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
Youth looks forward, for nothing is behind! Age backward, for nothing is before.
LAST, n. A shoemaker's implement, named by a frowning Providence as opportunity to the maker of puns.
PLUNDER, v. To take the property of another without observing the decent and customary reticences of theft. To wrest the wealth of A from B and leave C lamenting a vanishing opportunity.
repose, v.i. To cease from troubling.
alone, adj. In bad company.
The bold and discerning writer who, recognizing the truth that language must grow by innovation if it grow at all, makes new words and uses the old in an unfamiliar sense has no following and is tartly reminded that 'it isn't in the dictionary' - although down to the time of the first lexicographer no author ever had used a word that was in the dictionary.
BABE or BABY, n. A misshapen creature of no particular age, sex, or condition, chiefly remarkable for the violence of the sympathies and antipathies it excites in others, itself without sentiment or emotion.
OVATION, n. n ancient Rome, a definite, formal pageant in honor of one who had been disserviceable to the enemies of the nation. A lesser "triumph."
CLOSE-FISTED, adj. Unduly desirous of keeping that which many meritorious persons wish to obtain.
K, n. A consonant; originally precisely that of our H, but altered to its present shape to commemorate the destruction of [one of two lofty columns in] the great temple of Jarute.
DISABUSE, v.t. To present your neighbor with another and better error than the one which he has deemed advantageous to embrace.
ZIGZAG, v.t. To move forward uncertainly, from side to side, as one carrying the white man's burden.
Immoral" is the judgment of the stalled ox on the gamboling lamb.
NON-COMBATANT, n. A dead Quaker.