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DECALOGUE, n. A series of commandments, ten in number - just enough to permit an intelligent selection for observance, but not enough to embarrass the choice.

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
Enough
Ten
Series
Intelligent
Number
Embarrass
Choice
Observance
Numbers
Selection
Justice
Commandments
Choices
Permit

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PRESIDENCY, n. The greased pig in the field game of American politics.
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MONARCHICAL GOVERNMENT, n. Government.
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INDIFFERENT, adj. Imperfectly sensible to distinctions among things.
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PRESENTABLE, adj. Hideously appareled after the manner of the time and place.
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Kindness n: A brief preface to ten volumes of exaction.
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HATRED, n. A sentiment appropriate to the occasion of another's superiority.
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CALUMNUS, n. A graduate of the School for Scandal.
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Vote: the instrument and symbol of a freeman's power to make a fool of himself and a wreck of his country.
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MONKEY, n. An arboreal animal which makes itself at home in genealogical trees.
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ANTIPATHY, n. The sentiment inspired by one's friend's friend.
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Logic: The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities of the human misunderstanding.
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INDISCRETION, n. The guilt of woman.
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Love: A temporary insanity curable by marriage.
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RESPITE, n. A suspension of hostilities against a sentenced assassin, to enable the Executive to determine whether the murder may not have been done by the prosecuting attorney. Any break in the continuity of a disagreeable expectation.
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It has been observed that one's nose is never so happy as when thrust into the affairs of others from which some physiologists have drawn the inference that the nose is devoid of the sense of smell.
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NECTAR, n. A drink served at banquets of the Olympian deities. The secret of its preparation is lost, but the modern Kentuckians believe that they come pretty near to a knowledge of its chief ingredient.
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KISS, n. A word invented by the poets as a rhyme for bliss. It is supposed to signify, in a general way, some kind of rite or ceremony appertaining to a good understanding but the manner of its performance is unknown to this lexicographer.
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An auctioneer is a man who proclaims with a hammer that he has picked a pocket with his tongue.
Ambrose Bierce
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Revolution, n. In politics, an abrupt change in the form of misgovernment.
Ambrose Bierce
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IMPROVIDENCE, n. Provision for the needs of to-day from the revenues of to-morrow.
Ambrose Bierce