Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Gwinnett Biercewas an American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist. He wrote the short story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" and compiled a satirical lexicon, The Devil's Dictionary. His vehemence as a critic, his motto "Nothing matters", and the sardonic view of human nature that informed his work, all earned him the nickname "Bitter Bierce"...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth24 June 1842
CityMeighs County, OH
CountryUnited States of America
Ambrose Bierce quotes about
Distance, n. The only thing that the rich are willing for the poor to call theirs and keep.
Curiosity, n. An objectionable quality of the female mind. The desire to know whether or not a woman is cursed with curiosity is one of the most active and insatiable passions of the masculine soul.
The clarinet is a musical instrument the only thing worse than which is two.
ARTLESSNESS, n. A certain engaging quality to which women attain by long study and severe practice upon the admiring male, who is pleased to fancy it resembles the candid simplicity of his young.
hybrid, n. A pooled issue.
resolute, adj. Obstinate in a course that we approve.
adore, v.t. To venerate expectantly.
gratitude, n. A sentiment lying midway between a benefit received and a benefit expected.
predicament, n. The wage of consistency.
adherent, n. A follower who has not yet obtained all that he expects to get.
recollect, v. To recall with additions something not previously known.
UXORIOUSNESS, n. A perverted affection that has strayed to one's own wife.
BIRTH, n. The first and direst of all disasters. As to the nature of it there appears to be no uniformity. Castor and Pollux were born from the egg. Pallas came out of a skull. Galatea was once a block of stone. Peresilis, who wrote in the tenth century, avers that he grew up out of the ground where a priest had spilled holy water. It is known that Arimaxus was derived from a hole in the earth, made by a stroke of lightning. Leucomedon was the son of a cavern in Mount Etna, and I have myself seen a man come out of a wine cellar.
PROVIDENTIAL, adj. Unexpectedly and conspicuously beneficial to the person so describing it.