1. Quotes
  2. Authors
  3. Ambrose Bierce

Ambrose Bierce Quotes
page 2

Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was an American short story writer, journalist, poet, and Civil War veteran. His book The Devil's Dictionary was named as one of "The 100 Greatest Masterpieces of American Literature" by the American Revolution Bicentennial Administration. His story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" has been described as "one of the most famous and frequently anthologized stories in American literature"; and his book Tales of Soldiers and Civilians was named by the Grolier Club as one of the 100 most influential American books printed before 1900.A prolific and versatile writer, Bierce was regarded as one of the most influential journalists in the United States, and as a pioneering writer of realist fiction. For his horror writing, Michael Dirda ranked him alongside Edgar Allan Poe and H. P. Lovecraft. His war stories influenced Stephen Crane, Ernest Hemingway, and others, and he was considered an influential and feared literary critic. In recent decades Bierce has gained wider respect as a fabulist and for his poetry.In December 1913, Bierce traveled to Chihuahua, Mexico, to gain first-hand experience of the Mexican Revolution. He disappeared, and was rumored to be traveling with rebel troops. He was never seen again. Wikipedia  

✵ 24. June 1842 – 1914  •  Other names Ambrose Gwinett Bierce, Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce
Ambrose Bierce photo
Ambrose Bierce: 204 quotes14 likes

Ambrose Bierce Quotes

“Absurdity, n. A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion.”

Ambrose Bierce book The Devil's Dictionary

The Devil's Dictionary (1911)

“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

Source: The Devil's Dictionary and Other Works

“Cabbage, n. A familiar kitchen-garden vegetable about as large and wise as a man's head.”

Ambrose Bierce book The Devil's Dictionary

The Devil's Dictionary (1911)

“DISOBEDIENCE, n. The silver lining to the cloud of servitude.”

Ambrose Bierce

Source: The Devil's Dictionary and Other Works

“ARMOR, n. The kind of clothing worn by a man whose tailor is a blacksmith.”

Ambrose Bierce

Source: The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary

“Bride, n. A woman with a fine prospect of happiness behind her.”

Ambrose Bierce

The Devil's Dictionary (1911)
Source: The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary

“TRUTHFUL, adj. Dumb and illiterate.”

Ambrose Bierce

Source: The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary

“Peace in international affairs: a period of cheating between periods of fighting”

Ambrose Bierce

Variant: Peace: A period of cheating between two periods of fighting.
Source: The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary

“Fear has no brains; it is an idiot. The dismal witness that it bears and the cowardly counsel that it whispers are unrelated.”

Ambrose Bierce

Source: The Moonlit Road and Other Ghost and Horror Stories

“Birth, n. The first and direst of all disasters.”

Ambrose Bierce

The Devil's Dictionary (1911)
Source: The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary

“I was born to poor because of honest parents.”

Ambrose Bierce

“Laughter, n. An interior convulsion, producing a distortion of the features and accompanied by inarticulate noises. It is infectious and, though intermittent, incurable.”

Ambrose Bierce book The Devil's Dictionary

The Devil's Dictionary (1911)

“FUTURE, n.
That period of time in which our affairs prosper, our friends are true and our happiness is assured.”

Ambrose Bierce

Source: The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary

“Saint, n. A dead sinner, revised and edited.”

Ambrose Bierce book The Devil's Dictionary

The Devil's Dictionary (1911)

“Immortality: A toy which people cry for, And on their knees apply for, Dispute, contend and lie for, And if allowed Would be right proud Eternally to die for.”

Ambrose Bierce

“Boundary, n. In political geography, an imaginary line between two nations, separating the imaginary rights of one from the imaginary rights of the other.”

Ambrose Bierce book The Devil's Dictionary

The Devil's Dictionary (1911)

“Liberty, n. The distinction between freedom and liberty is not accurately known; naturalists have never been able to find a living specimen of either.”

Ambrose Bierce book The Devil's Dictionary

The Devil's Dictionary (1911)

“To Dogmatism the Spirit of Inquiry is the same as the Spirit of Evil.”

Ambrose Bierce

Source: Epigrams, p. 343

“Opposition, n. In politics the party that prevents the Government from running amok by hamstringing it.”

Ambrose Bierce book The Devil's Dictionary

The Devil's Dictionary (1911)

“Riven and torn with cannon-shot, the trunks of the trees protruded bunches of splinters like hands, the fingers above the wound interlacing with those below.”

Ambrose Bierce

Source: What I Saw At Shiloh (1881), VII

“Genealogy, n. An account of one's descent from an ancestor who did not particularly care to trace his own.”

Ambrose Bierce book The Devil's Dictionary

The Devil's Dictionary (1911)

“Cannon, n. An instrument employed in the rectification of national boundaries.”

Ambrose Bierce book The Devil's Dictionary

The Devil's Dictionary (1911)

“Youth, n. The Period of Possibility, when Archimedes finds a fulcrum, Cassandra has a following and seven cities compete for the honor of endowing a living Homer.”

Ambrose Bierce book The Devil's Dictionary

The Devil's Dictionary (1911)

“Back, n. That part of your friend which it is your privilege to contemplate in your adversity.”

Ambrose Bierce book The Devil's Dictionary

The Devil's Dictionary (1911)

“Dictionary, n. A malevolent literary device for cramping the growth of a language and making it hard and inelastic. This dictionary, however, is a most useful work.”

Ambrose Bierce book The Devil's Dictionary

The Devil's Dictionary (1911)

“The most offensive egotist is he that fears to say "I" and "me." "It will probably rain "—that is dogmatic. "I think it will rain"—that is natural and modest. Montaigne is the most delightful of essayists because so great is his humility that he does not think it important that we see not Montaigne. He so forgets himself that he employs no artifice to make us forget him.”

Ambrose Bierce

Source: Epigrams, p. 364

“Alone, adj. In bad company.”

Ambrose Bierce book The Devil's Dictionary

The Devil's Dictionary (1911)

“Heaven, n. A place where the wicked cease from troubling you with talk of their personal affairs, and the good listen with attention while you expound your own.”

Ambrose Bierce book The Devil's Dictionary

The Devil's Dictionary (1911)

“The only distinction that democracies reward is a high degree of conformity.”

Ambrose Bierce

Source: Epigrams, p. 358

“Neighbor, n. One whom we are commanded to love as ourselves, and who does all he knows how to make us disobedient.”

Ambrose Bierce book The Devil's Dictionary

The Devil's Dictionary (1911)

“The palmist looks at the wrinkles made by closing the hand and says they signify character. The philosopher reads character by what the hand most loves to close upon.”

Ambrose Bierce

Source: Epigrams, p. 360

“If you would be accounted great by your contemporaries, be not too much greater than they.”

Ambrose Bierce

Source: Epigrams, p. 346

“Rational, adj. Devoid of all delusions save those of observation, experience and reflection.”

Ambrose Bierce book The Devil's Dictionary

The Devil's Dictionary (1911)

“Capital, n. The seat of misgovernment.”

Ambrose Bierce book The Devil's Dictionary

The Devil's Dictionary (1911)

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

Ambrose Bierce book The Devil's Dictionary

The Devil's Dictionary (1911)

“Mark how my fame rings out from zone to zone:
A thousand critics shouting: "He's unknown!"”

Ambrose Bierce

Couplet

“Sabbath, n. 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 book The Devil's Dictionary

The Devil's Dictionary (1911)

“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 book The Devil's Dictionary

The Devil's Dictionary (1911)

“Past, n. That part of Eternity with some small fraction of which we have a slight and regrettable acquaintance. A moving line called the Present parts it from an imaginary period known as the Future. These two grand divisions of Eternity, of which the one is continually effacing the other, are entirely unlike. The one is dark with sorrow and disappointment, the other bright with prosperity and joy. The Past is the region of sobs, the Future is the realm of song. In the one crouches Memory, clad in sackcloth and ashes, mumbling penitential prayer; in the sunshine of the other Hope flies with a free wing, beckoning to temples of success and bowers of ease. Yet the Past is the Future of yesterday, the Future is the Past of to-morrow. They are one--the knowledge and the dream.”

Ambrose Bierce book The Devil's Dictionary

The Devil's Dictionary (1911)

“Generous, adj. Originally this word meant noble by birth and was rightly applied to a great multitude of persons. It now means noble by nature and is taking a bit of a rest.”

Ambrose Bierce book The Devil's Dictionary

The Devil's Dictionary (1911)

“Ambition, n. An overmastering desire to be vilified by enemies while living and made ridiculous by friends when dead.”

Ambrose Bierce book The Devil's Dictionary

The Devil's Dictionary (1911)

“Congratulation, n. The civility of envy.”

Ambrose Bierce book The Devil's Dictionary

The Devil's Dictionary (1911)