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
Failure
Crime
Fool
Tyrant
Tyrants
Excuse
Destiny
Authority

More quotes by Ambrose Bierce

Image
Doubt begins only at the last frontiers of what is possible.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
An ingenious compound of desirability and appearance. Discovery of truth is the sole purpose of philosophy, which is the most ancient occupation of the human mind and has a fair prospect of existing with increasing activity to the end of time.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
MISCREANT, n. A person of the highest degree of unworth. Etymologically, the word means unbeliever, and its present signification may be regarded as theology's noblest contribution to the development of our language.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Accordion, n. An instrument in harmony with the sentiments of an assassin.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Monsieur Franqulin, inventor of electricity. This illustrious savant, after having made several voyages around the world, died on the Sandwich Islands and was devoured by savages, of whom not a single fragment was ever recovered.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
SEINE, n. A kind of net for effecting an involuntary change of environment. For fish it is made strong and coarse, but women are more easily taken with a singularly delicate fabric weighted with small, cut stones.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
TALK, v.t. To commit an indiscretion without temptation, from an impulse without purpose.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
PATRIOT, n. One to whom the interests of a part seem superior to those of the whole. The dupe of statesmen and the tool of conquerors.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Think twice before you speak to a friend in need
Ambrose Bierce
Image
CLOCK, n. A machine of great moral value to man, allaying his concern for the future by reminding him what a lot of time remains to him.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
KISS, n. A word invented by the poets as a rhyme for bliss. It is supposed to signify, in a general way, some kind of rite or ceremony appertaining to a good understanding but the manner of its performance is unknown to this lexicographer.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
DECALOGUE, n. A series of commandments, ten in number - just enough to permit an intelligent selection for observance, but not enough to embarrass the choice.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Self-restraint is indulgence of the propensity to forgo.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Distance, n. The only thing that the rich are willing for the poor to call theirs and keep.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Year: A period of three hundred and sixty-five disappointments.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
A hollow edifice erected for the habitation of man, rat, mouse, beetle, cockroach, fly, mosquito, flea, bacillus, and microbe.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
I think I think, therefore I think I am.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Appetite, n. An instinct thoughtfully implanted by Providence as a solution to the labor question.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Calamities are of two kinds: misfortunes to ourselves, and good fortune to others.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Magpie, n.: A bird whose theivish disposition suggested to someone that it might be taught to talk.
Ambrose Bierce