Ambrose Bierce Quotes - Page 25

• ECCENTRICITY, n. A method of distinction so cheap that fools employ it to accentuate their incapacity.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Fool, Incapacity, Distinction

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.51, 谷月社

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• Patriotism: The first resort of a scoundrel.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Patriotism, Firsts, Scoundrels

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• When you are ill make haste to forgive your enemies, for you may recover.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Forgiving, Enemy, Haste

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• Behavior, n. Conduct, as determined, not by principle, but by breeding.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Principles, Determined, Behavior

  Ambrose Bierce (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ambrose Bierce (Illustrated)”, p.2363, Delphi Classics

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• PERFECTION, n. An imaginary state of quality distinguished from the actual by an element known as excellence; an attribute of the critic. The editor of an English magazine having received a letter pointing out the erroneous nature of his views and style, and signed "Perfection," promptly wrote at the foot of the letter: "I don't agree with you," and mailed it to Matthew Arnold.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Views, Editors, Feet

  Ambrose Bierce (2001). “The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary”, p.180, University of Georgia Press

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• RECREATION, n. A particular kind of dejection to relieve a general fatigue.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Kindness, Recreation, Fatigue

  Ambrose Bierce (2001). “The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary”, p.194, University of Georgia Press

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• A leech who, having penetrated the shell of a turtle only to find that the creature has long been dead, deems it expedient to form a new attachment to a fresh turtle.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Turtles, Attachment, Long

  Ambrose Bierce (2011). “Ambrose Bierce: The Devil's Dictionary, Tales, and Memoirs: The Devil's Dictionary, Tales, and Memoirs”, p.572, Library of America

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• ZENITH, n. The point in the heavens directly overhead to a man standing or a growing cabbage. A man in bed or a cabbage in the pot is not considered as having a zenith, though Horizontalists hold that the posture of the body was immaterial.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Men, Heaven, Growing

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.241, 谷月社

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• NEPOTISM, n. Appointing your grandmother to office for the good of the party.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Party, Grandmother, Office

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.149, 谷月社

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• PREDESTINATION, n. The doctrine that all things occur according to programme. . . . not be confused with that of foreordination. The difference is great enough to have deluged Christendom with ink, to say nothing of the gore.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Confused, Differences, Confusion

  Ambrose Bierce (2001). “The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary”, p.186, University of Georgia Press

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• THEOSOPHY, n. An ancient faith having all the certitude of religion and all the mystery of science.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Religion, Mystery, Ancient

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.220, 谷月社

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• BIRTH, n. The first and direst of all disasters. As to the nature of it there appears to be no uniformity. Castor and Pollux were born from the egg. Pallas came out of a skull. Galatea was once a block of stone. Peresilis, who wrote in the tenth century, avers that he grew up out of the ground where a priest had spilled holy water. It is known that Arimaxus was derived from a hole in the earth, made by a stroke of lightning. Leucomedon was the son of a cavern in Mount Etna, and I have myself seen a man come out of a wine cellar.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Block, Wine, Science

  Ambrose Bierce (2001). “The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary”, p.26, University of Georgia Press

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• POCKET, n. The cradle of motive and the grave of conscience. In woman this organ is lacking; so she acts without motive, and her conscience, denied burial, remains ever alive, confessing the sins of others.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Pockets, Alive, Sin

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.166, 谷月社

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• ACCUSE, v.t. To affirm another's guilt or unworth; most commonly as a justification of ourselves for having wronged him.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Guilt, Justification, Wronged

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.8, 谷月社

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• INDISCRETION, n. The guilt of woman.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Guilt

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.105, 谷月社

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• REVIEW, v.t. To set your wisdom (holding not a doubt of it./ Although in truth there's neither bone nor skin to it)/ At work upon a book, and so read out of it/ The qualities that you have first read into it.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Wisdom, Truth, Book

  Ambrose Bierce (2001). “The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary”, p.200, University of Georgia Press

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• Insurrection. An unsuccessful revolution; disaffection's failure to substitute misrule for bad government.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Success, Failure, Government

  Ambrose Bierce (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ambrose Bierce (Illustrated)”, p.2436, Delphi Classics

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• Hurry n: The dispatch of bunglers.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Haste

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.94, 谷月社

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• INJUSTICE, n. A burden which of all those that we load upon others and carry ourselves is lightest in the hands and heaviest upon the back.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Hands, Injustice, Burden

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.108, 谷月社

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• PLATITUDE, n. The fundamental element and special glory of popular literature. A thought that snores in words that smoke. All that is mortal of a departed truth. A jelly-fish withering on the shore of the sea of thought. A desiccated epigram.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Truth, Sea, Departed

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.165, 谷月社

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• ROMANCE, n. Fiction that owes no allegiance to the God of Things as They Are. In the novel the writer's thought is tethered to probability, but in romance it ranges at will over the entire region of the imagination . . .

  Ambrose Bierce

  Imagination, Romance, Fiction

  Ambrose Bierce (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ambrose Bierce (Illustrated)”, p.2504, Delphi Classics

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• OWE, v. To have (and to hold) a debt. The word formerly signified not indebtedness, but possession; it meant "own," and in the minds of debtors there is still a good deal of confusion between assets and liabilities.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Confusion, Confusing, Mind

  Ambrose Bierce (2001). “The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary”, p.177, University of Georgia Press

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• PRICE, n. Value, plus a reasonable sum for the wear and tear of conscience in demanding it.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Tears, Plus, Reasonable

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.171, 谷月社

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• Death is a dignitary who when he comes announced is received with formal manifestations of respect, even by those most familiar with him. In the code of military etiquette silence and fixity are forms of deference

  Ambrose Bierce

  Military, Silence, Form

  Ambrose Bierce (2015). “Tales of Soldiers and Civilians”, p.11, Ambrose Bierce

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• REPRESENTATIVE, n. In national politics, a member of the Lower House in this world, and without discernible hope of promotion in the next.

  Ambrose Bierce

  House, Next, World

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.182, 谷月社

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