Ambrose Bierce ,quotes

ACKNOWLEDGE, v.t. To confess....

ACKNOWLEDGE, v.t. To confess. Acknowledgment of one another's faults is the highest duty imposed by our love of truth.

Ambrose Bierce 10.08.2025 20:50:04 1281 quotes

PLATITUDE, n. The fundamental...

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 10.08.2025 20:50:04 1281 quotes

NOTORIETY, n. The fame of one...

NOTORIETY, n. The fame of one's competitor for public honors. The kind of renown most accessible and acceptable to mediocrity. A Jacob's-ladder leading to the vaudeville stage, with angels ascending and descending.

Ambrose Bierce 10.08.2025 20:50:04 1281 quotes

CENTAUR, n. One of a race of ...

CENTAUR, n. One of a race of persons who lived before the division of labor had been carried to such a pitch of differentiation, and who followed the primitive economic maxim, "Every man his own horse."

Ambrose Bierce 10.08.2025 20:50:04 1281 quotes

OLD, adj. In that stage of us...

OLD, adj. In that stage of usefulness which is not inconsistent with general inefficiency, as an "old man". Discredited by lapse of time and offensive to the popular taste, as an "old" book.

Ambrose Bierce 10.08.2025 20:50:04 1281 quotes

VITUPERATION, n. Saite, as un...

VITUPERATION, n. Saite, as understood by dunces and all such as suffer from an impediment in their wit.

Ambrose Bierce 10.08.2025 20:50:04 1281 quotes

MAMMALIA, n.pl. A family of v...

MAMMALIA, n.pl. A family of vertebrate animals whose females in a state of nature suckle their young, but when civilized and enlightened put them out to nurse, or use the bottle.

Ambrose Bierce 10.08.2025 20:50:04 1281 quotes

MONARCH, n. A person engaged ...

MONARCH, n. A person engaged in reigning. Formerly the monarch ruled, as the derivation of the word attests, and as many subjects have had occasion to learn.

Ambrose Bierce 10.08.2025 20:50:04 1281 quotes

MISCREANT, n. A person of the...

MISCREANT, n. A person of the highest degree of unworth. Etymologically, the word means unbeliever, and its present signification may be regarded as theology's noblest contribution to the development of our language.

Ambrose Bierce 10.08.2025 20:50:04 1281 quotes

UBIQUITY, n. The gift or powe...

UBIQUITY, n. The gift or power of being in all places at one time, but not in all places at all times, which is omnipresence, an attribute of God and the luminiferous ether only.

Ambrose Bierce 10.08.2025 20:50:04 1281 quotes

Learning -the kind of ignoran...

Learning -the kind of ignorance affected by (and affecting) civilized races, as distinguished from ignorance, the sort of learning incurred by savages. See nonsense.

Ambrose Bierce 10.08.2025 20:50:04 1281 quotes

INCOMPATIBILITY, n. In matrim...

INCOMPATIBILITY, n. In matrimony a similarity of tastes, particularly the taste for domination. Incompatibility may, however, consist of a meek-eyed matron living just around the corner. It has even been known to wear a moustache.

Ambrose Bierce 10.08.2025 20:50:04 1281 quotes

GNU, n. An animal of South Af...

GNU, n. An animal of South Africa, which in its domesticated state resembles a horse, a buffalo and a stag. In its wild condition it is something like a thunderbolt, an earthquake and a cyclone.

Ambrose Bierce 10.08.2025 20:50:04 1281 quotes

ORTHOGRAPHY, n. The science o...

ORTHOGRAPHY, n. The science of spelling by the eye instead of the ear.

Ambrose Bierce 10.08.2025 20:50:04 1281 quotes

GOOSE, n. A bird that supplie...

GOOSE, n. A bird that supplies quills for writing. These [quills] when inked and drawn mechanically across paper by a person called an "author," there results a very fair and accurate transcript of the fowl's thought and feeling.

Ambrose Bierce 10.08.2025 20:50:04 1281 quotes

R.I.P. A careless abbreviatio...

R.I.P. A careless abbreviation of "requiescat in pace", attesting to indolent goodwill to the dead. According to the learned Dr. Drigge, however, the letters originally meant nothing more than "reductus in pulvis".

Ambrose Bierce 10.08.2025 20:50:04 1281 quotes

PHILISTINE, n. One whose mind...

PHILISTINE, n. One whose mind is the creature of its environment, following the fashion in thought, feeling and sentiment. He is sometimes learned, frequently prosperous, commonly clean and always solemn.

Ambrose Bierce 10.08.2025 20:50:04 1281 quotes

EPIGRAM, n. A short, sharp sa...

EPIGRAM, n. A short, sharp saying in prose or verse, frequently characterize by acidity or acerbity and sometimes by wisdom.

Ambrose Bierce 10.08.2025 20:50:04 1281 quotes

ADAGE, n. Boned wisdom for we...

ADAGE, n. Boned wisdom for weak teeth.

Ambrose Bierce 10.08.2025 20:50:04 1281 quotes

GENEROUS, adj. Originally thi...

GENEROUS, adj. Originally this word meant noble by birth and was rightly applied to a great multitude of persons. It now means noble by nature and is taking a bit of a rest.

Ambrose Bierce 10.08.2025 20:50:04 1281 quotes

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