Ambrose Bierce

164 quotes

"Politics: A strife of interest masquerading as a contest of principles."

Ambrose Bierce

"Revelations (n): A famous book in which St. John the Divine concealed all that he knew. The revealing is done by the commentators, who know nothing."

Ambrose Bierce

"Physician: One upon whom we set our hopes when ill and our dogs when well."

Ambrose Bierce

"All are lunatics, but he who can analyze his delusions is called a philosopher."

Ambrose Bierce

"Auctioneer (n): The man who proclaims with a hammer that he has picked a pocket with his tongue."

Ambrose Bierce

"Mouth (n): In man, the gateway to the soul; in woman, the outlet of the heart."

Ambrose Bierce

"The wine of Arpad Haraszthy has a bouquet all its own. It tickles and titillates the palate. It gurgles as it slips down the alimentary canal. It warms the cockles of the heart, and it burns the sensitive lining of the stomach."

Ambrose Bierce

"Suffrage, noun. Expression of opinion by means of a ballot. The right of suffrage (which is held to be both a privilege and a duty) means, as commonly interpreted, the right to vote for the man of another man's choice, and is highly prized."

Ambrose Bierce

"Koran (n): A book which the Mohammedans foolishly believe to have been written by divine inspiration, but which Christians know to be a wicked imposture, contradictory to the Holy Scripture."

Ambrose Bierce

"Speak when you are angry, and you will make the best speech you will ever regret."

Ambrose Bierce

"Quorum (n): A sufficient number of members of a deliberative body to have their own way and their own way of having it."

Ambrose Bierce

"Patience: A minor form of despair, disguised as a virtue."

Ambrose Bierce

"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

"History is an account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers, mostly knaves, and soldiers, mostly fools."

Ambrose Bierce

"Idiot (n): A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in human affairs has always been dominant and controlling. The Idiot's activity is not confined to any special field of thought or action, but "pervades and regulates the whole." He has the last word in everything; his decision is unappealable. He sets the fashions of opinion and taste, dictates the limitations of speech and circumscribes conduct with a dead-line."

Ambrose Bierce

"Noise: (noun) A stench in the ear. The chief product and authenticating sign of civilization."

Ambrose Bierce

"A prejudice is a vagrant opinion without visible means of support."

Ambrose Bierce

"Academy: A modern school where football is taught."

Ambrose Bierce

"A total abstainer is one who abstains from everything but abstention, and especially from inactivity in the affairs of others."

Ambrose Bierce

"Funeral: A pageant whereby we attest our respect for the dead by enriching the undertaker."

Ambrose Bierce

"When you are ill make haste to forgive your enemies, for you may recover."

Ambrose Bierce

"There are four kinds of Homicide: felonious, excusable, justifiable, and praiseworthy."

Ambrose Bierce

"Abstainer. A weak man who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure."

Ambrose Bierce

"Friendship: A ship big enough to carry two in fair weather, but only one in foul."

Ambrose Bierce

"A bird in the hand is worth what it will bring."

Ambrose Bierce