Quote

Destiny: A tyrant's authority for crime and a fool's excuse for failure.

Ambrose Bierce

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Ambrose Bierce
Born: 1842
Born: June 24
Aphorist
Journalist
Poet
Science Fiction Writer
Writer
Meigs County
Ohio
Dod Grile
William Herman
Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce
Ambrose Bierce
Fool
Tyrant
Tyrants
Excuse
Destiny
Authority
Failure
Crime

More quotes by Ambrose Bierce

Image
Slang is the speech of him who robs the literary garbage carts on their way to the dumps.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
PROOF, n. Evidence having a shade more of plausibility than of unlikelihood. The testimony of two credible witnesses as opposed to that of only one.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
An egotist is a person of low taste - more interested in himself than in me.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Hope is desire and expectation rolled into one.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
PHOTOGRAPH, n. A picture painted by the sun without instruction in art. It is a little better than the work of an Apache, but not quite so good as that of a Cheyenne.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Litigant. A person about to give up his skin for the hope of retaining his bones.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Academe, n.: An ancient school where morality and philosophy were taught. Academy, n.: A modern school where football is taught.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
MUMMY, n. - an ancient Egyptian handy, too, in museums in gratifying the vulgar curiosity that serves to distinguish man from the lower animals.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
TRICHINOSIS, n. The pig's reply to proponents of porcophagy.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Liberty is one of the imagination's most precious possessions.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Least said is soon disavowed.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Loquacity, n. A disorder which renders the sufferer unable to curb his tongue when you wish to talk.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
War is God's way of teaching Americans geography.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Idiot, n. A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in human affairs has always been dominant and controlling.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
REDEMPTION, n. Deliverance of sinners from the penalty of their sin, through their murder of the deity against whom they sinned . . . . whoso believeth in it shall not perish, but have everlasting life in which to try to understand it.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Consult: To seek approval for a course of action already decided upon.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
OYSTER, n. A slimy, gobby shellfish which civilization gives men the hardihood to eat without removing its entrails! The shells are sometimes given to the poor.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Acquaintance: A person whom we know well enough to borrow from, but not well enough to lend to. A degree of friendship called slight when its object is poor or obscure, and intimate when he is rich or famous.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
RUBBISH, n. Worthless matter, such as the religions, philosophies, literatures, arts and sciences of the tribes infesting the regions lying due south from Boreaplas.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
DECIDE, v.i. To succumb to the preponderance of one set of influences over another set.
Ambrose Bierce