1,237 Quotes by Ambrose Bierce

DEGRADATION, n. One of the stages of moral and social progress from private station to political preferment.

ASPERSE, v.t. Maliciously to ascribe to another vicious actions which one has not had the temptation and opportunity to commit.

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.

CALUMNUS, n. A graduate of the School for Scandal.

BAIT, n. A preparation that renders the hook more palatable. The best kind is beauty.

MUGWUMP, n. In politics one afflicted with self-respect and addicted to the vice of independence. A term of contempt.

Insurance - an ingenious modern game of chance in which the player is permitted to enjoy the comfortable conviction that he is beating the man who keeps the table.

Incompatibility. In matrimony a similarity of tastes, particularly the taste for domination.

TALK, v.t. To commit an indiscretion without temptation, from an impulse without purpose.