O. Henry

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O. Henry (September 11, 1862 – June 5, 1910), pen name of William Sydney Porter, whose clever use of twist endings in his stories popularized the term "O. Henry Ending".

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What is the world at its best but a little round field of the moving pictures with two walking together in it?
- Cabbages and Kings (1904)

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."
- The Four Million (1906), Preface

One dollar and eighty-seven cents. And the next day would be Christmas.
- The Gift of the Magi (1906), The Four Million

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.
- The Gift of the Magi (1906), The Four Million

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.
- The Gift of the Magi (1906), The Four Million

Perhaps there is no happiness in life so perfect as the martyr's.
- The Trimmed Lamp (1907), The Country of Elusion

It was beautiful and simple as all truly great swindles are.
- The Gentle Grafter (1908), The Octopus Marooned

Busy as a one-armed man with the nettle-rash pasting on wallpaper.
- The Gentle Grafter (1908), The Ethics of Pig

Broadway - the great sluice that washes out the dust of the gold-mines of Gotham.
- From Each According to His Ability (1908), The Voice of the City

History is bright and fiction dull with homely men who have charmed women.
- Roads of Destiny (1909), Next to Reading Matter

You can't appreciate home till you've left it, money till it's spent, your wife till she's joined a women's club, nor Old Glory till you see it hanging on a broomstick on the shanty of a consul in a foreign town.
- Roads of Destiny (1909), The Fourth in Salvador

She plucked from my lapel the invisible strand of lint (the universal act of woman to proclaim ownership).
- Strictly Business (1910), A Ramble in Aphasia

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.
- Strictly Business (1910), The Gold that Glittered

East is East, and West is San Francisco, according to Californians. Californians are a race of people; they are not merely inhabitants of a State.
- Strictly Business (1910), A Municipal Report

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.
- Strictly Business (1910), A Municipal Report

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. In the case of Lorison, his particular ethics positively forbade him to declare his sentiments, but he must needs dally with the subject, and woo by innuendo at least.
- Whirligigs (1910), Blind Man's Holiday