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Ambrose Bierce

81 quotes

Ambrose Bierce (1842–circa 1914) was an American short story writer, journalist, and satirist best known for his darkly humorous *The Devil's Dictionary*, which redefined common words with biting cynicism. A Civil War veteran, Bierce brought a sharp, unsentimental eye to American life and politics.

“Edible, adj.: Good to eat, and wholesome to digest, as a worm to a toad, a toad to a snake, a snake to a pig, a pig to a man, and a man to a worm.”

— Ambrose Bierce

Good

All Quotes by Ambrose Bierce

“Liberty: One of Imagination's most precious possessions.”

— Ambrose Bierce

Imagination

“Religion. A daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to Ignorance the nature of the Unknowable.”

— Ambrose Bierce

Fear

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

— Ambrose Bierce

Education

“What this country needs what every country needs occasionally is a good hard bloody war to revive the vice of patriotism on which its existence as a nation depends.”

— Ambrose Bierce

Good

“Education, n.: That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding.”

— Ambrose Bierce

Education

“Photograph: a picture painted by the sun without instruction in art.”

— Ambrose Bierce

Art

“Clairvoyant, n.: A person, commonly a woman, who has the power of seeing that which is invisible to her patron - namely, that he is a blockhead.”

— Ambrose Bierce

Power

“Love: A temporary insanity curable by marriage.”

— Ambrose Bierce

Love

“Mad, adj. Affected with a high degree of intellectual independence.”

— Ambrose Bierce

Intelligence

“Happiness: an agreeable sensation arising from contemplating the misery of another.”

— Ambrose Bierce

Happiness

“Success is the one unpardonable sin against our fellows.”

— Ambrose Bierce

Success

“It is evident that skepticism, while it makes no actual change in man, always makes him feel better.”

— Ambrose Bierce

Change

“Patience, n. A minor form of dispair, disguised as a virtue.”

— Ambrose Bierce

Patience

“Painting, n.: The art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather, and exposing them to the critic.”

— Ambrose Bierce

Art

“Vote: the instrument and symbol of a freeman's power to make a fool of himself and a wreck of his country.”

— Ambrose Bierce

Power

“Litigant. A person about to give up his skin for the hope of retaining his bones.”

— Ambrose Bierce

Hope

“To be positive is to be mistaken at the top of one's voice.”

— Ambrose Bierce

Positive

“The gambling known as business looks with austere disfavor upon the business known as gambling.”

— Ambrose Bierce

Business

“Experience - the wisdom that enables us to recognise in an undesirable old acquaintance the folly that we have already embraced.”

— Ambrose Bierce

Experience

“Marriage, n: the state or condition of a community consisting of a master, a mistress, and two slaves, making in all, two.”

— Ambrose Bierce

Marriage