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Ambrose Bierce

Explore inspiring quotes by Ambrose Bierce, a remarkable figure whose words continue to inspire and motivate people around the world.

101
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53
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2
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politics
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p

politics

5 quotes

p

power

4 quotes

a

art

4 quotes

g

god

3 quotes

g

good

3 quotes

e

experience

3 quotes

b

best

3 quotes

k

knowledge

3 quotes

All Quotes by Ambrose Bierce

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"Childhood: the period of human life intermediate between the idiocy of infancy and the folly of youth - two removes from the sin of manhood and three from the remorse of age."

-Ambrose Bierce

ageView Quote
"Experience is a revelation in the light of which we renounce our errors of youth for those of age."

-Ambrose Bierce

ageView Quote
"Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret."

-Ambrose Bierce

angerView Quote
"Painting, n.: The art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather, and exposing them to the critic."

-Ambrose Bierce

artView Quote
"Photograph: a picture painted by the sun without instruction in art."

-Ambrose Bierce

artView Quote
"Logic: The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities of the human misunderstanding."

-Ambrose Bierce

artView Quote
"Eloquence, n. The art of orally persuading fools that white is the color that it appears to be. It includes the gift of making any color appear white."

-Ambrose Bierce

artView Quote
"We submit to the majority because we have to. But we are not compelled to call our attitude of subjection a posture of respect."

-Ambrose Bierce

attitudeView Quote
"Beauty, n: the power by which a woman charms a lover and terrifies a husband."

-Ambrose Bierce

beautyView Quote
"The best thing to do with the best things in life is to give them up."

-Ambrose Bierce

bestView Quote
"Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret."

-Ambrose Bierce

bestView Quote
"Prescription: A physician's guess at what will best prolong the situation with least harm to the patient."

-Ambrose Bierce

bestView Quote
"Corporation: An ingenious device for obtaining profit without individual responsibility."

-Ambrose Bierce

businessView Quote
"The gambling known as business looks with austere disfavor upon the business known as gambling."

-Ambrose Bierce

businessView Quote
"Revolution, n. In politics, an abrupt change in the form of misgovernment."

-Ambrose Bierce

changeView Quote
"It is evident that skepticism, while it makes no actual change in man, always makes him feel better."

-Ambrose Bierce

changeView Quote
"Death is not the end. There remains the litigation over the estate."

-Ambrose Bierce

deathView Quote
"Education, n.: That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding."

-Ambrose Bierce

educationView Quote
"Learning, n. The kind of ignorance distinguishing the studious."

-Ambrose Bierce

educationView Quote
"Experience - the wisdom that enables us to recognise in an undesirable old acquaintance the folly that we have already embraced."

-Ambrose Bierce

experienceView Quote
"Experience is a revelation in the light of which we renounce our errors of youth for those of age."

-Ambrose Bierce

experienceView Quote
"Enthusiasm - a distemper of youth, curable by small doses of repentance in connection with outward applications of experience."

-Ambrose Bierce

experienceView Quote
"A person who doubts himself is like a man who would enlist in the ranks of his enemies and bear arms agains himself. He makes his failure certain by himself being the first person to be convinced of it."

-Ambrose Bierce

failureView Quote
"Destiny: A tyrant's authority for crime and a fool's excuse for failure."

-Ambrose Bierce

failureView Quote
"Faith: Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel."

-Ambrose Bierce

faithView Quote
"Famous, adj.: Conspicuously miserable."

-Ambrose Bierce

famousView Quote
"Religion. A daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to Ignorance the nature of the Unknowable."

-Ambrose Bierce

fearView Quote
"Future. That period of time in which our affairs prosper, our friends are true and our happiness is assured."

-Ambrose Bierce

futureView Quote
"To apologize is to lay the foundation for a future offense."

-Ambrose Bierce

futureView Quote
"War is God's way of teaching Americans geography."

-Ambrose Bierce

godView Quote
"Sabbath - a weekly festival having its origin in the fact that God made the world in six days and was arrested on the seventh."

-Ambrose Bierce

godView Quote
"Forgetfulness - a gift of God bestowed upon debtors in compensation for their destitution of conscience."

-Ambrose Bierce

godView Quote
"Edible - good to eat and wholesome to digest, as a worm to a toad, a toad to a snake, a snake to a pig, a pig to a man, and a man to a worm."

-Ambrose Bierce

goodView Quote
"Edible, adj.: Good to eat, and wholesome to digest, as a worm to a toad, a toad to a snake, a snake to a pig, a pig to a man, and a man to a worm."

-Ambrose Bierce

goodView Quote
"What this country needs what every country needs occasionally is a good hard bloody war to revive the vice of patriotism on which its existence as a nation depends."

-Ambrose Bierce

goodView Quote
"In our civilization, and under our republican form of government, intelligence is so highly honored that it is rewarded by exemption from the cares of office."

-Ambrose Bierce

governmentView Quote
"Anoint, v.: To grease a king or other great functionary already sufficiently slippery."

-Ambrose Bierce

greatView Quote
"Irreligion - the principal one of the great faiths of the world."

-Ambrose Bierce

greatView Quote
"Future. That period of time in which our affairs prosper, our friends are true and our happiness is assured."

-Ambrose Bierce

happinessView Quote
"Happiness: an agreeable sensation arising from contemplating the misery of another."

-Ambrose Bierce

happinessView Quote
"Bride: A woman with a fine prospect of happiness behind her."

-Ambrose Bierce

happinessView Quote
"History is an account, mostly false, of events, mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers, mostly knaves, and soldiers, mostly fools."

-Ambrose Bierce

historyView Quote
"The slightest acquaintance with history shows that powerful republics are the most warlike and unscrupulous of nations."

-Ambrose Bierce

historyView Quote
"Present, n. That part of eternity dividing the domain of disappointment from the realm of hope."

-Ambrose Bierce

hopeView Quote
"Religion. A daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to Ignorance the nature of the Unknowable."

-Ambrose Bierce

hopeView Quote
"Litigant. A person about to give up his skin for the hope of retaining his bones."

-Ambrose Bierce

hopeView Quote
"Wit - the salt with which the American humorist spoils his intellectual cookery by leaving it out."

-Ambrose Bierce

humorView Quote
"Liberty: One of Imagination's most precious possessions."

-Ambrose Bierce

imaginationView Quote
"Mad, adj. Affected with a high degree of intellectual independence."

-Ambrose Bierce

intelligenceView Quote
"In our civilization, and under our republican form of government, intelligence is so highly honored that it is rewarded by exemption from the cares of office."

-Ambrose Bierce

intelligenceView Quote
"Jealous, adj. Unduly concerned about the preservation of that which can be lost only if not worth keeping."

-Ambrose Bierce

jealousyView Quote
"Faith: Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel."

-Ambrose Bierce

knowledgeView Quote
"The small part of ignorance that we arrange and classify we give the name of knowledge."

-Ambrose Bierce

knowledgeView Quote
"Ardor, n. The quality that distinguishes love without knowledge."

-Ambrose Bierce

knowledgeView Quote
"Learning, n. The kind of ignorance distinguishing the studious."

-Ambrose Bierce

learningView Quote
"Lawsuit: A machine which you go into as a pig and come out of as a sausage."

-Ambrose Bierce

legalView Quote
"Love: A temporary insanity curable by marriage."

-Ambrose Bierce

loveView Quote
"Love: A temporary insanity curable by marriage."

-Ambrose Bierce

marriageView Quote
"Marriage, n: the state or condition of a community consisting of a master, a mistress, and two slaves, making in all, two."

-Ambrose Bierce

marriageView Quote
"Women in love are less ashamed than men. They have less to be ashamed of."

-Ambrose Bierce

menView Quote
"Dawn: When men of reason go to bed."

-Ambrose Bierce

menView Quote
"Men become civilized, not in proportion to their willingness to believe, but in proportion to their readiness to doubt."

-Ambrose Bierce

menView Quote
"Sweater, n.: garment worn by child when its mother is feeling chilly."

-Ambrose Bierce

momView Quote
"Architect. One who drafts a plan of your house, and plans a draft of your money."

-Ambrose Bierce

moneyView Quote
"Ocean: A body of water occupying about two-thirds of a world made for man - who has no gills."

-Ambrose Bierce

natureView Quote
"Religion. A daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to Ignorance the nature of the Unknowable."

-Ambrose Bierce

natureView Quote
"Patience, n. A minor form of dispair, disguised as a virtue."

-Ambrose Bierce

patienceView Quote
"Meekness: Uncommon patience in planning a revenge that is worth while."

-Ambrose Bierce

patienceView Quote
"What this country needs what every country needs occasionally is a good hard bloody war to revive the vice of patriotism on which its existence as a nation depends."

-Ambrose Bierce

patriotismView Quote
"Patriotism. Combustible rubbish ready to the torch of any one ambitious to illuminate his name."

-Ambrose Bierce

patriotismView Quote
"Politics: A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage."

-Ambrose Bierce

politicsView Quote
"Conservative, n: A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal who wishes to replace them with others."

-Ambrose Bierce

politicsView Quote
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