Quote

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.

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
Place
Assassins
Whole
Reminding
Long
Rope
Life
Neck
Mortal
Necks
Mortals
Appliance
Remains
Appliances

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prospect, n. An outlook, usually forbidding. An expectation, usually forbidden.
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Witticism. A sharp and clever remark, usually quoted and seldom noted what the Philistine is pleased to call a joke.
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Immoral is the judgment of the stalled ox on the gamboling lamb.
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Happiness: an agreeable sensation arising from contemplating the misery of another.
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Truth is so good a thing that falsehood can not afford to be without it.
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A leech who, having penetrated the shell of a turtle only to find that the creature has long been dead, deems it expedient to form a new attachment to a fresh turtle.
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Homo Creator's testimony to the sound construction and fine finish of Deus Creatus. A popular form of abjection, having an element of pride.
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Dawn: When men of reason go to bed.
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predilection, n. The preparatory stage of disillusion.
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Fear has no brains it is an idiot. The dismal witness that it bears and the cowardly counsel that it whispers are unrelated.
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Litigation: A machine which you go into as a pig and come out of as a sausage.
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REVIEW, v.t. To set your wisdom (holding not a doubt of it./ Although in truth there's neither bone nor skin to it)/ At work upon a book, and so read out of it/ The qualities that you have first read into it.
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CALLOUS, adj. Gifted with great fortitude to bear the evils afflicting another.
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BEGGAR, n. One who has relied on the assistance of his friends.
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BABE or BABY, n. A misshapen creature of no particular age, sex, or condition, chiefly remarkable for the violence of the sympathies and antipathies it excites in others, itself without sentiment or emotion.
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HERMIT, n. A person whose vices and follies are not sociable.
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DUEL, n. A formal ceremony preliminary to reconciliation of two enemies. Great skill is necessary to its satisfactory observance if awkwardly performed . . . deplorable consequences sometimes ensue. A long time ago a man lost his life.
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WINE, n.Fermented grape-juice known to the Women's Christian Union as liquor, sometimes as rum. Wine, madam, is God's next best gift to man.
Ambrose Bierce
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EXILE, n. One who serves his country by residing abroad, yet is not an ambassador.
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Academe, n.: An ancient school where morality and philosophy were taught. Academy, n.: A modern school where football is taught.
Ambrose Bierce