300 definitions
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Ambrose Bierce: top 300 quotes
300 definitions
Nepotism (n.) is appointing your grandmother to office for the good of the party.
Genius (n.) is discerning the soul of things.
Genius (n.) is drawing just conclusions from unknown premises.
Genius (n.) is knowing without having learned.
The Genius (n.) is always thought a fool until he discloses himself, whereas in reality he is a fool only upon the disclosure.
Genius (n.) is, when found in women, found to be couched in masculine faces, figures and manners. In transplanting brains to an alien soil God leaves a little of the original earth clinging to the roots.
The Philosopher (n.) is able to analyze his delusion.
Philosopher (n.) is one who, among that band of lunatics called humans, is able to analyze his delusions.
Painting (n.) is the art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather and exposing them to the critic.
Diplomacy (n.) is the patriotic art of lying for one's country.
Voting (n.) is the instrument and symbol of a free man's power to make a fool of himself and a wreck of his country.
Voting (n.) is the expression of opinion by means of a ballot.
Voting (n.) is the right to vote for the man of another man's choice.
Voting (n.) is held to be both a privilege and a duty, and refusal to vote has the bad name of "incivism."
A Photograph (n.) is a picture painted by the sun without instruction in art.
A Photograph (n.) is a little better than the work of an apache, but not quite so good as that of a cheyenne.
Business (n.) is a kind of gambling which looks with austere disfavor upon the business known as gambling.
Business (n.) is an activity one will never be made successful in by stealing, rather by cheating.
A House (n.) is a hollow edifice erected for the habitation of man, rat, mouse, beetle, cockroach, fly, mosquito, flea, bacillus, and microbe.