Ambrose Bierce Quotes

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

This irrascible and implacable brute — this incarnate thunderbolt — this monster of the upper deep, I had seen reposing in the shade of an adjacent tree, dreaming dreams of conquest and glory.

Nothing is settled; no truth finds general acceptance. What we do one year we undo the next, and do over again the year following. Our energy is wasted in, and our prosperity suffers from, experiments endlessly repeated.

In neither taste nor precision is any man's practice a court of last appeal, for writers all, both great and small, are habitual sinners against the light; and their accuser is cheerfully aware that his own work will supply ... many 'awful examples'...

Alone, adj. In bad company.

Ocean, n. A body of water occupying about two-thirds of a world made for man — who has no gills.

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

IMPENITENCE, n. A state of mind intermediate in point of time between sin and punishment.

DISOBEDIENCE, n. The silver lining to the cloud of servitude.

The devil had not only acquired a monopoly of the good music and the good fun, but has of late acquired a controlling interest in the good writing.

PIETY, n. Reverence for the Supreme Being, based upon His supposed resemblance to man.

Mayonnaise: One of the sauces which serve the French in place of a state religion.

Callous, adj. Gifted with great fortitude to bear the evils afflicting another.

Cabbage, n. A familiar kitchen-garden vegetable about as large and wise as a man's head.

diplomacy, n.: The patriotic art of lying for one's country.