Litigant: a person about to give up his skin for the hope of retaining his bone.
Ambrose Bierce
Related
Litigant. A person about to give up his skin for the hope of retaining his bones.
AMBROSE BIERCE LITIGANT, n. A person about to give up his skin for the hope of retaining his bones.
AMBROSE BIERCE There are four kinds of homicide: felonious, excusable, justifiable, and praiseworthy.” ~ Ambrose ...
J.J. MCAVOY No formal course in fiction-writing can equal a close and observant perusal of the stories of Edgar ...
H. P. LOVECRAFT Our mission is to provide every last opportunity for a person to turn his or her life around. We don...
ANDREW MARTIN Why does a virtuous man take delight in the landscapes? Because the din of the dusty world and the l...
KUO HIS Why does a virtuous man take delight in the landscapes? Because the din of the dusty world and the l...
KUO HIS I watched him now, his hands working gingerly, as if he were learning to use them for the first time...
MITCH ALBOM The most difficult thing for me is a portrait. You have to try and put your camera between the skin ...
HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON Let an opponent graze your skin and you smash into his flesh; let an opponent smash into your flesh ...
BRUCE LEE Courage in person of low self esteem leads to cruelty to cover up his weakness and in a person of hi...
DR ANIL KUMAR SINHA Since the day he was born, he'd been defying the odds. Today was not the day to stop that trend. Unl...
SHERRILYN KENYON I am often asked how it is that I am able to value people to such a deep degree. Apparently, I exhib...
C. JOYBELL C. We really have to reconsider what it is that a public person gives up. Why does a public person give...
DAVID DUCHOVNY None of us is responsible for the complexion of his skin. This fact of nature offers no clue to the ...
MARIAN ANDERSON The belief that ignites hope in the heart of a person to survive is the same belief that boosts the ...
ADHISH MAZUMDER Since the day he was born, he'd been defying the odds. Today was not the day to stop that trend. Unl...
SHERRILYN KENYON You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you c...
HARPER LEE It is not for the people to give laws to the prince, but to obey his mandate.
FREDERICK I, HOLY ROMAN EMPEROR You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view, until you cli...
ATTICUS He leaned down and kissed my forehead. The soft melody of his lips was calming. I closed my eyes. I ...
ALYSHA SPEER If you didn't vote for Obama because of the color of his skin, you're ignorant. If you voted for Oba...
LINDA DIGRAZIA (All the grief she had suffered over her lifetime had moulded her face into a mask of eternal sadnes...
JEAN SASSON To give a generous hope to a man of his own nature, is to enrich him immeasurably.
WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING There is only one classroom in which to learn: 1. The work of God. 2. The will of God. 3. The trustw...
ELISABETH ELLIOT Do not under-estimate a silent listener nor be judgemental about his ability... A leader's poor judg...
JECON B. NADELA I want your hand without the skin. Bone to bone without the molds. Mouth to mouth, without the porn.
COCO J. GINGER He'd been saving up his love for years and years, waiting for the right person
to spend his for...
JOHN MARK GREEN There's nothing sexy about skin and bone. You gotta have some junk in the trunk.
AMY LEE He who takes care of his deceased brother s estate and of his widow, shall, after raising up a son f...
GURU NANAK No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his rel...
NELSON MANDELA The Aethiop
The purchaser of a black servant was persuaded that the color of his skin arose from dir...
AESOP You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view—”
HARPER LEE A life free of challenge will never make you strong & a person with fighting spirit. When faced with...
DR ANIL KUMAR SINHA Every human being has hundreds of separate people living under his skin. The talent of a writer is h...
MEL BROOKS Every human being has hundreds of separate people living under his skin. The talent of a writer is...
MEL BROOKS A real Christian is a person who can give his pet parrot to the town gossip.
BILLY GRAHAM The subordinate is likely to feel that the examiner has taken a sample of his bone marrow.
LEE SMITH I'm a huge Bob Hope fan, up until about the late '50s. I've seen so many of his movies u...
SCOTT AUKERMAN Bone and Skin, two millers thin,
Would starve us all, or near it;
But be it known to Skin and ...
JOHN BYROM Bone and Skin, two millers thin, / Would starve us all, or near it; / But be it known to Skin and Bo...
JOHN BYROM One measure of a civilization, either of an age or of a single individual, is what that age or perso...
EZRA POUND Beauty may be skin deep, but ugly goes clear to the bone.
REDD FOXX Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes clean to the bone.
DOROTHY PARKER Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes clean to the bone
DOROTHY PARKER When you share your last crust of bread with a beggar, you mustn't behave as if you were throwing a ...
GIOVANNI GUARESCHI Can an Ethiopian change his skin, or a leopard his spots
BIBLE We're proud of him because of the person he is and because he feels so strongly that he has a story ...
ARON RALSTON We're proud of him because of the person he is and because he feels so strongly that he has a story ...
DONNA RALSTON The things I connected with Zurich about were that he is a selfless person; he wants the best for ev...
TREVOR JACKSON The eldest and biggest of the litter was a dog cub, and when he drew his first breath he was less th...
HENRY WILLIAMSON What a dog I got, his favorite bone is in my arm.
RODNEY DANGERFIELD I was really proactive in trying to heal my family. I wouldn't give up. My whole life was about ...
SOPHIE B. HAWKINS The American people would not want to know of any misquotes that Dan Quayle may or may not make. �...
VICE PRESIDENT DAN QUAYLE I first wrote about Michael Jackson in the 1980s. His skin was growing paler, his features thinner, ...
MARGO JEFFERSON My health may be better preserved if I exert myself less, but in the end doesn't each person giv...
CLARA SCHUMANN Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?
BIBLE He stood up straight and looked the world squarely in the fields and hills. To add weight to his wor...
DOUGLAS ADAMS A man must grow up as his own person and shape his own character in order to identify his destinatio...
SUNDAY ADELAJA When a Person Strive for the cause of Allah, Allah Sets his Victory over his Enemies....!!
FAHIM MAHMOOD MIR I don't think he has a racist bone in his body.
HAROLD MILLER That was not for his protection, but for the fire officials' protection because his skin literally h...
ATTORNEY GENERAL TERRY GODDARD When you share your last crust of bread with a beggar, you mustn't behave as if you were throwin...
GIOVANNI GUARESCHI Adam's lips are set in a grime line. I can't tell if he's about to cry or about to punch the guard. ...
GAYLE FORMAN I have never yet met a healthy person who worried very much about his health, or a really good perso...
J.B.S. HALDANE I have never yet met a healthy person who worried very much about his health, or a really good perso...
J. B. S. HALDANE Beauty is only skin deep...but ugly goes all the way to the bone!
UNKNOWN It is the duty of a good shepherd to shear, not to skin his
sheep.
LAURENCE STERNE I am a real person that cares about his art and cares about what he's doing - I have a heart and...
LL COOL J One of the greatest gift a man can give his mum is his respect for femininity.
OLASOT He's the furthest thing from the reputation from the incident from last year. He doesn't have a bad ...
BRANDON INGE And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdo...
BIBLE We hope that you will truly lock him up for the rest of his life and throw away the key.
KAREN THOMPSON The person blaming others for his lack of success is like the CEO, of a company blaming his messenge...
DAVID ATTA (A.K.A DAVIED ATTLARS & MR DAIN) I give Bill Gates an A for vision because, as a business person and a strategist, he's brilliant...
MITCH KAPOR When I want to learn about a person, I ask him to tell me about his life. Why? ...because a person's...
LORRIN L. LEE When you directly deal with a person instead of his image from past, you give him a chance to get tr...
DR HITESH C SHETH Gossip about a person and his shadow will appear.
JAPANESE PROVERB What a dog I got. His favourite bone is in my arm!
UNKNOWN So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, an...
BIBLE With what a person means his SUCCESS defines a lot about what means that he adapts to make his PROGR...
ANUJ SOMANY Do not ask the name of the person who seeks a bed for the night. He who is reluctant to give his nam...
VICTOR HUGO If you come to help us,for the moment,you will not gain any profit. We have no oil. We have nothing ...
HIS HOLINESS THE DALAI LAMA It is the duty of a good shepherd to shear his sheep, not to skin them.
TIBERIUS CAESAR It is the duty of a good shepherd to shear his sheep, not to skin them.
TIBERIUS It is the part of a good shepherd to shear his flock, not to skin it.
LATIN PROVERB Blaming "society" makes it awfully easy for a person of weak character to shrug off his own responsi...
STANLEY SCHMIDT Years wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.
DOUGLAS MACARTHUR His skin was pale white, he lost his hair, could barely talk, was coughing, and always had to go in ...
DAVE BENYO Dimples crinkle up the skin near his lips. I will not look at his lips. How can he never have used t...
CARRIE JONES The Wolf and the Crane
A WOLF who had a bone stuck in his throat hired a Crane, for a large sum, to ...
AESOP You look spectacluar, Cam.' She smoothes out his shirt and straightens his tie. 'You look like the s...
NEAL SHUSTERMAN If a person gives you his time, he can give you no more precious gift
FRANK TYGER I'm a real person that cares about his art and cares about what he's doing. I have a heart a...
LL COOL J The writer walks out of his workroom in a daze. He wants a drink. He needs it. It happens to be a fa...
ROALD DAHL But if he give a gift of his inheritance to one of his servants, then it shall be his to the year of...
BIBLE His fingerprints covered my skin.
C.J. ENGLISH That's just the kind of person he is. He would hope that someone would do the same for him or his ki...
KAREN PETERS The sad thing about this whole scenario is that Rick is a wonderful person and a great guy, so I hop...
WAYNE GRETZKY That's the thing about suicide. Try as you might to remember how a person lived his life, you al...
ANDERSON COOPER
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 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 LAND, n. A part of the earth's surface, considered as property. The theory that land is property s...
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