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Magic: (n) The art of converting superstition into coin.

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
Art
Converting
Coin
Superstition
Coins
Superstitions
Magic

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That part of your friend which it is your privilege to contemplate in your adversity
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CRAYFISH, n. A small crustacean very much resembling the lobster, but less indigestible.
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EXISTENCE, n. A transient, horrible, fantastic dream,/ Wherein is nothing yet all things do seem:/ From which we're wakened by a friendly nudge/ Of our bedfellow Death, and cry: O fudge!
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A person who doubts himself is like a man who would enlist in the ranks of his enemies and bear arms agains himself. He makes his failure certain by himself being the first person to be convinced of it.
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Life - a spiritual pickle preserving the body from decay.
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repose, v.i. To cease from troubling.
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EXILE, n. One who serves his country by residing abroad, yet is not an ambassador.
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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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UXORIOUSNESS, n. A perverted affection that has strayed to one's own wife.
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LINEN, n. A kind of cloth the making of which, when made of hemp, entails a great waste of hemp.
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GENEROUS, adj. Originally this word meant noble by birth and was rightly applied to a great multitude of persons. It now means noble by nature and is taking a bit of a rest.
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There was never a genius who was not thought a fool until he disclosed himself whereas he is a fool then only.
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NIHILIST, n. A Russian who denies the existence of anything but Tolstoi. The leader of the school is Tolstoi.
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HERMIT, n. A person whose vices and follies are not sociable.
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HAND, n. A singular instrument worn at the end of the human arm and commonly thrust into somebody's pocket.
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PERORATION, n. The explosion of an oratorical rocket. It dazzles, but to an observer having the wrong kind of nose its most conspicuous peculiarity is the smell of the several kinds of powder used in preparing it.
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HOSPITALITY, n. The virtue which induces us to feed and lodge certain persons who are not in need of food and lodging.
Ambrose Bierce
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DECIDE, v.i. To succumb to the preponderance of one set of influences over another set.
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MERCY, n. An attribute beloved of detected offenders.
Ambrose Bierce
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KILT, n. A costume sometimes worn by Scotchmen in America and Americans in Scotland.
Ambrose Bierce