Ambrose Bierce Quotes - Page 9

• Introduction - a social ceremony invented by the devil for the gratification of his servants and the plaguing of his enemies.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Evil, Enemy, Social

  Ambrose Bierce (2001). “The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary”, p.136, University of Georgia Press

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• EMOTION, n. A prostrating disease caused by a determination of the heart to the head. It is sometimes accompanied by a copious discharge of hydrated chloride of sodium from the eyes.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Determination, Heart, Eye

  Ambrose Bierce (2001). “The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary”, p.66, University of Georgia Press

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• One who, professing virtues that he does not respect, secures the advantage of seeming to be what he despises.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Hypocrite, Doe, Virtue

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

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• INK, n. A villainous compound of tannogallate of iron, gum-arabic, and water, chiefly used to facilitate the infection of idiocy and promote intellectual crime.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Iron, Water, Intellectual

  Ambrose Bierce (2001). “The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary”, p.130, University of Georgia Press

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• OPIATE, n. An unlocked door in the prison of Identity. It leads into the jail yard.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Science, Jail, Doors

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.154, 谷月社

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• PRE-ADAMITE, n. One of an experimental and apparently unsatisfactory race of antedated Creation. . . . Little its known of them beyond the fact that they supplied Cain with a wife and theologians with a controversy.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Race, Wife, Cain

  Ambrose Bierce (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ambrose Bierce (Illustrated)”, p.2484, Delphi Classics

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• RUBBISH, n. Worthless matter, such as the religions, philosophies, literatures, arts and sciences of the tribes infesting the regions lying due south from Boreaplas.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Art, Philosophy, Lying

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

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• Meekness: Uncommon patience in planning a revenge that is worth while.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Patience, Revenge, Planning

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.141, 谷月社

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• CLERGYMAN, n. A man who undertakes the management of our spiritual affairs as a method of better his temporal ones.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Spiritual, Men, Affair

  Ambrose Bierce (2009). “The Devil's Dictionary: Easyread Super Large 18pt Edition”, p.46, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• Platitude: All that is mortal of a departed truth.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Departed, Platitudes, Mortals

  Ambrose Bierce (2001). “The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary”, p.183, University of Georgia Press

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• REFUSAL, n. Denial of something desired; Refusals are graded in a descending scale of finality thus: the refusal absolute, the refusal condition, the refusal tentative and the refusal feminine. The last is called by some casuists the refusal assentive.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Desire, Denial, Lasts

  Ambrose Bierce (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ambrose Bierce (Illustrated)”, p.2495, Delphi Classics

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• Genealogy, n. An account of one's descent from a man who did not particularly care to trace his own.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Family, Men, Care

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• PHONOGRAPH, n. An irritating toy that restores life to dead noises.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Life, Noise, Toys

  Ambrose Bierce (2012). “The Devil's Dictionary”, p.93, Courier Corporation

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• MAGNETISM, n. Something acting upon a magnet. The two definitions immediately foregoing are condensed from the works of one thousand eminent scientists, who have illuminated the subject with a great white light, to the inexpressible advancement of human knowledge.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Science, Light, Two

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.137, 谷月社

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• IMPROVIDENCE, n. Provision for the needs of to-day from the revenues of to-morrow.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Needs, Morrow, Provision

  Ambrose Bierce (2001). “The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary”, p.121, University of Georgia Press

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• moral, adj. Conforming to a local and mutable standard of right. Having the quality of general expediency.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Quality, Morality, Standards

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.146, 谷月社

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• ROSTRUM, n. In Latin, the beak of a bird or the prow of a ship. In America, a place from which a candidate for office energetically expounds the wisdom, virtue and power of the rabble.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Wisdom, Latin, America

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

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• Contempt; the feeling of a prudent man for an enemy who is too formidable safely to be opposed.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Men, Feelings, Enemy

  Ambrose Bierce (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ambrose Bierce (Illustrated)”, p.2374, Delphi Classics

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• An appellate court which reverses the judgment of a popular author's contemporaries, the appellant being his obscure competitor.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Judgment, Popularity, Obscure

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.167, 谷月社

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• COMMERCE, n. A kind of transaction in which A plunders from B the goods of C, and for compensation B picks the pocket of D of money belonging to E.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Money, Pockets, Kind

  Ambrose Bierce (2001). “The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary”, p.38, University of Georgia Press

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• Christians and camels receive their burdens kneeling.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Christian, Camels, Kneeling

  Ambrose Bierce (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ambrose Bierce (Illustrated)”, p.1214, Delphi Classics

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• REPORTER, n. A writer who guesses his way to the truth and dispels it with a tempest of words.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Truth, Way, Tempest

  Ambrose Bierce (2001). “The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary”, p.197, University of Georgia Press

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• INTERPRETER, n. One who enables two persons of different languages to understand each other by repeating to each what it would have been to the interpreter's advantage for the other to have said.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Two, Understanding, Different

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

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• aim, n. The task we set our wishes to.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Wish, Desire, Tasks

  Ambrose Bierce (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ambrose Bierce (Illustrated)”, p.2354, Delphi Classics

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• PIG, n. An animal ("Porcus omnivorus") closely allied to the human race by the splendor and vivacity of its appetite, which, however, is inferior in scope, for it sticks at pig.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Food, Animal, Pigs

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

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