LAND, n. A part of the earth's surface, considered as property. The theory that land is property subject to private ownership and control is the foundation of modern society . . .
Ambrose Bierce
Related Land: A part of the earth's surface, considered as property. The theory that land is property su... AMBROSE BIERCE Property is a central economic institution of any society, and private property is the central insti... DAVID FRIEDMAN We have no land under control. There is no option on any of the property. JAMES MCDONALD The land on which the cattle grazed was communal property. It was owned by no one. It was nobody'... OLIVER TAMBO The land trust is a tool we're using to ensure there isn't a lot of displacement as the city continu... JOE GRAY It's an unwritten and widely unacknowledged fact, that land always ends up belonging to the most vio... MANGO WODZAK By virtue of our private property society, we have disconnected individuals from the land. We have p... ADAM DELL It is remarkable that jealousy of individual property in land often goes along with very exaggerated... WILLIAM GRAHAM SUMNER Private ownership of property is vital to both our freedom and our prosperity. CATHY MCMORRIS RODGERS We shall never understand the natural environment until we see it as a living organism. Land can be ... PAUL BROOKS [The land the park will add is entirely Canal Corporation-owned.] There is no private property, ... ... WENDY GIBSON Intellectual property is an important legal and cultural issue. Society as a whole has complex issue... TIM BERNERS-LEE When transferring property by way of sale the land owner needs to state the price for which he is se... JOAN WALKER There will always be people who will accept you for what you are! SAKURA TSUKUBA We keep finding out the hard way that private property rights aren't quite as sacred to some as they... GEORGE JOHNSON We're trying to get that land into private ownership. LEO DOBROVOLNY The whole notion of land property rights in the Arab world is different from that in Europe. WILLIAM ODOM Land is now water on their (BVM) property, BONNIE MATHIS Empathy is the new measurement of everything. It doesn't matter what religion you have, what God you... C. JOYBELL C. We must overhaul our land laws, taxes and information system. Some 90 per cent of land in India is s... AZIM PREMJI We must overhaul our land laws, taxes and information system. Some 90 per cent of land in India is s... AZIM PREMJI I like to open for a band as it brings on sort of a challenge and it makes things more interesting. ... KELLY JONES Any regulations adopted since December 31, 1995 that damages or harms the value of your property by ... DEAN BOYER There is a very strong public perception that an unregulated ownership of land, such as housing by f... JOE MATTHEWS As soon as the land of any country has all become private property, the landlords, like all other me... ADAM SMITH Without that sense of security which property gives, the land would still be uncultivated FRANCOIS QUESNAY The sky over Patusan was blood-red, immense, streaming like an open vein. An enormous sun nestled cr... JOSEPH CONRAD It's a really good trend because people are using the property to the maximum density and providi... FRED DELK The Industry's at war. I think it's about control. You can make all of the financial arguments that ... DON ROSE The theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property. KARL MARX This area in particular is more than 60 percent plus private land ownership. GENE GRAY The theory of Communism may be summed up in one sentence: Abolish all private property. KARL MARX The theory of Communism may be summed up in one sentence: Abolish all private property KARL MARX They will be able to freely invest in assets like property and land, excluding agricultural land. RAJEEV SHAHARE Today, private landowners live in fear of the ESA. Those who harbor endangered species on their prop... DAVID RIDENOUR Today, private landowners live in fear of the ESA. Those who harbor endangered species on their prop... DAVID RIDENOUR The distinction is because that's private property. This whole country isn't private property. BRENT WILKES Should we call her?Maybe we should give her a RING to see where she is? Get it? Get it? -... CHRIS COLFER As I went walking I saw a sign there And on the sign it said "No Trespassing." But on the ... WOODY GUTHRIE Modern bourgeois society with its relations of production, of exchange, and of property, a society t... KARL MARX The Industry's at war. I think it's about control. You can make all of the financial argumen... DON ROSE Property is not the natural and obvious and inevitable concept that most people think it is. ROBERT A. HEINLEIN Anyone can have a once-upon-a-time or a happily-ever-after, but it's the journey between that makes ... CHRIS COLFER But anyone can write, right?'" Conner asked. "I mean, that's why authors get judged so harshly, isn'... CHRIS COLFER As I understand it, what (the requested zoning change) means is that you've got to have 10,000-squar... ED BAIN I believe there is greater certainty that the water and land will be saved under private ownership a... TOVEY GIEZENTANNER I want to give a name to my would-be killer. What should I call him? Something that will ease his pr... JACOB WREN One would expect that private property taken by eminent domain would become land available for publi... JIM RYUN Granted, they're not taking property, but they're taking control of a portion of my property, ... Th... ROBERT SWEENEY We're just kind of leaving our options open, ... It's a matter of either developing the land or sell... LINDA HALL I think private ownership is generally superior to public because you care about the land more and i... JOHN C. MALONE It is a beneficent incident of the ownership of land that a pioneer who reduces it to use, and helps... WILLIAM GRAHAM SUMNER It will be the responsibility of the property owner to move or demolish the clubhouse and otherwise ... DARRYL FRANKLIN I've never seen the point of the sea, except where it meets the land. The shore has a point. The sea... ALAN BENNETT There are four kinds of homicide: felonious, excusable, justifiable, and praiseworthy.” ~ Ambrose ... J.J. MCAVOY In the end, it is because the media are driven by the power and wealth of private individuals that t... TERRY EAGLETON Ground water has always been the property of the landowner, with the idea that water can be used for... MICHAEL JACKSON The vast majority of these are what you call 'partial takes,' where you only take a strip of land fr... GENE BLAUM Spending time with the ones who are dear to you is like being in a dream, is it not? SAKURA TSUKUBA A people averse to the institution of private property is without the first element of freedom JOHN EMERICH EDWARD DALBERG ACTON If the property is seized, it would open it up for development, whether it would be the Navigation D... WALT KITTELBERGER For African American ideals, "The Promised Land" is not a land to be "reclaimed" after hundreds, or ... JOSEPH ANDERSON For African American ideals, ""The Promised Land"" is not a land to be ""reclaimed"" after hundreds,... JOSEPH ANDERSON Life is not a game. Still, in this life, we choose the games we live to play. J.R. RIM His life seemed like a deck of cards, and in the midst of all those two’s and three’s someone ha... TEKOA MANNING People recognize intellectual property the same way they recognize real estate. People understand wh... MICHAEL NESMITH As a matter of constitutional interpretation, I think the Constitution is pretty clear that property... MICHAEL RAMSEY We are not dealing with a family who wants the property. We are not taking this land unfairly. This ... LAURA DUBOIS Whatever an author puts between the two covers of his book is public property; whatever of himself h... GAIL HAMILTON When in the Land of Property think like a propertarian. Dress like one, eat like one, act like one, ... URSULA K. LE GUIN It's too bad that the media can't respect people's privacy. If the media continue to trespass on pri... CINDY GUAGENTI In socialism, private property is anathema, and equal distribution of income the first consideration... GEORGE BERNARD SHAW Neither "property" nor the value of property is a physical thing. Property is a set of defined opti... THOMAS SOWELL Property developers are enjoying profit growth driven by rising rent and land prices in urban areas.... ATSUSHI OSA The secret of my success is my hairspray. RICHARD GERE Love is blind, and a deaf-mute too. PATRICK ROTHFUSS What should be the future of Israel? Is the land the most important choice, and for that reason to k... SHIMON PERES An argument fatal to the communist theory, is suggested by the fact, that a desire for property is o... HERBERT SPENCER defending the religious freedom of Christians. THE FOUNDATION Gloria. THE FOUNDATION The private control of credit is the modern form of slavery. UPTON SINCLAIR The private control of credit is the modern form of slavery UPTON SINCLAIR This is a matter that requires congressional analysis, ... wise, appropriate taking of private prope... ARLEN SPECTER The elimination of private property is the very first thing in the Communist Manifesto. MARTHA BABSON What [cities] cannot do is take property from A and give it to B just because B promises to create m... LEE MCGRATH Young's Farm . . . was always a special place. It is a very unique property. We really felt an oblig... DON ALLISON The Ports Authority is not seeking to acquire any land for any inland port. We need to make it clear... BYRON MILLER No formal course in fiction-writing can equal a close and observant perusal of the stories of Edgar ... H. P. LOVECRAFT The plan is to purchase the land and use the passive water as part of a recreation area. MAYOR JERRE VAN HOOSE I am for socialism, disarmament, and, ultimately, for abolishing the state itself... I seek the soci... ROGER NASH BALDWIN I am for socialism, disarmament, and, ultimately, for abolishing the state itself... I seek the soci... ROGER BALDWIN We will seek to buy the land but only from willing owners. We're not going to condemn any propert... DAVID GOAD We stand for the maintenance of private property. ADOLF HITLER This theory [the oxygen theory] is not as I have heard it described, that of the French chemists, it... ANTOINE LAVOISIER The battle is not physical, it is spiritual and your mind is the battleground. Keep your mind pure a... JEANETTE CORON Fishes live in the sea, as men do on land: the great ones eat up the little ones. PERICLES And surely We have honored the children of Adam, and We carry them in the land and the sea, and We h... QURAN The Biggest Threat to our Democracy, Freedoms and Future is Leadership that fosters and Appeases the... MICHAEL HARRIS Sometimes, as in the Annenberg collection, gifts are in the form of artwork, or land, or some other ... MICHAEL SOLOMON SARCOPHAGUS, n. Among the Greeks a coffin which being made of a certain kind of carnivorous stone, h... AMBROSE BIERCE
More Ambrose Bierce
Destiny: A tyrant's authority for crime and a fool's excuse for failure. AMBROSE BIERCE Belladonna, n.: In Italian a beautiful lady; in English a deadly poison. A striking example of the e... AMBROSE BIERCE Divorce: a resumption of diplomatic relations and rectification of boundaries. AMBROSE BIERCE Death is not the end. There remains the litigation over the estate. AMBROSE BIERCE Immortality: A toy which people cry for, And on their knees apply for, Dispute, contend and lie for,... AMBROSE BIERCE Litigation: A machine which you go into as a pig and come out of as a sausage. AMBROSE BIERCE Suffrage, noun. Expression of opinion by means of a ballot. The right of suffrage (which is held to ... AMBROSE BIERCE Laziness. Unwarranted repose of manner in a person of low degree. AMBROSE BIERCE Sweater, n.: garment worn by child when its mother is feeling chilly. AMBROSE BIERCE Doubt is the father of invention. AMBROSE BIERCE Life - a spiritual pickle preserving the body from decay. AMBROSE BIERCE Men become civilized, not in proportion to their willingness to believe, but in proportion to their ... AMBROSE BIERCE Cabbage: a familiar kitchen-garden vegetable about as large and wise as a man's head. AMBROSE BIERCE Photograph: a picture painted by the sun without instruction in art. AMBROSE BIERCE Cynic, n: a blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be. AMBROSE BIERCE Deliberation, n.: The act of examining one's bread to determine which side it is buttered on. AMBROSE BIERCE Clairvoyant, n.: A person, commonly a woman, who has the power of seeing that which is invisible to ... AMBROSE BIERCE Liberty:one of imaginations most precious possessions. AMBROSE BIERCE Quoting: the act of repeating erroneously the words of another. AMBROSE BIERCE Day, n. A period of twenty-four hours, mostly misspent. AMBROSE BIERCE Success is the one unpardonable sin against our fellows. AMBROSE BIERCE Optimist: a proponent of the doctrine that black is white. AMBROSE BIERCE Litigant: a person about to give up his skin for the hope of retaining his bone. AMBROSE BIERCE Ocean: A body of water occupying about two-thirds of a world made for man - who has no gills. AMBROSE BIERCE Beauty, n: the power by which a woman charms a lover and terrifies a husband. AMBROSE BIERCE OCEAN, n. A body of water occupying about two-thirds of a world made for man -- who has no gills. AMBROSE BIERCE ZEAL, n. A certain nervous disorder afflicting the young and inexperienced. A passion that goeth b... AMBROSE BIERCE For every man there is something in the vocabulary that would stick to him like a second skin. His e... AMBROSE BIERCE Education, n.: That which discloses the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understand... AMBROSE BIERCE Love, n. A temporary insanity curable by marriage. AMBROSE BIERCE Quotation, n: The act of repeating erroneously the words of another. AMBROSE BIERCE Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret. AMBROSE BIERCE You don't have to be stupid to be a Christian, ... but it probably helps. AMBROSE BIERCE Ocean , n. A body of water occupying about two-thirds of a world made for man — who has no g... AMBROSE BIERCE Fidelity. A virtue peculiar to those who are about to be betrayed. AMBROSE BIERCE Incompatibility. In matrimony a similarity of tastes, particularly the taste for domination. AMBROSE BIERCE The world has suffered more from the ravages of ill-advised marriages than from virginity. AMBROSE BIERCE Marriage. The state or condition of a community consisting of a master, a mistress and two slaves, m... AMBROSE BIERCE Bride. A woman with a fine prospect of happiness behind her. AMBROSE BIERCE What is a democrat? One who believes that the republicans have ruined the country. What is a republi... AMBROSE BIERCE Nominee. A modest gentleman shrinking from the distinction of private life and diligently seeking th... AMBROSE BIERCE Learning. The kind of ignorance distinguishing the studious. AMBROSE BIERCE Consult. To seek another's approval of a course already decided on. AMBROSE BIERCE Happiness is an agreeable sensation, arising from contemplating the misery of others. AMBROSE BIERCE Life. A spiritual pickle preserving the body from decay. AMBROSE BIERCE Acquaintance: a degree of friendship called slight when its object is poor or obscure, and intimate ... AMBROSE BIERCE An acquaintance is someone we know well enough to borrow from, but not well enough to lend to. AMBROSE BIERCE A temporary insanity curable by marriage. AMBROSE BIERCE Beauty. The power by which a woman charms a lover and terrifies a husband. AMBROSE BIERCE Let me tell you what a writer is. A writer takes comprehensive views, holds large convictions, makes... AMBROSE BIERCE Corporation. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. AMBROSE BIERCE Don't steal; thou it never thus compete successfully in business. Cheat. AMBROSE BIERCE Philanthropist. A rich (and usually bald) old gentleman who has trained himself to grin while his co... AMBROSE BIERCE Age. That period of life in which we compound for the vices that remain by reviling those we have no... AMBROSE BIERCE Success is the one unpardonable sin against one's fellows. AMBROSE BIERCE Education is that which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understan... AMBROSE BIERCE Destiny. A tyrant's authority for crime and a fool's excuse for failure. AMBROSE BIERCE Edible. Good to eat and wholesome to digest, as a worm to a toad, a toad to a snake, a snake to a pi... AMBROSE BIERCE Knowledge is the small part of ignorance that we arrange and classify. AMBROSE BIERCE Erudition. Dust shaken out of a book into an empty skull. AMBROSE BIERCE Saint. A dead sinner revised and edited. AMBROSE BIERCE Insurrection. An unsuccessful revolution; disaffection's failure to substitute misrule for bad gover... AMBROSE BIERCE Revolution is an abrupt change in the form of misgovernment. AMBROSE BIERCE Impiety. Your irreverence toward my deity. AMBROSE BIERCE Deliberation. The act of examining one's bread to determine which side it is buttered on. AMBROSE BIERCE Take not God's name in vain; select a time when it will have effect. AMBROSE BIERCE A prejudice is a vagrant opinion without visible means of support. AMBROSE BIERCE Bigot, one who is obstinately and zealously attached to an opinion that you do not entertain. AMBROSE BIERCE Pray: To ask the laws of the universe to be annulled on behalf of a single petitioner confessedly un... AMBROSE BIERCE Eulogy. Praise of a person who has either the advantages of wealth and power, or the consideration t... AMBROSE BIERCE Admiration; is our polite recognition of another's resemblance to ourselves. AMBROSE BIERCE To bother about the best method of accomplishing an accidental result. AMBROSE BIERCE A route of many roads leading from nowhere to nothing. AMBROSE BIERCE All are lunatics, but he who can analyze his delusion is called a philosopher. AMBROSE BIERCE A lowly virtue whereby mediocrity achieves a glorious success. AMBROSE BIERCE Peace, in international affairs, is a period of cheating between two periods of fighting. AMBROSE BIERCE Patience, n. A minor form of dispair, disguised as a virtue. AMBROSE BIERCE Optimism. The doctrine or belief that everything is beautiful, including what is ugly. AMBROSE BIERCE An optimist is a proponent of the doctrine that black is white. AMBROSE BIERCE They say that hens do cackle loudest when there is nothing vital in the eggs they have laid. AMBROSE BIERCE Calamities are of two kinds: misfortune to ourselves, and good fortune to others. AMBROSE BIERCE Heaven lies about us in our infancy and the world begins lying about us pretty soon afterward. AMBROSE BIERCE As records of courts and justice are admissible, it can easily be proved that powerful and malevolen... AMBROSE BIERCE Before undergoing a surgical operation, arrange your temporal affairs. You may live. AMBROSE BIERCE Politeness -- The most acceptable hypocrisy. AMBROSE BIERCE A man is known by the company he organizes. AMBROSE BIERCE Logic, n. The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapaciti... AMBROSE BIERCE Enthusiasm. A distemper of youth, curable by small doses of repentance in connection with outward ap... AMBROSE BIERCE Egotist. A person of low taste, more interested in himself than me. AMBROSE BIERCE An egotist is a person interested in himself than in me! AMBROSE BIERCE Duty. That which sternly impels us in the direction of profit, along the line of desire. AMBROSE BIERCE Opiate. An unlocked door in the prison of Identity. It leads into the jail yard. AMBROSE BIERCE Insurance: An ingenious modern game of chance in which the player is permitted to enjoy the comforta... AMBROSE BIERCE Backbite. To speak of a man as you find him when he can't find you. AMBROSE BIERCE Alien. An American sovereign in his probationary state. AMBROSE BIERCE Miss: A title with which we brand unmarried women to indicate that they are in the market. Miss, Mis... AMBROSE BIERCE Witticism. A sharp and clever remark, usually quoted and seldom noted; what the Philistine is please... AMBROSE BIERCE Wit. The salt with which the American humorist spoils his intellectual cookery by leaving it out. AMBROSE BIERCE A body of water occupying about two-thirds of a world made for man, who has no gills. AMBROSE BIERCE Impartial. Unable to perceive any promise of personal advantage from espousing either side of a cont... AMBROSE BIERCE Dog. A kind of additional or subsidiary Deity designed to catch the overflow and surplus of the worl... AMBROSE BIERCE Physician -- One upon whom we set our hopes when ill and our dogs when well. AMBROSE BIERCE Divorce. A resumption of diplomatic relations and rectification of boundaries. AMBROSE BIERCE Consul. In American politics, a person who having failed to secure an office from the people is give... AMBROSE BIERCE Forgetfulness. A gift of God bestowed upon debtors in compensation for their destitution of conscien... AMBROSE BIERCE A cynic is a blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, and not as they ought to be. AMBROSE BIERCE Confidante. One entrusted by A with the secrets of B confided to herself by C. AMBROSE BIERCE The gambling known as business looks with austere disfavor upon the business known as gambling. AMBROSE BIERCE Future. That period of time in which our affairs prosper, our friends are true and our happiness is ... AMBROSE BIERCE A funeral is a pageant whereby we attest our respect for the dead by enriching the undertaker. AMBROSE BIERCE An accident is an inevitable occurrence due to the actions of immutable natural laws. AMBROSE BIERCE To apologize is to lay the foundation for a future offense. AMBROSE BIERCE An account, mostly false, of events, mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers, mostly k... AMBROSE BIERCE Historian. A broad -- gauge gossip. AMBROSE BIERCE Habit is a shackle for the free. AMBROSE BIERCE Laughter -- An interior convulsion, producing a distortion of the features and accompanied by inarti... AMBROSE BIERCE Litigant. A person about to give up his skin for the hope of retaining his bones. AMBROSE BIERCE Appeal. In law, to put the dice into the box for another throw. AMBROSE BIERCE Trial. A formal inquiry designed to prove and put upon record the blameless characters of judges, ad... AMBROSE BIERCE Experience is a revelation in the light of which we renounce our errors of youth for those of age. AMBROSE BIERCE Experience. The wisdom that enables us to recognize in an undesirable old acquaintance the folly tha... AMBROSE BIERCE The act of repeating erroneously the words of another. AMBROSE BIERCE PROPHECY, n. The art and practice of selling one's credibility for future delivery. AMBROSE BIERCE When in Rome, do as Rome does. AMBROSE BIERCE To be positive: to be mistaken at the top of one's voice. AMBROSE BIERCE Censor, n. An officer of certain governments, employed to supress the works of genius. Among the Rom... AMBROSE BIERCE Bore -- a person who talks when you wish him to listen. AMBROSE BIERCE Ambition. An overmastering desire to be vilified by enemies while living and made ridiculous by frie... AMBROSE BIERCE Irreligion. The principal one of the great faiths of the world. AMBROSE BIERCE Faith: Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things withou... AMBROSE BIERCE Architect. One who drafts a plan of your house, and plans a draft of your money. AMBROSE BIERCE Genealogy. An account of one's descent from an ancestor who did not particularly care to trace his o... AMBROSE BIERCE Absurdity. A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion. AMBROSE BIERCE Abstainer. A weak man who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure. AMBROSE BIERCE Woman absent is woman dead. AMBROSE BIERCE The covers of this book are too far apart. AMBROSE BIERCE Abscond. To move in a mysterious way, commonly with the property of another. AMBROSE BIERCE Creditor. One of a tribe of savages dwelling beyond the Financial Straits and dreaded for their deso... AMBROSE BIERCE A coward is one who in a perilous emergency thinks with his legs. AMBROSE BIERCE Conservative. A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from a Liberal, who wi... AMBROSE BIERCE The Senate is a body of old men charged with high duties and misdemeanors. AMBROSE BIERCE Compromise. Such an adjustment of conflicting interests as gives each adversary the satisfaction of ... AMBROSE BIERCE Alliance. In international politics, the union of two thieves who have their hands so deeply inserte... AMBROSE BIERCE ALLIANCE, n. In international politics, the union of two thieves who have their hands so deeply in... AMBROSE BIERCE Acquaintance is a degree of friendship called slight when its object is poor and obscure, and intima... AMBROSE BIERCE ARSENIC, n. A kind of cosmetic greatly affected by the ladies, whom it greatly affects in turn."Eat ... AMBROSE BIERCE Compromise. Such an adjustment of conflicting interests as gives each adversary the satisfaction o... AMBROSE BIERCE Convent. A place of retirement for women who wish for leisure to meditate upon the sin of idleness. AMBROSE BIERCE Religion. A daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to Ignorance the nature of the Unknowable. AMBROSE BIERCE International arbitration may be defined as the substitution of many burning questions for a smoulde... AMBROSE BIERCE DIPLOMACY, n. Lying in state, or the patriotic art of lying for one's country. AMBROSE BIERCE Calamities are of two kinds. Misfortune to ourselves, and good fortune to others. AMBROSE BIERCE Calamities are of two kinds: misfortune to ourselves, and good fortune to others. AMBROSE BIERCE A bride is a woman with a fine prospect of happiness behind her. AMBROSE BIERCE Painting, n.: The art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather, and exposing them to the critic. AMBROSE BIERCE There are 4 kinds of Homicide: felonious, excusable, justifiable, and praiseworthy. AMBROSE BIERCE FIDELITY, n. A virtue peculiar to those who are about to be betrayed. AMBROSE BIERCE ZOOLOGY, n. The science and history of the animal kingdom, including its king, the House Fly ("Mus... AMBROSE BIERCE HIPPOGRIFF, n. An animal (now extinct) which was half horse and half griffin. The griffin was a com... AMBROSE BIERCE ZENITH, n. The point in the heavens directly overhead to a man standing or a growing cabbage. A m... AMBROSE BIERCE YANKEE, n. In Europe, an American. In the Northern States of our Union, a New Englander. In the So... AMBROSE BIERCE Hypocrisy: prejudice with a halo AMBROSE BIERCE Forgetfulness. A gift of God bestowed upon debtors in compensation for their destitution of conscie... AMBROSE BIERCE One who is in a perilous emergency thinks with his legs. AMBROSE BIERCE OBSESSED, p.p. Vexed by an evil spirit, like the Gadarene swine and other critics. Obsession was onc... AMBROSE BIERCE Optimism. The doctrine or belief that everything is beautiful, including what is ugly. AMBROSE BIERCE Women and foxes, being weak, are distinguished by superior tact. AMBROSE BIERCE Saint: A dead sinner revised and edited. AMBROSE BIERCE QUEEN, n. A woman by whom the realm is ruled when there is a king, and through whom it is ruled wh... AMBROSE BIERCE When you are ill make haste to forgive your enemies, for you may recover. AMBROSE BIERCE Electricity seems destined to play a most important part in the arts and industries. The question of... AMBROSE BIERCE Electricity is the power that causes all natural phenomena not known to be caused by something else. AMBROSE BIERCE ECCENTRICITY, n. A method of distinction so cheap that fools employ it to accentuate their incapaci... AMBROSE BIERCE The gambling known as business looks with austere disfavor upon the business known as gambling. AMBROSE BIERCE Birth: The first and direst of all disasters. AMBROSE BIERCE Dawn: When men of reason go to bed. AMBROSE BIERCE Politics: A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affai... AMBROSE BIERCE Amnesty, n. The state's magnanimity to those offenders whom it would be too expensive to punish. AMBROSE BIERCE Patriotism. Combustible rubbish ready to the torch of any one ambitious to illuminate his name. AMBROSE BIERCE Admiral. That part of a warship which does the talking while the figurehead does the thinking. AMBROSE BIERCE Famous, adj.: Conspicuously miserable. AMBROSE BIERCE Positive, adj.: Mistaken at the top of one's voice. AMBROSE BIERCE Mad, adj. Affected with a high degree of intellectual independence. AMBROSE BIERCE Edible, adj.: Good to eat, and wholesome to digest, as a worm to a toad, a toad to a snake, a snake ... AMBROSE BIERCE Jealous, adj. Unduly concerned about the preservation of that which can be lost only if not worth ke... AMBROSE BIERCE Dog - a kind of additional or subsidiary Deity designed to catch the overflow and surplus of the wor... AMBROSE BIERCE Acquaintance. A person whom we know well enough to borrow from, but not well enough to lend to. AMBROSE BIERCE Perseverance - a lowly virtue whereby mediocrity achieves an inglorious success. AMBROSE BIERCE Logic: The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities ... AMBROSE BIERCE Prescription: A physician's guess at what will best prolong the situation with least harm to the... AMBROSE BIERCE Lawsuit: A machine which you go into as a pig and come out of as a sausage. AMBROSE BIERCE Compromise, n. Such an adjustment of conflicting interests as gives each adversary the satisfaction ... AMBROSE BIERCE The best thing to do with the best things in life is to give them up. AMBROSE BIERCE TELEPHONE n. An invention of the devil which abrogates some of the advantages of making a disagreeab... AMBROSE BIERCE Egotist , n. A person of low taste, more interested in himself than in me. AMBROSE BIERCE Positive , adj.: Mistaken at the top of one's voice. AMBROSE BIERCE Beauty, n: the power by which a woman charms a lover and terrifies a husband. AMBROSE BIERCE Sweater , n. Garment worn by child when its mother is feeling chilly. AMBROSE BIERCE Sabbath - a weekly festival having its origin in the fact that God made the world in six days and wa... AMBROSE BIERCE The small part of ignorance that we arrange and classify we give the name of knowledge. AMBROSE BIERCE