Ambrose Bierce Quotes - Page 37

• Uncommon extension of the fear of death.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Aging, Fear Of Death, Uncommon

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.130, 谷月社

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• ARTLESSNESS, n. A certain engaging quality to which women attain by long study and severe practice upon the admiring male, who is pleased to fancy it resembles the candid simplicity of his young.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Practice, Long, Simplicity

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.15, 谷月社

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• The natural equipment to accomplish some small part of the meaner ambitions distinguishing able men from dead ones. In the last analysis ability is commonly found to consist mainly in a high degree of solemnity.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Ambition, Men, Degrees

  Ambrose Bierce (2001). “The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary”, p.7, University of Georgia Press

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• INDIFFERENT, adj. Imperfectly sensible to distinctions among things.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Indifference, Distinction, Indifferent

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

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• WASHINGTONIAN, n. A Potomac tribesman who exchanged the privilege of governing himself for the advantage of good government. In justice to him it should be said that he did not want to.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Change, Government, Justice

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.232, 谷月社

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• PILGRIM, n. A traveler that is taken seriously. A Pilgrim Father was one who [was] not permitted to sing psalms through his nose [in Europe], followed it to Massachusetts, where he could personate God according to the dictates of his conscience.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Father, Taken, Europe

  Ambrose Bierce (2001). “The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary”, p.182, University of Georgia Press

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• Dance, v.i. To leap about to the sound of tittering music, preferably with arms about your neighbor's wife or daughter. There are many kinds of dances, but all those requiring the participation of the two sexes have two characteristics in common: they are conspicuously innocent, and warmly loved by the vicious.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Dance, Daughter, Sex

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.39, 谷月社

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• CEMETERY, n. An isolated suburban spot where mourners match lies, poets write at a target and stone-cutters spell for a wager.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Lying, Writing, Target

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.29, 谷月社

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• OATH, n. In law, a solemn appeal to the Deity, made binding upon the conscience by a penalty for perjury.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Law, Deities, Made

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.151, 谷月社

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• REVOLUTION, n. In politics, an abrupt change in the form of misgovernment. . . . the substitution of the rule of an Administration for that of a Ministry, whereby the welfare and happiness of the people were advanced a full half-inch.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Change, Happiness, People

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.186, 谷月社

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• A short story padded. A species of composition bearing the same relation to literature that the panorama bears to art. As it is too long to be read at a sitting the impressions made by its successive parts are successively effaced, as in the pa

  Ambrose Bierce

  Success, Art, Long

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• Fear has no brains; it is an idiot. The dismal witness that it bears and the cowardly counsel that it whispers are unrelated.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Brain, Bears, Idiot

  Ambrose Bierce (1964). “Ghost and Horror Stories”, p.147, Courier Corporation

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• LEXICOGRAPHER, n. A pestilent fellow who, under the pretense of recording some particular stage in the development of a language, does what he can to arrest its growth, stiffen its flexibility and mechanize its methods.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Growth, Lexicographer, Doe

  Ambrose Bierce (2013). “The Devil's Dictionary: Complete & Unabridged”, p.147, Courier Corporation

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• RASCALITY, n. Stupidity militant. The activity of a clouded intellect.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Military, Stupidity, Intellect

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.175, 谷月社

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• PASTIME, n. A device for promoting dejection. Gentle exercise for intellectual debility.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Exercise, Intellectual, Gentle

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.160, 谷月社

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• MAGIC, n. An art of converting superstition into coin. There are other arts serving the same high purpose, but the discreet lexicographer does not name them.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Art, Names, Magic

  Ambrose Bierce (2001). “The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary”, p.159, University of Georgia Press

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• Philanthropist, n.: A rich (and usually bald) old gentleman who has trained himself to grin while his conscience is picking his pocket.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Gentleman, Pockets, Philanthropy

  Ambrose Bierce (2001). “The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary”, p.181, University of Georgia Press

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• WHEAT, n. A cereal from which a tolerably good whisky can be made; . . . also for bread. The French are said to eat more bread "per capita" of population than any other people, which is natural, for only they know how to make the stuff palatable.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Food, Cereal, People

  Ambrose Bierce (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ambrose Bierce (Illustrated)”, p.2540, Delphi Classics

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• CANNON, n. An instrument employed in the rectification of national boundaries.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Peace, War, Boundaries

  "The Devil's Dictionary". Book by Ambrose Bierce, 1906.

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• Justice is a commodity which in a more or less adulterated condition the State sells to the citizen as a reward for his allegiance, taxes and personal service.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Justice, Rewards, Citizens

  Ambrose Bierce (2006). “Terror by Night: Classic Ghost and Horror Stories”, p.9, Wordsworth Editions

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• The bold and discerning writer who, recognizing the truth that language must grow by innovation if it grow at all, makes new words and uses the old in an unfamiliar sense has no following and is tartly reminded that 'it isn't in the dictionary' - although down to the time of the first lexicographer no author ever had used a word that was in the dictionary.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Innovation, Lexicographer, Use

  Ambrose Bierce (2001). “The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary”, p.149, University of Georgia Press

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• SYLLOGISM, n. A logical formula consisting of a major and a minor assumption and an inconsequent.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Science, Logic, Assumption

  Ambrose Bierce (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ambrose Bierce (Illustrated)”, p.2522, Delphi Classics

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• OVATION, n. n ancient Rome, a definite, formal pageant in honor of one who had been disserviceable to the enemies of the nation. A lesser "triumph."

  Ambrose Bierce

  Rome, Honor, Enemy

  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.171, e-artnow

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• GUNPOWDER, n. An agency employed by civilized nations for the settlement of disputes which might become troublesome if left unadjusted.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Agency, Civilized Nations, Might

  Ambrose Bierce (2001). “The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary”, p.102, University of Georgia Press

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• HYENA, n. A beast held in reverence by some oriental nations from its habit of frequenting at night the burial-places of the dead. But the medical student does that

  Ambrose Bierce

  Night, Doe, Hyenas

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

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