Ambrose Bierce Quotes - Page 38

• PHYSICIAN, n. One upon whom we set our hopes when ill and our dogs when well.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Hope, Dog, Health

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

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• Human nature is pretty well balanced; for every lacking virtue there is a rough substitute that will serve at a pinch--as cunning is the wisdom of the unwise, and ferocity the courage of the coward.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Coward, Human Nature, Virtue

  Ambrose Bierce, S. T. Joshi, David E. Schultz (1998). “A Sole Survivor: Bits of Autobiography”, p.238, Univ. of Tennessee Press

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• Suddenly to change one's opinions and go over to another party. The most notable flop on record was that of Saul of Tarsus, who has been severely criticised as a turn-coat by some of our partisan journals.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Change, Art, Records

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.67, 谷月社

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• 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

  Learning, Drs, Pace

  Ambrose Bierce (2011). “Ambrose Bierce: The Devil's Dictionary, Tales, and Memoirs: The Devil's Dictionary, Tales, and Memoirs”, p.783, Library of America

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• True, more than a half of the green graves in the Grafton cemetery are marked "Unknown," and sometimes it occurs that one thinks of the contradiction involved in "honoring the memory" of him of whom no memory remains to honor; but the attempt seems to do no great harm to the living, even to the logical.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Memories, Thinking, Honor

  Ambrose Bierce (2002). “Shadows of Blue & Gray: The Civil War Writings of Ambrose Bierce”, p.280, Forge Books

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• Impiety. Your irreverence toward my deity.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Respect, Irreverence, Deities

  Ambrose Bierce (2009). “The Devil's Dictionary: Easyread Super Large 20pt Edition”, p.190, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• 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

  Time, Power, Ubiquity

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

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• Slang is a foul pool at which every dunce fills his bucket, and then sets up as a fountain.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Buckets, Pool, Fountain

  Ambrose Bierce (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ambrose Bierce (Illustrated)”, p.1219, Delphi Classics

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• As records of courts and justice are admissible, it can easily be proved that powerful and malevolent magicians once existed and were a scourge to mankind. The evidence (including confession) upon which certain women were convicted of witchcraft and executed was without a flaw; it is still unimpeachable. The judges' decisions based on it were sound in logic and in law. Nothing in any existing court was ever more thoroughly proved than the charges of witchcraft and sorcery for which so many suffered death. If there were no witches, human testimony and human reason are alike destitute of value.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Powerful, Law, Judging

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

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• TRUST, n. In American politics, a large corporation composed in greater part of thrifty working men, widows of small means, orphans in the care of guardians and the courts, with many similar malefactors and public enemies.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Mean, Men, Enemy

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.226, 谷月社

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• RITUALISM, n. A Dutch Garden of God where He may walk in rectilinear freedom, keeping off the grass.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Freedom, Garden, May

  Ambrose Bierce (2012). “The Devil's Dictionary”, p.109, Courier Corporation

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• Kiss. n. A word invented by the poets as a rhyme for "bliss".

  Ambrose Bierce

  Best Love, Kissing, Bliss

  Ambrose Bierce (1906). “The Cynic's Word Book”, p.212, Lulu.com

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• Miss, n. A title which we brand unmarried women to indicate that they are in the market.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Women, Missing, Titles

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.145, 谷月社

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• To Dogmatism the Spirit of Inquiry is the same as the Spirit of Evil.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Evil, Inquiry, Spirit

  Ambrose Bierce (2013). “Epigrams by Ambrose Bierce”, p.2, e-artnow

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• PIGMY, n. One of a tribe of very small men found by ancient travelers in many parts of the world, but by modern in Central Africa only. The Pigmies are so called to distinguish them from the bulkier Caucasians - who are Hogmies.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Men, World, Tribes

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

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• OYSTER, n. A slimy, gobby shellfish which civilization gives men the hardihood to eat without removing its entrails! The shells are sometimes given to the poor.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Food, Men, Oysters

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

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• A man is known by the company he organizes.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Business, Work, Men

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• IMMORAL, adj. Inexpedient. Whatever in the long run and with regard to the greater number of instances men find to be generally inexpedient comes to be considered wrong, wicked, immoral.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Running, Men, Numbers

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.98, 谷月社

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• Dictionary: a malevolent literary device for cramping the growth of a language and making it hard and inelastic

  Ambrose Bierce

  Growth, Language, Literary Devices

  Ambrose Bierce (2013). “The Devil's Dictionary (or The Cynic's Wordbook: Unabridged with all the Definitions)”, p.42, e-artnow

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• Learning, n. The kind of ignorance distinguishing the studious.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Education, Ignorance, Kind

  Ambrose Bierce (2001). “The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary”, p.148, University of Georgia Press

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• INTENTION, n. The mind's sense of the prevalence of one set of influences over another set; an effect whose cause is the imminence, immediate or remote, of the performance of an involuntary act.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Mind, Causes, Influence

  Ambrose Bierce (2001). “The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary”, p.135, University of Georgia Press

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• Indigestion: A disease which the patient and his friends frequently mistake for deep religious conviction and concern for the salvation of mankind. As the simple Red Man of the Western Wild put it, with, it must be confessed, a certain force: 'Plenty well, no pray; big belly ache, heap God.'

  Ambrose Bierce

  Religious, Mistake, Food

  Ambrose Bierce (2001). “The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary”, p.128, University of Georgia Press

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• CONGRESS, n. A body of men who meet to repeal laws.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Men, Law, Body

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.34, 谷月社

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• EXHORT, v.t. In religious affairs, to put the conscience of another upon the spit and roast it to a nut-brown discomfort.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Religious, Nuts, Affair

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.60, 谷月社

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• J, n. A consonant in English, but some nations use it as a vowel . . . from a Latin verb, "jacere", "to throw," because when a stone is thrown at a dog the dog's tail assumes that shape.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Dog, Latin, Verbs

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.115, 谷月社

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