Quote

ARTLESSNESS, n. A certain engaging quality to which women attain by long study and severe practice upon the admiring male, who is pleased to fancy it resembles the candid simplicity of his young.

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
Quality
Attain
Practice
Severe
Upon
Admiration
Certain
Fancy
Candid
Young
Male
Resembles
Women
Males
Admiring
Long
Simplicity
Pleased
Study
Engaging

More quotes by Ambrose Bierce

Image
Laziness. Unwarranted repose of manner in a person of low degree.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
PROPHECY, n. The art and practice of selling one's credibility for future delivery.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
PITIFUL, adj. The state of an enemy or opponent after an imaginary encounter with oneself.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Coward: One who, in a perilous emergency, thinks with his legs.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
FIB, n. A lie that has not cut its teeth. An habitual liar's nearest approach to truth: the perigee of his eccentric orbit.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Success is the one unpardonable sin against our fellows.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Disobey n:To celebrate with an appropriate ceremony the maturity of a command
Ambrose Bierce
Image
The ghost is the outward and visible signs of an inward fear.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
PIG, n. An animal (Porcus omnivorus) closely allied to the human race by the splendor and vivacity of its appetite, which, however, is inferior in scope, for it sticks at pig.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Friendship: A ship big enough for two in fair weather, but only one in foul.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Slang is the speech of him who robs the literary garbage carts on their way to the dumps.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Hope is an explorer who surveys the country ahead. That is why we know so much about the Hereafter and so little about the Heretofore.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Belladonna, n.: In Italian a beautiful lady in English a deadly poison. A striking example of the essential identity of the two tongues.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Epitaph: An inscription on a tomb showing that virtues acquired by death have a retroactive effect.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
ORATORY, n. A conspiracy between speech and action to cheat the understanding. A tyranny tempered by stenography.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
CLOSE-FISTED, adj. Unduly desirous of keeping that which many meritorious persons wish to obtain.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Genius - to know without having learned to draw just conclusions from unknown premises to discern the soul of things.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
One of the greatest of poets, Coleridge was one of the wisest of men, and it was not for nothing that he read us this parable. Let us have a little less of hands across the sea, and a little more of that elemental distrust that is the security of nations. War loves to come like a thief in the night professions of eternal amity provide the nigh
Ambrose Bierce
Image
When prosperous the fool trembles for the evil that is to come in adversity the philosopher smiles for the good that he has had.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
New York is too strenuous for me it gets on my nerves.
Ambrose Bierce