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RATIONAL, adj. Devoid of all delusions save those of observation, experience and reflection.

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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Experience
Delusions
Devoid
Delusion
Observation
Rational
Reflection

More quotes by Ambrose Bierce

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Amnesty, n. The state's magnanimity to those offenders whom it would be too expensive to punish.
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Cribbage, n. A substitute for conversation among those to whom nature has denied ideas.
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Cynic, n: a blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be.
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Immortality: A toy which people cry for, And on their knees apply for, Dispute, contend and lie for, And if allowed Would be right proud Eternally to die for.
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TELESCOPE, n. A device having a relation to the eye similar to that of the telephone to the ear, enabling distant objects to plague us with a multitude of needless details. Luckily it is unprovided with a bell summoning us to the sacrifice.
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MUSTANG, n. An indocile horse of the western plains. In English society, the American wife of an English nobleman.
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A total abstainer is one who abstains from everything but abstention, and especially from inactivity in the affairs of others.
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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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You don't have to be stupid to be a Christian, ... but it probably helps.
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Future. That period of time in which our affairs prosper, our friends are true and our happiness is assured.
Ambrose Bierce
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ECCENTRICITY, n. A method of distinction so cheap that fools employ it to accentuate their incapacity.
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Appeal. In law, to put the dice into the box for another throw.
Ambrose Bierce
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The world has suffered more from the ravages of ill-advised marriages than from virginity.
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Learning -the kind of ignorance affected by (and affecting) civilized races, as distinguished from ignorance, the sort of learning incurred by savages. See nonsense.
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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
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REBEL, n. A proponent of a new misrule who has failed to establish it.
Ambrose Bierce
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Suddenly to change one's opinions and go over to another party. The most notable flop on record was that of Saul of Tarsus, who has been severely criticised as a turn-coat by some of our partisan journals.
Ambrose Bierce
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LAST, n. A shoemaker's implement, named by a frowning Providence as opportunity to the maker of puns.
Ambrose Bierce
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Mausoleum, n: the final and funniest folly of the rich.
Ambrose Bierce
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Salamander: Originally a reptile inhabiting fire later, an anthropomorphous immortal, but still a pyrophile. Salamanders are now believed to be extinct, the last one of which we have an account having been seen in Carcassonne by the Abbe Belloc, who exorcised it with a bucket of holy water.
Ambrose Bierce