Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Gwinnett Biercewas an American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist. He wrote the short story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" and compiled a satirical lexicon, The Devil's Dictionary. His vehemence as a critic, his motto "Nothing matters", and the sardonic view of human nature that informed his work, all earned him the nickname "Bitter Bierce"...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth24 June 1842
CityMeighs County, OH
CountryUnited States of America
QUORUM, n. A sufficient number of members of a deliberative body to have their own way and their own way of having it. In the U.S. Senate a quorum consists of the chairman of the Committee on Finance and a messenger from the White House.
STORY, n. A narrative, commonly untrue.
Self-restraint is indulgence of the propensity to forgo.
There would be far fewer accidents if we could only teach telephone poles to be more careful.
One of the greatest of poets, Coleridge was one of the wisest of men, and it was not for nothing that he read us this parable. Let us have a little less of "hands across the sea," and a little more of that elemental distrust that is the security of nations. War loves to come like a thief in the night; professions of eternal amity provide the night.
Liberty is one of the imagination's most precious possessions.
Amnesty, n. The state's magnanimity to those offenders whom it would be too expensive to punish.
A bad workman quarrels with the man who calls him that.
RESPIRATOR, n. An apparatus fitted over the nose and mouth of an inhabitant of London, whereby to filter the visible universe in its passage to the lungs.
CALLOUS, adj. Gifted with great fortitude to bear the evils afflicting another.
VANITY, n. The tribute of a fool to the worth of the nearest ass.
I think I think, therefore I think I am.
RATIONAL, adj. Devoid of all delusions save those of observation, experience and reflection.
RECONCILIATION, n. A suspension of hostilities. An armed truce for the purpose of digging up the dead.