O. Henry on life and death

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.

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.

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

Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.

John Lennon1940–1980Double Fantasy (1980), “Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)”

Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die today.

James Dean1931–1955

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.

Mahatma Gandhi1869–1948

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