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PERORATION, n. The explosion of an oratorical rocket. It dazzles, but to an observer having the wrong kind of nose its most conspicuous peculiarity is the smell of the several kinds of powder used in preparing it.

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
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Rockets
Dazzles
Kindness
Explosions
Peculiarity
Wrong
Observers
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Preparing
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Rocket
Noses
Explosion
Several
Powder
Smell
Observer

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HYDRA, n. A kind of animal that the ancients catalogued under many heads.
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Philosophy: A route of many roads leading from nowhere to nothing.
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IMPENITENCE, n. A state of mind intermediate in point of time between sin and punishment.
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CLERGYMAN, n. A man who undertakes the management of our spiritual affairs as a method of better his temporal ones.
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No country is so wild and difficult but men will make it a theater of war.
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Present, n. That part of eternity dividing the domain of disappointment from the realm of hope.
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TALK, v.t. To commit an indiscretion without temptation, from an impulse without purpose.
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OSTRICH, n. A large bird to which (for its sins, doubtless) nature has denied that hinder toe . . . . The absence of a good working pair of wings is no defect, for, as has been ingeniously pointed out, the ostrich does not fly.
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There are two instruments worse than a clarinet - two clarinets.
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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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A nation that will not enforce its laws has no claim to the respect and allegiance of its people.
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ETHNOLOGY, n. The science that treats of the various tribes of Man, as robbers, thieves, swindlers, dunces, lunatics, idiots and ethnologists.
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EXCEPTION, n. A thing which takes the liberty to differ from other things of its class, as an honest man, a truthful woman, etc.
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ORTHOGRAPHY, n. The science of spelling by the eye instead of the ear.
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MESMERISM, n. Hypnotism before it wore good clothes, kept a carriage and asked Incredulity to dinner.
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Patriotism is as fierce as a fever, pitiless as the grave, blind as a stone, and irrational as a headless hen.
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If you want to read a perfect book there is only one way: write it.
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Electricity is the power that causes all natural phenomena not known to be caused by something else
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