Ambrose Bierce
American author and journalist; b. 1842; d. 1913
Aphorisms Attributed to This Aphorist
21–29 (29)
tiny.ag/vkpbru1q · submitted 1997
In Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary, "patriotism" is defined as the last resort of the scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer, I beg to submit that it is the first.
tiny.ag/rfa7bnoi · submitted 1997
Incompatibility: In matrimony a similarity of tastes, particularly the taste for domination.
Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary, in Love and Hate
tiny.ag/ca72ttqk · submitted 1997
It has been observed that one's nose is never so happy as when it is thrust into the affairs of another, from which some physiologists have drawn the inference that the nose is devoid of the sense of smell.
tiny.ag/gzduntch · submitted 1997
Faith: Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel.
Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary, in Science and Religion
tiny.ag/dxvyak3f · submitted 1997
Eulogy: Praise of a person who has either the advantages of wealth and power, or the consideration to be dead.
Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary, in Altruism and Cynicism
tiny.ag/vr4hxjva · submitted 1997
Egoist: A person of low taste, more interested in themselves than in me.
Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary, in Altruism and Cynicism
tiny.ag/yfqykgpj · submitted 1997
Education: That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the fool their lack of understanding.
Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary, in Wisdom and Ignorance
tiny.ag/zcjracxo · submitted 1997
Diplomacy: The patriotic art of lying for one's country.
Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary, in Law and Politics
tiny.ag/zl0ikbnv · submitted 1997
Coward: one who, in a perilous emergency, thinks with his legs.
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