1,237 Quotes by Ambrose Bierce

AFFLICTION, n. An acclimatizing process preparing the soul for another and bitter world.

Feast, n. A festival. A religious celebration usually signalized by gluttony and drunkenness, frequently in honor of some holy person distinguished for abstemiousness.

The creator and arbiter of beauty is the heart; to the male rattlesnake the female rattlesnake is the loveliest thing in nature.

A popular writer writes about what people think. A wise writer offers them something to think about.

GOOSE, n. A bird that supplies quills for writing. These [quills] when inked and drawn mechanically across paper by a person called an "author," there results a very fair and accurate transcript of the fowl's thought and feeling.

HARMONISTS, n. A sect of Protestants, now extinct, who came from Europe in the beginning of the last century and were distinguished for the bitterness of their internal controversies and dissensions.

NEIGHBOR, n. One whom we are commanded to love as ourselves, and who does all he knows how to make us disobedient.

A cheap and easy cynicism rails at everything. The master of the art accomplishes the formidable task of discrimination.

Habit: A shackle for the free.