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MACE, n. A staff of office signifying authority. Its form, that of a heavy club, indicates its original purpose and use in dissuading from dissent.

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
Originals
Original
Mace
Heavy
Signifying
Authority
Indicates
Office
Dissent
Purpose
Staff
Use
Club
Form
Clubs

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Behavior, n. Conduct, as determined, not by principle, but by breeding.
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Good-bye -- if you hear of my being stood up against a stone wall and shot to rags please know that I think that a pretty good way to depart this life. It beats old age, disease or falling down the cellar stairs.
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recollect, v. To recall with additions something not previously known.
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RITE, n. A religious or semi-religious ceremony fixed by law, precept or custom, with the essential oil of sincerity carefully squeezed out of it.
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Alliance - in international politics, the union of two thieves who have their hands so deeply inserted in each other's pockets that they cannot separately plunder a third.
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prospect, n. An outlook, usually forbidding. An expectation, usually forbidden.
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UNIVERSALIST, n. One who forgoes the advantage of a Hell for persons of another faith.
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PREFERENCE, n. A sentiment, or frame of mind, induced by the erroneous belief that one thing is better than another.
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Sabbath - a weekly festival having its origin in the fact that God made the world in six days and was arrested on the seventh.
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YANKEE, n. In Europe, an American. In the Northern States of our Union, a New Englander. In the Southern States the word is unknown.
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History is an account, mostly false, of events, mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers, mostly knaves, and soldiers, mostly fools.
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The liberality of one who has much, in permitting one who has nothing to get all that he can.
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LANGUAGE, n. The music with which we charm the serpents guarding another's treasure.
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Patriotism. Combustible rubbish ready to the torch of any one ambitious to illuminate his name.
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PAST, n. That part of Eternity with some small fraction of which we have a slight and regrettable acquaintance... The Past is the Future of yesterday, the Future is the Past of to-morrow. They are one - the knowledge and the dream.
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X, n. In our alphabet being a needless letter has an added invincibility to the attacks of the spelling reformers, and like them, will doubtless last as long as the language.
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