Ambrose Bierce Quotes About Belief

• MYTHOLOGY, n. The body of a primitive people's beliefs concerning its origin, early history, heroes, deities and so forth, as distinguished from the true accounts which it invents later.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Hero, People, Body

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.148, 谷月社

• Optimism - the doctrine or belief that everything is beautiful, including what is ugly.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Beauty, Beautiful, Attitude

  Ambrose Bierce (2001). “The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary”, p.175, University of Georgia Press

• optimism, n. The doctrine, or belief, that everything is beautiful, including what is ugly, everything good, especially the bad, and everything right that is wrong. It is held with greatest tenacity by those most accustomed to the mischance of falling into adversity, and is most acceptably expounded with disproof - an intellectual disorder, yielding to no treatment but death. It is hereditary, but fortunately not contagious.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Beautiful, Fall, Adversity

  Ambrose Bierce (2001). “The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary”, p.175, University of Georgia Press

• Absurdity, n.: A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Belief, Opinion, Absurdity

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.7, 谷月社

• Christian, n.: one who believes that the New Testament is a divinely inspired book admirably suited to the spiritual needs of his neighbor.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Faith, Christian, Spiritual

  Ambrose Bierce (1906). “The Cynic's Word Book”, p.49, Lulu.com

• Faith: Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Inspirational, Faith, Atheist

  The Devil's Dictionary

• Rome has seven sacraments, but the Protestant churches, being less prosperous, feel that they can afford only two, and these of inferior sanctity.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Rome, Two, Church

  Ambrose Bierce (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ambrose Bierce (Illustrated)”, p.2506, Delphi Classics

• INFALAPSARIAN, n. One who ventures to believe that Adam need not have sinned unless he had a mind to - in opposition to the Supralapsarians, who hold that that luckless person's fall was decreed from the beginning.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Believe, Fall, Mind

  Ambrose Bierce (2009). “The Devil's Dictionary: Easyread Large Bold Edition”, p.143, ReadHowYouWant.com

• NECTAR, n. A drink served at banquets of the Olympian deities. The secret of its preparation is lost, but the modern Kentuckians believe that they come pretty near to a knowledge of its chief ingredient.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Believe, Preparation, Secret

  Ambrose Bierce (2012). “The Devil's Dictionary”, p.84, Courier Corporation

• BEG, v. To ask for something with an earnestness proportioned to the belief that it will not be given.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Belief, Given, Asks

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.19, 谷月社

• WALL STREET, n. A symbol for sin for every devil to rebuke. That Wall Street is a den of thieves is a belief that serves every unsuccessful thief in place of a hope in Heaven.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Success, Wall, Heaven

  Ambrose Bierce (2001). “The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary”, p.235, University of Georgia Press

• SACERDOTALIST, n. One who holds the belief that a clergyman is a priest. Denial of this momentous doctrine is the hardest challenge that is now flung into the teeth of the Episcopalian church by the Neo-Dictionarians.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Challenges, Church, Teeth

  Ambrose Bierce (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ambrose Bierce (Illustrated)”, p.2506, Delphi Classics

• RUIN, v. To destroy. Specifically, to destroy a maid's belief in the virtue of maids.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Maids, Ruins, Belief

  Ambrose Bierce (2012). “The Devil's Dictionary”, p.110, Courier Corporation

• PREFERENCE, n. A sentiment, or frame of mind, induced by the erroneous belief that one thing is better than another.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Time, Mind, Belief

  Ambrose Bierce (2012). “The Devil's Dictionary”, p.97, Courier Corporation

• POVERTY, n. A file provided for the teeth of the rats of reform. Its victims are distinguished by possession of all the virtues and by their faith in leaders seeking to conduct them into a prosperity where they believe these to be unknown.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Believe, Leader, Teeth

  Ambrose Bierce (2012). “The Devil's Dictionary”, p.96, Courier Corporation

• MALTHUSIAN, adj. Pertaining to Malthus and his doctrines, who believed in artificially limiting population, but found that it could not be done by talking. Herod of Judea, all the famous soldiers have been practical exponents of the Malthusian idea.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Talking, Ideas, Soldier

• A comely female inhabiting the Mohammedan Paradise to make things cheery for the good Mussulman, whose belief in her existence marks a noble discontent with his earthly spouse, whom he denies a soul.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Soul, Atheism, Female

  Ambrose Bierce (2001). “The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary”, p.113, University of Georgia Press

• Infidel, n. In New York, one who does not believe in the Christian religion; in Constantinople, one who does.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Christian, New York, Believe

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.106, 谷月社

• He who thinks with difficulty believes with alacrity. A fool is a natural proselyte, but he must be caught young, for his convictions, unlike those of the wise, harden with age.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Wise, Believe, Thinking

  Ambrose Bierce (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ambrose Bierce (Illustrated)”, p.1216, Delphi Classics

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