Quote

If you would be accounted great by your contemporaries, be not too much greater than they.

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
Would
Accounted
Contemporaries
Fame
Greater
Great
Much

More quotes by Ambrose Bierce

Image
UNITARIAN, n. One who denies the divinity of a Trinitarian.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
FREEBOOTER, n. A conqueror in a small way of business, whose annexations lack of the sanctifying merit of magnitude.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
MONKEY, n. An arboreal animal which makes itself at home in genealogical trees.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
TRICHINOSIS, n. The pig's reply to proponents of porcophagy.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
In each human heart are a tiger, a pig, an ass and a nightingale. Diversity of character is due to their unequal activity.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
MONAD, n. The ultimate, indivisible unit of matter (see Molecule). The monad has body without bulk, and mind without manifestation - containing all the powers and possibilities needful to his evolution into a German philosopher . .
Ambrose Bierce
Image
CLOCK, n. A machine of great moral value to man, allaying his concern for the future by reminding him what a lot of time remains to him.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Censor, n. An officer of certain governments, employed to supress the works of genius. Among the Romans the censor was an inspector of public morals, but the public morals of modern nations will not bear inspection.
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
Slang is the speech of him who robs the literary garbage carts on their way to the dumps.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Conversation, n.: A vocal competition in which the one who is catching his breath is called the listener.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Money. A blessing that is of no advantage to us excepting when we part with it.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
GEOGRAPHER, n. A chap who can tell you offhand the difference between the outside of the world and the inside.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
The slightest acquaintance with history shows that powerful republics are the most warlike and unscrupulous of nations.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
LIFE, n. A spiritual pickle preserving the body from decay. We live in daily apprehension of its loss yet when lost it is not missed.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
The only distinction that democracies reward is a high degree of conformity.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Gout, a physician's name for the rheumatism of a rich patient
Ambrose Bierce
Image
PRIMATE, n. The head of a church, especially a State church supported by involuntary contributions. The Primate of England is the Archbishop of Canterbury, an amiable old gentleman, who occupies Lambeth Palace when living and Westminster Abbey when dead. He is commonly dead.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Architect. One who drafts a plan of your house, and plans a draft of your money.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Corporation: An ingenious device for obtaining profit without individual responsibility.
Ambrose Bierce