Quotessence
Home / Authors / Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Bierce

Ambrose Bierce Quotes

Journalist

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenSciencePersonsHumourKindTwoFoodCulinaryLifeWorldCookingFunnyThinkingArtHumorKnowsLiteratureIfsKnownStates

Famous Ambrose Bierce Quotes

“BRAIN, n. An apparatus with which we think that we think. That which distinguishes the man who is content to be something from the man who wishes to do something. A man of great wealth, or one who has been pitchforked into high station, has commonly such a headful of brain that his neighbors cannot keep their hats on. In our civilization, and under our republican form of government, brain is so highly honored that it is rewarded by exemption from the cares of office.”

ThinkingMenHas BeensGovernmentCareFormScienceWishWealthBrainHumourHe ManCivilizationRepublicanOfficeNeighborHatsStationsHonoredForms Of GovernmentExemption
Book:The Devil's Dictionary: A Selection of the Bitter Definitions of Ambrose Bierce
Create image

“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, and the right to make that of another miserable by thrusting upon him an incalculable quantity of acquaintances; liberty, particularly the liberty to introduce persons to one another without first ascertaining if they are not already acquainted as enemies; and the pursuit of another's happiness with a running pack of strangers.”

IfsMenFirstsPersonsSelfRunningCertainLibertyEnemyRightsEqualCreatorStrangerPursuitMiserableQuantityIntroducingPacksEvidentAcquaintanceInalienable Rights
Book:The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World
Create image

“Immoral: Inexpedient. Whatever in the long run and with regard to the greater number of instances men find to be generally inexpedient comes to be considered wrong, wicked, immoral. If mans notions of right and wrong have any other basis than this of expediency; if they originated, or could have originated, in any other way; if actions have in themselves a moral character apart from and nowise dependent on, their consequences-then all philosophy is a lie and reason a disorder of the mind.”

IfsMenWayMindLongReasonPhilosophyCharacterRunningActionLyingNumbersMoralGreaterConsequenceBasesRegardNotionInstanceWickedDependentDisorderLong RunsImmoralNihilismExpediencyMoral Character
Book:The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World
Create image

“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.”

MenFirstsMadeEarthScienceWaterBornKnownCenturyHumourSonGrewBirthHolyGrew UpStonesWineDisasterHolesBlockEggsPriestsLightningStrokesSkullsUniformityCellarsCavernsHoly Water
Book:The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary
Create image