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MAGIC, n. An art of converting superstition into coin. There are other arts serving the same high purpose, but the discreet lexicographer does not name them.

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
High
Superstition
Purpose
Coins
Art
Superstitions
Doe
Serving
Arts
Lexicographer
Magic
Discreet
Name
Converting
Names
Coin

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Barometer, n.: An ingenious instrument which indicates what kind of weather we are having.
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When you doubt, abstain.
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A short story padded. A species of composition bearing the same relation to literature that the panorama bears to art. As it is too long to be read at a sitting the impressions made by its successive parts are successively effaced, as in the pa
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Pun: A form of wit, to which wise men stoop and fools aspire
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OVATION, n. n ancient Rome, a definite, formal pageant in honor of one who had been disserviceable to the enemies of the nation. A lesser triumph.
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PORTUGUESE, n.pl. A species of geese indigenous to Portugal. They are mostly without feathers and imperfectly edible, even when stuffed with garlic.
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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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CONSOLATION, n. The knowledge that a better man is more unfortunate than yourself.
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A nation that will not enforce its laws has no claim to the respect and allegiance of its people.
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God alone knows the future, but only an historian can alter the past.
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Peace in international affairs: a period of cheating between periods of fighting
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WAR, n. A by-product of the arts of peace. The most menacing political condition is a period of international amity.
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Experience - the wisdom that enables us to recognise in an undesirable old acquaintance the folly that we have already embraced.
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When you are ill make haste to forgive your enemies, for you may recover.
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Immigrant: An unenlightened person who thinks one country better than another.
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Conversation: A fair for the display of the minor mental commodities, each exhibitor being too intent upon the arrangement of his own wares to observe those of his neighbor.
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Truth - An ingenious compound of desirability and appearance.
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SYCOPHANT- One who approaches Greatness on his belly so that he may not be commanded to turn and be kicked. He is sometimes an editor.
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In forgiving an injury be somewhat ceremonious, lest your magnanimity be construed as indifference.
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An archbishop is an ecclesiastical dignitary one point holier than a bishop.
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