Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Ambrose Bierce (American Journalist, Author)

Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (1842–1914) was an American short-story writer, and journalist. A prominent journalist in California, London, and Washington, D.C., he is celebrated for his realistic and sardonic short stories on the themes of death and horror.

Born in Meigs County, Ohio, Bierce grew up in Indiana and fought for the Union in the Civil War 1861–65. In the United Kingdom 1872–75, he wrote copy for Fun and other magazines. He relocated to California in 1887 and joined the San Francisco Examiner, later editing for San Francisco Argonaut and San Francisco Illustrated Wasp.

Bierce wrote Tales of Soldiers and Civilians (1892; later In the Midst of Life, 1892.) His most famous story, ‘An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,’ which is a haunted, near-death fantasy of escape, was influenced by Edgar Allan Poe and consecutively influenced Stephen Crane and Ernest Hemingway.

In 1896, Bierce moved to Washington, D.C., where he continued writing for newspapers and magazines. He compiled the much-quoted volume of ironic and bitter definitions Cynic’s Word Book (1906; now called The Devil’s Dictionary.) In 1913, he went to Mexico to report on revolutionary Pancho Villa’s army and disappeared without explanation.

More: Wikipedia READ: Works by Ambrose Bierce

Laziness. Unwarranted repose of manner in a person of low degree.
Ambrose Bierce
Topics: Laziness

Day, n. A period of twenty-four hours, mostly misspent.
Ambrose Bierce
Topics: Time

Abstainer: A weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure.
Ambrose Bierce
Topics: Temptation, Pleasure, Self-Control

Before undergoing a surgical operation, arrange your temporal affairs. You may live.
Ambrose Bierce
Topics: Medicine

Alien. An American sovereign in his probationary state.
Ambrose Bierce

Saint, n. A dead sinner revised and edited.
Ambrose Bierce
Topics: Saints, Perspective

Work: a dangerous disorder affecting high public functionaries who want to go fishing.
Ambrose Bierce
Topics: Work, Disorder

Witticism. A sharp and clever remark, usually quoted and seldom noted; what the Philistine is pleased to call a “joke.”
Ambrose Bierce
Topics: Humor, Jokes

Photograph: a picture painted by the sun without instruction in art.
Ambrose Bierce
Topics: Photography

Lawyer, n. One skilled in circumvention of the law.
Ambrose Bierce
Topics: Lawyers

Happiness: an agreeable sensation arising from contemplating the misery of another.
Ambrose Bierce
Topics: Happiness

Alliance. In international politics, the union of two thieves who have their hands so deeply inserted in each other’s pockets that they cannot separately plunder a third.
Ambrose Bierce
Topics: Community, Politics

Quotation, n. The act of repeating erroneously the words of another. The words erroneously repeated.
Ambrose Bierce
Topics: Quotations

Laughter—An interior convulsion, producing a distortion of the features and accompanied by inarticulate noises. It is infectious and, though intermittent, incurable.
Ambrose Bierce
Topics: Laughter

Experience is a revelation in the light of which we renounce our errors of youth for those of age.
Ambrose Bierce
Topics: Youth, Experience

What is a democrat? One who believes that the republicans have ruined the country. What is a republican? One who believes that the democrats would ruin the country.
Ambrose Bierce
Topics: Politics, Politicians

The small part of ignorance that we arrange and classify we give the name of knowledge.
Ambrose Bierce
Topics: Knowledge

IMMORAL, adj. Inexpedient. Whatever in the long run and with regard to the greater number of instances men find to be generally inexpedient comes to be considered wrong, wicked, immoral. If man’s notions of right and wrong have any other basis than this of expediency; if they originated, or could have originated, in any other way; if actions have in themselves a moral character apart from, and nowise dependent on, their consequences—then all philosophy is a lie and reason a disorder of the mind.
Ambrose Bierce
Topics: Disorder

Fidelity: A virtue peculiar to those who are about to be betrayed.
Ambrose Bierce
Topics: Marriage

Conversation: A fair for the display of the minor mental commodities, each exhibitor being too intent upon the arrangement of his own wares to observe those of his neighbor.
Ambrose Bierce

OPTIMISM, n. The doctrine, or belief, that everything is beautiful, including what is ugly, everything good, especially the bad, and everything right that is wrong. It is held with greatest tenacity by those most accustomed to the mischance of falling into adversity, and is most acceptably expounded with the grin that apes a smile. Being a blind faith, it is inaccessible to the light of disproof—an intellectual disorder, yielding to no treatment but death. It is hereditary, but fortunately not contagious.
Ambrose Bierce
Topics: Optimism, Disorder

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

Barometer: An ingenious instrument which indicates what kind of weather we are having
Ambrose Bierce
Topics: Weather

Appeal: In law, to put the dice into the box for another throw.
Ambrose Bierce
Topics: Law, Justice, Trials

Advice: The suggestions you give someone else which you hope will work for your benefit.
Ambrose Bierce
Topics: Advice

Impartial. Unable to perceive any promise of personal advantage from espousing either side of a controversy.
Ambrose Bierce
Topics: Impartiality

Opportunity is a favorable occasion for grasping a disappointment.
Ambrose Bierce
Topics: Disappointment

Logic: The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities of the human misunderstanding.
Ambrose Bierce
Topics: Logic, Thinking

SELFISH, adj. Devoid of consideration for the selfishness of others.
Ambrose Bierce
Topics: Selfishness

Historian. A broad—gauge gossip.
Ambrose Bierce
Topics: History, Historians

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