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

—  Ambrose Bierce

Source: The Devil's Dictionary and Other Works

Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Ambrose Bierce photo
Ambrose Bierce 204
American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabu… 1842–1914

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The first appearance of this quote in print was in the July 1908 issue http://books.google.com/books?id=3StKAQAAMAAJ&q=%22Every+crowd+has+a+silver+lining%22&pg=PA423#v=onepage of the journal Profitable Advertising under the heading "Modernized Maxims." It next appeared in the June 1911 issue http://books.google.com/books?id=iKZHAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Every+crowd+has+a+silver+lining%22&pg=PA32#v=onepage of The Philistine where Elbert Hubbard labeled it: "motto for a hotel-keeper." In the 1920s http://books.google.com/books?id=FBrnAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Every+crowd+has+a+silver+lining%22&pg=PA2#v=onepage, it was published with the label: "Pickpocket's motto." The attribution to P.T. Barnum didn't appear in print until a 1934 article http://books.google.com/books?id=HSIYAQAAIAAJ&q=%22Every+crowd+has+a+silver+lining%22&pg=PA14#v=onepage in Reader's Digest.
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