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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.

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

— Ambrose Bierce

Business

All Quotes by Ambrose Bierce

“Meekness: Uncommon patience in planning a revenge that is worth while.”

— Ambrose Bierce

Patience

“Love: A temporary insanity curable by marriage.”

— Ambrose Bierce

Love

“Sweater, n.: garment worn by child when its mother is feeling chilly.”

— Ambrose Bierce

Mom

“Future. That period of time in which our affairs prosper, our friends are true and our happiness is assured.”

— Ambrose Bierce

Future

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

— Ambrose Bierce

Positive

“Alliance - in international politics, the union of two thieves who have their hands so deeply inserted in each other's pockets that they cannot separately plunder a third.”

— Ambrose Bierce

Politics

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

— Ambrose Bierce

Education

“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

“Famous, adj.: Conspicuously miserable.”

— Ambrose Bierce

Famous

“Sabbath - a weekly festival having its origin in the fact that God made the world in six days and was arrested on the seventh.”

— Ambrose Bierce

God

“Politics: A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.”

— Ambrose Bierce

Politics

“The small part of ignorance that we arrange and classify we give the name of knowledge.”

— Ambrose Bierce

Knowledge

“Land: 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, and is eminently worthy of the superstructure.”

— Ambrose Bierce

Society

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

— Ambrose Bierce

Intelligence

“Men become civilized, not in proportion to their willingness to believe, but in proportion to their readiness to doubt.”

— Ambrose Bierce

Men

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

— Ambrose Bierce

Education

“Logic: The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities of the human misunderstanding.”

— Ambrose Bierce

Art

“Irreligion - the principal one of the great faiths of the world.”

— Ambrose Bierce

Great

“War is God's way of teaching Americans geography.”

— Ambrose Bierce

God

“Childhood: the period of human life intermediate between the idiocy of infancy and the folly of youth - two removes from the sin of manhood and three from the remorse of age.”

— Ambrose Bierce

Age