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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
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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
Superiors
Conquerors
Interests
Dupes
Tools
Conqueror
Seem
Statesmen
Interest
Patriot
Part
Sarcastic
Seems
Superior
Whole
Tool
Dupe
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There would be far fewer accidents if we could only teach telephone poles to be more careful.
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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.
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Alligator: The crocodile of America, superior in every detail to the crocodile of the effete monarchies of the Old World.
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K, n. A consonant originally precisely that of our H, but altered to its present shape to commemorate the destruction of [one of two lofty columns in] the great temple of Jarute.
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TALK, v.t. To commit an indiscretion without temptation, from an impulse without purpose.
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ROPE, n. An obsolescent appliance for reminding assassins that they too are mortal. It is put about the neck and remains in place one's whole life long.
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The clarinet is a musical instrument the only thing worse than which is two.
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Pantheism, n. The doctrine that everything is God, in contradistinction to the doctrine that God is everything.
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COMMERCE, n. A kind of transaction in which A plunders from B the goods of C, and for compensation B picks the pocket of D of money belonging to E.
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To be comic is merely to be playful, but wit is a serious matter. To laugh at it is to confess that you do not understand.
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TELESCOPE, n. A device having a relation to the eye similar to that of the telephone to the ear, enabling distant objects to plague us with a multitude of needless details. Luckily it is unprovided with a bell summoning us to the sacrifice.
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A popular vote to ascertain the will of the sovereign.
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Infidel, n. In New York, one who does not believe in the Christian religion in Constantinople, one who does.
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Knowledge is the small part of ignorance that we arrange and classify.
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R.I.P. A careless abbreviation of requiescat in pace, attesting to indolent goodwill to the dead. According to the learned Dr. Drigge, however, the letters originally meant nothing more than reductus in pulvis.
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HATRED, n. A sentiment appropriate to the occasion of another's superiority.
Ambrose Bierce
EXTINCTION, n. The raw material out of which theology created the future state.
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