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Responsibility, n. A detachable burden easily shifted to the shoulders of God, Fate, Fortune, Luck or one's neighbor. In the days of astrology it was customary to unload it upon a star.

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
Stars
Burden
Upon
Easily
Star
Unload
Luck
Customary
Fortune
Shifted
Fate
Astrology
Days
Shoulders
Responsibility
Neighbor

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POETRY, n. A form of expression peculiar to the Land beyond the Magazines.
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WITCH, n. (1) Any ugly and repulsive old woman, in a wicked league with the devil. (2) A beautiful and attractive young woman, in wickedness a league beyond the devil.
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Something that is supposed to typify or stand for something else. Many symbols are mere survivals - as funereal urns carved on memorial monuments. We cannot stop making them, but we can give them a name that conceals our helplessness.
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Uncommon extension of the fear of death.
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Admiration, n. Our polite recognition of another's resemblance to ourselves.
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ECCENTRICITY, n. A method of distinction so cheap that fools employ it to accentuate their incapacity.
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Truth - An ingenious compound of desirability and appearance.
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War: A by-product of the arts of peace.
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IDLENESS, n. A model farm where the devil experiments with seeds of new sins and promotes the growth of staple vices.
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IMPOSTOR n. A rival aspirant to public honors.
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EUCHARIST, n. A sacred feast of the religious sect of Theophagi. A dispute once unhappily arose among the members of this sect as to what it was that they ate. In this controversy some five hundred thousand have already been slain, and the question is still unsettled.
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He laughs best who laughs least.
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A penny saved is a penny to squander.
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Dentist: a prestidigitator who, putting metal into your mouth, pulls coin out of your pocket.
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PHYSICIAN, n. One upon whom we set our hopes when ill and our dogs when well.
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EXPOSTULATION, n. One of the many methods by which fools prefer to lose their friends.
Ambrose Bierce
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CARTESIAN, adj. Relating to Descartes, author of 'Cogito ergo sum' to demonstrate the reality of human existence. The dictum might be improved 'Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum' 'I think that I think, therefore I think that I am' as close an approach.
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The liberality of one who has much, in permitting one who has nothing to get all that he can.
Ambrose Bierce