PITIFUL, adj. The state of an enemy or opponent after an imaginary encounter with oneself. Ambrose Bierce More Quotes by Ambrose Bierce More Quotes From Ambrose Bierce RICE-WATER, n. A mystic beverage secretly used by our most popular novelists and poets to regulate the imagination and narcotize the conscience. Ambrose Bierce novelists imagination water SPOOKER, n. A writer whose imagination concerns itself with supernatural phenomena, especially in the doings of spooks. Ambrose Bierce doings concern imagination MERCY, n. An attribute beloved of detected offenders. Ambrose Bierce attributes mercy love LIAR, n. One who tells an unpleasant truth. Ambrose Bierce truth liars INDIFFERENT, adj. Imperfectly sensible to distinctions among things. Ambrose Bierce indifferent indifference distinction RETRIBUTION, n. A rain of fire-and-brimstone that falls alike upon the just and such of the unjust as have not procured shelter by evicting them. Ambrose Bierce fire rain fall INJUSTICE, n. A burden which of all those that we load upon others and carry ourselves is lightest in the hands and heaviest upon the back. Ambrose Bierce burden injustice hands INDISCRETION, n. The guilt of woman. Ambrose Bierce guilt ACCUSE, v.t. To affirm another's guilt or unworth; most commonly as a justification of ourselves for having wronged him. Ambrose Bierce wronged justification guilt Aristocrats: n. fellows that wear downy hats and clean shirts - guilty of education and suspected of bank accounts. Ambrose Bierce clean hats guilt POCKET, n. The cradle of motive and the grave of conscience. In woman this organ is lacking; so she acts without motive, and her conscience, denied burial, remains ever alive, confessing the sins of others. Ambrose Bierce pockets alive sin PILGRIM, n. A traveler that is taken seriously. A Pilgrim Father was one who [was] not permitted to sing psalms through his nose [in Europe], followed it to Massachusetts, where he could personate God according to the dictates of his conscience. Ambrose Bierce taken europe father OBSTINATE, adj. Inaccessible to the truth as it is manifest in the splendor and stress of our advocacy. Ambrose Bierce splendor stress truth PLATITUDE, n. The fundamental element and special glory of popular literature. A thought that snores in words that smoke. All that is mortal of a departed truth. A jelly-fish withering on the shore of the sea of thought. A desiccated epigram. Ambrose Bierce departed truth sea STORY, n. A narrative, commonly untrue. The truth of the stories here following has, however, not been successfully impeached. Ambrose Bierce narrative truth stories OATH, n. In law, a solemn appeal to the Deity, made binding upon the conscience by a penalty for perjury. Ambrose Bierce deities law made UXORIOUSNESS, n. A perverted affection that has strayed to one's own wife. Ambrose Bierce affection 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. Ambrose Bierce block wine science GENEROUS, adj. Originally this word meant noble by birth and was rightly applied to a great multitude of persons. It now means noble by nature and is taking a bit of a rest. Ambrose Bierce generosity noble mean MISDEMEANOR, n. An infraction of the law having less dignity than a felony and constituting no claim to admittance into the best criminal society. Ambrose Bierce dignity criminals law
