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PLEBEIAN, n. An ancient Roman who in the blood of his country stained nothing but his hands. Distinguished from the Patrician, who was a saturated solution.

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
Solutions
Plebeian
Ancient
Patrician
Blood
Plebeians
Hands
Stained
Nothing
Saturated
Country
Roman
Distinguished
Solution

More quotes by Ambrose Bierce

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IMPROVIDENCE, n. Provision for the needs of to-day from the revenues of to-morrow.
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FEMALE, n. One of the opposing, or unfair, sex.
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Jealous, adj. Unduly concerned about the preservation of that which can be lost only if not worth keeping.
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HAND, n. A singular instrument worn at the end of the human arm and commonly thrust into somebody's pocket.
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Incompatibility. In matrimony a similarity of tastes, particularly the taste for domination.
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Money. A blessing that is of no advantage to us excepting when we part with it.
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Corporation: An ingenious device for obtaining profit without individual responsibility.
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MONARCH, n. A person engaged in reigning. Formerly the monarch ruled, as the derivation of the word attests, and as many subjects have had occasion to learn.
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LOSS, n. Privation of that which we had, or had not. Thus, in the latter sense, it is said of a defeated candidate that he lost his election.
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An absolute monarchy is one in which the sovereign does as he pleases so long as he pleases the assassins.
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actually, adv. Perhaps possibly.
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WINE, n.Fermented grape-juice known to the Women's Christian Union as liquor, sometimes as rum. Wine, madam, is God's next best gift to man.
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MOUSE, n. An animal which strews its path with fainting women.
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A king's staff of office, the sign and symbol of his authority. It was originally a mace with which the sovereign admonished his jester and vetoed ministerial measures by breaking the bones of their proponents.
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PROJECTILE, n. The final arbiter in international disputes. With the growth of prudence in military affairs the projectile came more and more into favor, and is now held in high esteem by the most courageous.
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PRESIDENCY, n. The greased pig in the field game of American politics.
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ACCOMPLICE, n. One associated with another in a crime, having guilty knowledge and complicity, as an attorney who defends a criminal, knowing him guilty. This view of the attorney's position in the matter has not hitherto commanded the assent of attorneys, no one having offered them a fee for assenting.
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moral, adj. Conforming to a local and mutable standard of right. Having the quality of general expediency.
Ambrose Bierce
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Prescription: A physician's guess at what will best prolong the situation with least harm to the patient.
Ambrose Bierce
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INJUSTICE, n. A burden which of all those that we load upon others and carry ourselves is lightest in the hands and heaviest upon the back.
Ambrose Bierce