quotes from classic

Belladonna, n.: In Italian a beautiful lady; in English a deadly poison. A striking example of the essential identity of the two tongues.

more quotes from Ambrose Bierce

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.

more quotes from Ambrose Bierce

Quotation, n: The act of repeating erroneously the words of another.

more quotes from Ambrose Bierce

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

more quotes from Ambrose Bierce

Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum - I think that I think, therefore I think that I am.

more quotes from Ambrose Bierce

Famous, adj.: Conspicuously miserable.

more quotes from Ambrose Bierce

Death is not the end. There remains the litigation over the estate.

more quotes from Ambrose Bierce

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

more quotes from Ambrose Bierce

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

more quotes from Ambrose Bierce

Calamities are of two kinds: misfortunes to ourselves, and good fortune to others.

more quotes from Ambrose Bierce

Politeness, n: The most acceptable hypocrisy.

more quotes from Ambrose Bierce

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

more quotes from Ambrose Bierce

Success is the one unpardonable sin against our fellows.

more quotes from Ambrose Bierce

Dawn: When men of reason go to bed.

more quotes from Ambrose Bierce

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

more quotes from Ambrose Bierce

Battle, n., A method of untying with the teeth a political knot that would not yield to the tongue.

more quotes from Ambrose Bierce

Egotism, n: Doing the New York Times crossword puzzle with a pen.

more quotes from Ambrose Bierce

Love: A temporary insanity curable by marriage.

more quotes from Ambrose Bierce

Coward: One who, in a perilous emergency, thinks with his legs.

more quotes from Ambrose Bierce

Suffrage, noun. Expression of opinion by means of a ballot. The right of suffrage (which is held to be both a privilege and a duty) means, as commonly interpreted, the right to vote for the man of another man's choice, and is highly prized.

more quotes from Ambrose Bierce