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TAIL, n. The part of an animal's spine that has transcended its natural limitations to set up an independent existence in a world of its own.

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
Animal
Existence
Transcended
Natural
Tail
Part
Spine
World
Tails
Limitations
Limitation
Independent

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MUGWUMP, n. In politics one afflicted with self-respect and addicted to the vice of independence. A term of contempt.
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Childhood: the period of human life intermediate between the idiocy of infancy and the folly of youth - two removes from the sin of manhood and three from the remorse of age.
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FORCE, n. Force is but might, the teacher said p/ That definition's just./ The boy said naught but throught instead,/ Remembering his pounded head:/ Force is not might but must!
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Religion. A daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to Ignorance the nature of the Unknowable.
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Phoenix, n. The classical prototype of the modern 'small hot bird.'
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VIRTUES, n.pl. Certain abstentions.
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An old wine-bibber having been smashed in a railway collision, some wine was poured on his lips to revive him.
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Nothing is more logical than persecution. Religious tolerance is a kind of infidelity.
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Consul - in American politics, a person who having failed to secure an office from the people is given one by the Administration on condition that he leave the country.
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Doubt, indulged and cherished, is in danger of becoming denial but if honest, and bent on thorough investigation, it may soon lead to full establishment of the truth.
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UNITARIAN, n. One who denies the divinity of a Trinitarian.
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PLATONIC, adj. Pertaining to the philosophy of Socrates. Platonic Love is a fool's name for the affection between a disability and a frost.
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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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True, man does not know woman. But neither does woman.
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ADMINISTRATION, n. An ingenious abstraction in politics, designed to receive the kicks and cuffs due to the premier or president. A man of straw, proof against bad-egging and dead-catting.
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RATIONAL, adj. Devoid of all delusions save those of observation, experience and reflection.
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EVANGELIST, n. A bearer of good tidings, particularly (in a religious sense) such as assure us of our own salvation and the damnation of our neighbors.
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PERFECTION, n. An imaginary state of quality distinguished from the actual by an element known as excellence an attribute of the critic.
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