Bohemia is nothing more than the little country in which you do not live. If you try to obtain citizenship in it, at once the court and retinue pack the royal archives and treasure and move away beyond the hills.
O. HenryRead
It's said that love makes the world go around. Let me tell you, the announcement lacks verification. It's the wind from the dinner horn that does it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Love is often seen as the driving force of life, but real world experiences sometimes suggest otherwise.
This quote humorously challenges the notion that love is the sole motivator behind human actions, suggesting instead that practical needs, expressed metaphorically as 'the wind from the dinner horn,' are what truly drive people. O. Henry uses wit to point out that while love is celebrated, everyday realities and survival instincts might be more pivotal in our daily lives.
Themes
LoveWorldDinnerWindHumor
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared at a wedding to highlight the humor in love's complexities.
More from O. Henry
All quotes βYes, I get dry spells. Sometimes I can't turn out a thing for three months. When one of those spells comes on I quit trying to work and go out and see something of life. You can't write a story that's got any life in it by sitting at a writing table and thinking. You've got to get out into the streets, into the crowds, talk with people, and feel the rush and throb of real life-that's the stimulant for a story writer.
O. HenryRead
But the best, in my opinion, was the home life in the little flat--the ardent, voluble chats after the day's study; the cozy dinners and fresh, light breakfasts; the interchange of ambitions--ambitions interwoven each with the other's or else inconsiderable--the mutual help and inspiration; and--overlook my artlessness--stuffed olives and cheese sandwiches at 11 p.m.
O. HenryRead
You can't appreciate home till you've left it, money till it's spent, your wife till she's joined a woman's club, nor Old Glory till you see it hanging on a broomstick on the shanty of a consul in a foreign town.
O. HenryRead
She had become so thoroughly annealed into his life that she was like the air he breathed--necessary but scarcely noticed.
O. HenryRead
He seemed to be made of sunshine and blood-red tissue and clear weather.
O. HenryRead
Similar quotes
I did not find him absurd. I saw he was kind, that he was on the verge of real love. I thought it would be nice for me to be in love with him, too.
Francoise SaganRead
Thou saw'st the locked lovers when leaping from their flaming ship; heart to heart they sank beneath the exulting wave; true to each other, when heaven seemed false to them.
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You know I have loved him always. But we are very poor. Who, being loved, is poor? Oh, no one. I hate my riches. They are a burden.
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All days are nights to see till I see thee, And nights bright days when dreams do show thee me.
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How many young men, in all previous times of unprecedented steadiness, had turned suddenly wild and wicked for the same reason, and, in an ecstasy of unrequited love, taken to wrench off door-knockers, and invert the boxes of rheumatic watchmen!
Charles DickensRead
Don't you need a fountain of love that won't run dry? You'll find one on a stone-cropped hill outside Jerusalem's walls where Jesus hangs, cross-nailed and thorn-crowned. When you feel unloved, ascend this mount. Meditate long and hard on heaven's love for you.
Max LucadoRead