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In dress, habits, manners, provincialism, routine and narrowness, he acquired that charming insolence, that irritating completeness, that sophisticated crassness, that overbalanced poise that makes the Manhattan gentleman so delightfully small in his greatness.

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More quotes by O. Henry

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

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

Roads of Destiny (1909)

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

Whirligigs (1910)

A burglar who respects his art always takes his time before taking anything else.

Perhaps there is no happiness in life so perfect as the martyr's.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: O. Henry (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.