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INTENTION, n. The mind's sense of the prevalence of one set of influences over another set an effect whose cause is the imminence, immediate or remote, of the performance of an involuntary act.

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
Cause
Influences
Influence
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Performances
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Involuntary
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Remote

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KING, n. A male person commonly known in America as a crowned head, although he never wears a crown and has usually no head to speak of.
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REASON, n. Propensitate of prejudice.
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PRESIDENT, n. The leading figure in a small group of men of whom - and of whom only - it is positively known that immense numbers of their countrymen did not want any of them for President.
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A nutritious substance supplied by a bountiful Providence for the fattening of the poor.
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Love: A temporary insanity curable by marriage.
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Present, n. That part of eternity dividing the domain of disappointment from the realm of hope.
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Nonsense, n. The objections that are urged against this excellent dictionary.
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NOUMENON, n. That which exists, as distinguished from that which merely seems to exist, the latter being a phenomenon. The noumenon is a bit difficult to locate it can be apprehended only by a process of reasoning - which is a phenomenon.
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Potable, n. Suitable for drinking. Water is said to be potable indeed, some declare it our natural beverage, although even they find it palatable only when suffering from the recurrent disorder known as thirst, for which it is a medicine.
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While you have a future do not live too much in contemplation of your past: unless you are content to walk backward the mirror is a poor guide.
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There are two instruments worse than a clarinet - two clarinets.
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A bird in the hand is worth what it will bring.
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APOTHECARY, n. The physician's accomplice, undertaker's benefactor and grave worm's provider
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To the eye of failure success is an accident.
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RACK, n. An argumentative implement formerly much used in persuading devotees of a false faith to embrace the living truth. As a call to the unconverted the rack never had any particular efficacy, and is now held in light popular esteem.
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PHRENOLOGY, n. The science of picking the pocket through the scalp. It consists in locating and exploiting the organ that one is a dupe with.
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Compromise, n. Such an adjustment of conflicting interests as gives each adversary the satisfaction of thinking he has got what he ought not to have, and is deprived of nothing except what was justly his due.
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REVEILLE, n. A signal to sleeping soldiers to dream of battlefields no more, but get up and have their blue noses counted.
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An appellate court which reverses the judgment of a popular author's contemporaries, the appellant being his obscure competitor.
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