Tag: William Sydney Porter

Man is too thoroughly an egoist not to be also an egotist; if he love, the object shall know it. During a lifetime he may conceal it through stress of expediency and honour, but it shall bubble from his dying lips, though it disrupt a neighbourhood. It is known, however, that most men do not wait so long to disclose their passion.

William Sydney Porter (O. Henry)

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.

William Sydney Porter (O. Henry)

It ain’t the roads we take; it’s what’s inside of us that makes us turn out the way we do.

William Sydney Porter (O. Henry)

History is bright and fiction dull with homely men who have charmed women.

William Sydney Porter (O. Henry)

What is the world at its best but a little round field of the moving pictures with two walking together in it?

William Sydney Porter (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. Of all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi.

William Sydney Porter (O. Henry)