Quote

RATTLESNAKE, n. Our prostrate brother, Homo ventrambulans.

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
Rattlesnake
Prostrate
Rattlesnakes
Homo
Brother

More quotes by Ambrose Bierce

Image
Loquacity, n. A disorder which renders the sufferer unable to curb his tongue when you wish to talk.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Clairvoyant, n.: A person, commonly a woman, who has the power of seeing that which is invisible to her patron - namely, that he is a blockhead.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
The clarinet is a musical instrument the only thing worse than which is two.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
LOVE, n. A temporary insanity curable by marriage or by removal of the patient from the influences under which he incurred the disorder.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Duty - that which sternly impels us in the direction of profit, along the line of desire.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Incompatibility. In matrimony a similarity of tastes, particularly the taste for domination.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
What is worth doing is worth the trouble of asking somebody to do it.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Christians and camels receive their burdens kneeling.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
ARMOR, n. The kind of clothing worn by a man whose tailor is a blacksmith.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
You don't have to be stupid to be a Christian, ... but it probably helps.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Magpie, n.: A bird whose theivish disposition suggested to someone that it might be taught to talk.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
ORATORY, n. A conspiracy between speech and action to cheat the understanding. A tyranny tempered by stenography.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
NOUMENON, n. That which exists, as distinguished from that which merely seems to exist, the latter being a phenomenon. The noumenon is a bit difficult to locate it can be apprehended only by a process of reasoning - which is a phenomenon.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
RESPITE, n. A suspension of hostilities against a sentenced assassin, to enable the Executive to determine whether the murder may not have been done by the prosecuting attorney. Any break in the continuity of a disagreeable expectation.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
A nutritious substance supplied by a bountiful Providence for the fattening of the poor.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Turkey: A large bird whose flesh, when eaten on certain religious anniversaries has the peculiar property of attesting piety and gratitude.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Damning, with bell, book and candle / Some sinner whose opinions are a scandal. / A rite permitting Satan to enslave him / Forever, and forbidding Christ to save him.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
NOISE, n. A stench in the ear. Undomesticated music. The chief product and authenticating sign of civilization.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Inhumanity, n. One of the signal and characteristic qualities of humanity.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Nonsense, n. The objections that are urged against this excellent dictionary.
Ambrose Bierce