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REPUBLIC, n. A nation in which, the thing governing and the thing governed being the same, there is only a permitted authority to enforce an optional obedience.

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
Governing
Republic
Obedience
Authority
Nation
Optional
Nations
Enforce
Thing
Permitted
Governed

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Behavior, n. Conduct, as determined, not by principle, but by breeding.
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DEPENDENT, adj. Reliant upon another's generosity for the support which you are not in a position to exact from his fears.
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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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Knowledge is the small part of ignorance that we arrange and classify.
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MISCREANT, n. A person of the highest degree of unworth. Etymologically, the word means unbeliever, and its present signification may be regarded as theology's noblest contribution to the development of our language.
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Faith: Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel.
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ZENITH, n. The point in the heavens directly overhead to a man standing or a growing cabbage. A man in bed or a cabbage in the pot is not considered as having a zenith, though Horizontalists hold that the posture of the body was immaterial.
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Dance, v.i. To leap about to the sound of tittering music, preferably with arms about your neighbor's wife or daughter. There are many kinds of dances, but all those requiring the participation of the two sexes have two characteristics in common: they are conspicuously innocent, and warmly loved by the vicious.
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NOISE, n. A stench in the ear. Undomesticated music. The chief product and authenticating sign of civilization.
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Ambidextrous, adj.: Able to pick with equal skill a right-hand pocket or a left.
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CEMETERY, n. An isolated suburban spot where mourners match lies, poets write at a target and stone-cutters spell for a wager.
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Gout, a physician's name for the rheumatism of a rich patient
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COMMENDATION n. The tribute that we pay to achievements that resembles but do not equal our own.
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The only distinction that democracies reward is a high degree of conformity.
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Think twice before you speak to a friend in need
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ORATORY, n. A conspiracy between speech and action to cheat the understanding. A tyranny tempered by stenography.
Ambrose Bierce
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LIAR, n. One who tells an unpleasant truth.
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The poor man's price of admittance to the favor of the rich is his self-respect.
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A hollow edifice erected for the habitation of man, rat, mouse, beetle, cockroach, fly, mosquito, flea, bacillus, and microbe.
Ambrose Bierce
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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