Quotes from Ambrose Bierce

Most persons go to sleep rather gladly, yet sleep is virtual annihilation while it lasts; and if it should last forever the sleeper would be no worse off after a million years of it than after an hour of it.

For there be divers sorts of death—some wherein the body remained; and in some it vanished quite away with the spirit.

May it please your honour, crimes are ghastly or agreeable only by comparison.

Justificarea tiranului pentru crime ÅŸi scuza prostului pentru eÅŸecuri este destinul.

Abstemio, s. Persona de carácter débil, que cede a la tentación de negarse un placer. Abstemio total es el que se abstiene de todo, menos de la abstención; en especial, se abstiene de no meterse en los asuntos ajenos.

FREEDOM, n. Exemption from the stress of authority in a beggarly half dozen of restraint's infinite multitude of methods. A political condition that every nation supposes itself to enjoy in virtual monopoly. Liberty. The distinction between freedom and liberty is not accurately known; naturalists have never been able to find a living specimen of either.

FRIENDSHIP, n. A ship big enough to carry two in fair weather, but only one in foul. The sea was calm and the sky was blue; Merrily, merrily sailed we two. (High barometer maketh glad.) On the tipsy ship, with a dreadful shout, The tempest descended and we fell out. (O the walking is nasty bad!) Armit Huff Bettle

NOUMENON, n. That which exists, as distinguished from that which merely seems to exist, the latter being a phenomenon. The noumenon is a bit difficult to locate; it can be apprehended only be a process of reasoning—which is a phenomenon. Nevertheless, the discovery and exposition of noumena offer a rich field for what Lewes calls the endless variety and excitement of philosophic thought. Hurrah (therefore) for the noumenon!

Zachwyt nad kim?: serdeczne uznanie, ?e kto? przypomina nas samych.

Mournfully and low the man of God began his eulogy of the dead, and his doleful voice, mingled with the sobbing that it was its purpose to stimulate and sustain, rose and fell, seemed to come and go, like the sound of a sullen sea.

GUNPOWDER, n. An agency employed by civilized nations for the settlement of disputes which might become troublesome if left unadjusted. By most writers the invention of gunpowder is ascribed to the Chinese, but not upon very convincing evidence. Milton says it was invented by the devil to dispel angels with, and this opinion seems to derive some support from the scarcity of angels.

HAG, n. An elderly lady whom you do not happen to like; sometimes called, also, a hen, or cat.

IDLENESS, n. A model farm where the devil experiments with seeds of new sins and promotes the growth of staple vices.

PLAN, v.t. To bother about the best method of accomplishing an accidental result.

INEXPEDIENT, adj. Not calculated to advance one's interests.

INFANCY, n. The period of our lives when, according to Wordsworth, Heaven lies about us. The world begins lying about us pretty soon afterward.

Si deseas que tus sueños se hagan realidad, ¡despierta!

DELUGE, n. A notable first experiment in baptism which washed away the sins (and sinners) of the world.

INFLUENCE, n. In politics, a visionary quo given in exchange for a substantial quid.

being asked to dinner is not always the same thing as being asked to dine.

INSURANCE, n. An ingenious modern game of chance in which the player is permitted to enjoy the comfortable conviction that he is beating the man who keeps the table.

INSURRECTION, n. An unsuccessful revolution. Disaffection's failure to substitute misrule for bad government.

JUSTICE, n. A commodity which is a more or less adulterated condition the State sells to the citizen as a reward for his allegiance, taxes and personal service.

KORAN, n. A book which the Mohammedans foolishly believe to have been written by divine inspiration, but which Christians know to be a wicked imposture, contradictory to the Holy Scriptures.