yours whether your money pays for it, or another's.
O. Henry -
Hospitality in the prairie country is not limited. Even if your enemy passes your way, you must feed him before you shoot him.
O. Henry -
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