Ambrose Bierce Quotes - Page 26

• A subsidiary Deity designed to catch the overflow and surplus of the world's worship . . . . [H]is master works for the means wherewith to purchase the idle wag of the Solomonic tail, seasoned with a look of tolerant recognition.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Dog, Mean, World

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• DELUSION, n. The father of a most respectable family, comprising Enthusiasm, Affection, Self-denial, Faith, Hope, Charity and many other goodly sons and daughters.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Family, Faith, Daughter

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.43, 谷月社

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• RITE, n. A religious or semi-religious ceremony fixed by law, precept or custom, with the essential oil of sincerity carefully squeezed out of it.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Religious, Oil, Law

  Ambrose Bierce (2001). “The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary”, p.203, University of Georgia Press

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• Birth: The first and direst of all disasters.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Baby, Holy Water, Caverns

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

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• Hope is an explorer who surveys the country ahead. That is why we know so much about the Hereafter and so little about the Heretofore.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Hope, Country, Littles

  Ambrose Bierce (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ambrose Bierce (Illustrated)”, p.1211, Delphi Classics

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• Glutton- A person who escapes the evils of moderation by committing dyspepsia.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Food, Evil, Moderation

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.77, 谷月社

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• Happiness: an agreeable sensation arising from contemplating the misery of another.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Funny, Happiness, Happy

  Ambrose Bierce (2000). “Tales of Soldiers and Civilians: and Other Stories”, p.26, Penguin

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• BEGGAR, n. One who has relied on the assistance of his friends.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Friendship, Beggar, Assistance

  Ambrose Bierce (2013). “The Devil's Dictionary: Complete & Unabridged”, p.29, Courier Corporation

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• ZIGZAG, v.t. To move forward uncertainly, from side to side, as one carrying the white man's burden.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Moving, Men, White Man

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

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• Hypocrisy: prejudice with a halo.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Hypocrite, Hypocrisy, Halos

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• ENVY, n. Emulation adapted to the meanest capacity.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Envy, Emulation, Capacity

  Ambrose Bierce (2013). “The Best Of Ambrose Bierce: The Damned Thing + An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge + The Devil's Dictionary + Chickamauga (4 Classics in 1 Book)”, p.75, e-artnow

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• UGLINESS, n. A gift of the gods to certain women, entailing virtue without humility.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Humility, Virtue, Certain

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.227, 谷月社

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• NOBLEMAN, n. Nature's provision for wealthy American minds ambitious to incur social distinction and suffer high life.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Life, Nature, Mind

  Ambrose Bierce (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ambrose Bierce (Illustrated)”, p.2467, Delphi Classics

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• Confidante: One entrusted by A with the secrets of B confided to herself by C.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Gossip, Secret, Confidant

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• When you doubt, abstain.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Doubt

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• AUSTRALIA, n. A country lying in the South Sea, whose industrial and commercial development has been unspeakably retarded by an unfortunate dispute among geographers as to whether it is a continent or an island.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Funny, Country, Lying

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.16, 谷月社

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• A man is the sum of his ancestors; to reform him you must begin with a dead ape and work downward through a million graves.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Men, Apes, Reform

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

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• QUORUM, n. A sufficient number of members of a deliberative body to have their own way and their own way of having it. In the U.S. Senate a quorum consists of the chairman of the Committee on Finance and a messenger from the White House.

  Ambrose Bierce

  White, Numbers, House

  Ambrose Bierce (2007). “Essential Bierce: A Selection of the Writings of Ambrose Bierce”, Heyday Books

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• KING, n. A male person commonly known in America as a "crowned head," although he never wears a crown and has usually no head to speak of.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Kings, America, Males

  Ambrose Bierce (2001). “The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary”, p.142, University of Georgia Press

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• PLAGUE, n. In ancient times a general punishment of the innocent for admonition of their ruler, as in the familiar instance of Pharaoh the Immune. The plague today . . . is merely Nature's fortuitous manifestation of her purposeless objectionableness.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Time, Nature, Punishment

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

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• RICE-WATER, n. A mystic beverage secretly used by our most popular novelists and poets to regulate the imagination and narcotize the conscience.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Water, Imagination, Novelists

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.187, 谷月社

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• Reverence for the Supreme Being, based upon His supposed resemblance to man. The pig is taught by sermons and epistles / To think the God of Swine has snout and bristles.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Men, Thinking, Pigs

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.164, 谷月社

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• ELEGY, n. A composition in verse, in which, without employing any of the methods of humor, the writer aims to produce in the reader's mind the dampest kind of dejection.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Mind, Kind, Produce

  Ambrose Bierce (1996). “Poems of Ambrose Bierce”, p.41, U of Nebraska Press

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• K, n. A consonant; originally precisely that of our H, but altered to its present shape to commemorate the destruction of [one of two lofty columns in] the great temple of Jarute.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Two, Shapes, Temples

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• Before undergoing a surgical operation, arrange your temporal affairs. You may live.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Humorous, Doctors, Medicine

  Ambrose Bierce (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ambrose Bierce (Illustrated)”, p.1222, Delphi Classics

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