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MERCY, n. An attribute beloved of detected offenders.

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
Attribute
Attributes
Beloved
Mercy
Love
Detected
Offenders

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MEDICINE, n. A stone flung down the Bowery to kill a dog in Broadway.
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Cribbage, n. A substitute for conversation among those to whom nature has denied ideas.
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Revolution, n. In politics, an abrupt change in the form of misgovernment.
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Gout, a physician's name for the rheumatism of a rich patient
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Occident: The part of the world lying west (or east) of the Orient. It is largely inhabited by Christians, a powerful subtribe of the Hypocrites, whose principal industries are murder and cheating, which they are pleased to call war and commerce. These, also, are the principal industries of the Orient.
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Aborigines, n.: Persons of little worth found cumbering the soil of a newly discovered country. They soon cease to cumber they fertilize.
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When among the graves of thy fellows, walk with circumspection thine own is open at thy feet.
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HURRICANE, n. An atmospheric demonstration once very common but now generally abandoned for the tornado and cyclone. The hurricane is still in popular use in the West Indies and is preferred by certain old- fashioned sea-captains.
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A single swallow, it is said, devours ten millions of insects every year. The supplying of these insects I take to be a signal instance of the Creator's bounty in providing for the lives of His creatures.
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MOUSE, n. An animal which strews its path with fainting women.
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DEJEUNER, n. The breakfast of an American who has been in Paris. Variously pronounced.
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Heathen, n. A benighted creature who has the folly to worship something that he can see and feel.
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Mad adj. Affected with a high degree of intellectual independence not conforming to standards of thought, speech, and action derived by the conformants from study of themselves at odds with the majority in short, unusual. It is noteworthy that persons are pronounced mad by officials destitute of evidence that they themselves are sane.
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Miss, n. A title which we brand unmarried women to indicate that they are in the market.
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PALM, n. A species of tree . . . of which the familiar itching palm (Palma hominis) is most widely distributed . . . . This noble vegetable exudes a kind of invisible gum, which may be detected by applying to the bark a piece of gold or silver.
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Corporation: An ingenious device for obtaining profit without individual responsibility.
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MOUTH, n. In man, the gateway to the soul in woman, the outlet of the heart.
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