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JOSS-STICKS- Small sticks burned by the Chinese in their pagan tomfoolery, in imitation of certain sacred rites of our holy religion.

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
Holy
Rites
Small
Rite
Religion
Pagan
Certain
Imitation
Burned
Chinese
Sticks
Sacred
Joss

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Nature's fortuitous manifestation of her purposeless objectionableness.
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Saint: A dead sinner revised and edited.
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There's no free will, says the philosopher To hang is most unjust. There is no free will, assents the officer We hang because we must.
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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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PERFECTION, n. An imaginary state of quality distinguished from the actual by an element known as excellence an attribute of the critic.
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Economy, n. Purchasing the barrel of whiskey that you do not need for the price of the cow that you cannot afford.
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Doubt begins only at the last frontiers of what is possible.
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Perseverance - a lowly virtue whereby mediocrity achieves an inglorious success.
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A subsidiary Deity designed to catch the overflow and surplus of the world's worship . . . . [H]is master works for the means wherewith to purchase the idle wag of the Solomonic tail, seasoned with a look of tolerant recognition.
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HUSBAND, n. One who, having dined, is charged with the care of the plate.
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MONSIGNOR- A high ecclesiastical title, of which the Founder of our religion overlooked the advantages.
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Women of genius commonly have masculine faces, figures and manners. In transplanting brains to an alien soil God leaves a little of the original earth clinging to the roots.
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