Quote

Phoenix, n. The classical prototype of the modern 'small hot bird.'

Ambrose Bierce

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Prototype
Phoenix
Classical
Hot
Bird
Modern
Small

More quotes by Ambrose Bierce

Image
There are two instruments worse than a clarinet - two clarinets.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
REAR, n. In American military matters, that exposed part of the army that is nearest to Congress.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Cabbage: a familiar kitchen-garden vegetable about as large and wise as a man's head.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
A short story padded. A species of composition bearing the same relation to literature that the panorama bears to art. As it is too long to be read at a sitting the impressions made by its successive parts are successively effaced, as in the pa
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Marriage, n: the state or condition of a community consisting of a master, a mistress, and two slaves, making in all, two.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
REPENTANCE, n. The faithful attendant and follower of Punishment. It is usually manifest in a degree of reformation that is not inconsistent with continuity of sin.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Life - a spiritual pickle preserving the body from decay.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
If every hypocrite in the United States were to break his leg to-day the country could be successfully invaded to-morrow by the warlike hypocrites of Canada.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
A bird in the hand is worth what it will bring.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
NEPOTISM, n. Appointing your grandmother to office for the good of the party.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Age - That period of life in which we compound for the vices that remain by reviling those we have no longer the vigor to commit.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
RECREATION, n. A particular kind of dejection to relieve a general fatigue.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
LEAD, n. A heavy blue-gray metal much used ... as a counterpoise to an argument of such weight that it turns the scale of debate the wrong way. An interesting fact in the chemistry of international controversy is that at the point of contact of two patriotisms lead is precipitated in great quantities.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
EFFECT, n. The second of two phenomena which always occur together in the same order. The first, called a Cause, is said to generate the other-which is no more sensible than it would be for one who has never seen a dog except in pursuit of a rabbit to declare the rabbit the cause of the dog.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
PICKANINNY, n. The young of the Procyanthropos, or Americanus dominans. It is small, black and charged with political fatalities.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Fork: An instrument used chiefly for the purpose of putting dead animals into the mouth.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Achievement the death of endeavor and the birth of disgust.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
Duty - that which sternly impels us in the direction of profit, along the line of desire.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
ADMINISTRATION, n. An ingenious abstraction in politics, designed to receive the kicks and cuffs due to the premier or president. A man of straw, proof against bad-egging and dead-catting.
Ambrose Bierce
Image
DEINOTHERIUM, n. An extinct pachyderm that flourished when the Pterodactyl was in fashion. The latter was a native of Ireland, its name being pronounced Terry Dactyl or Peter O'Dactyl, as the man pronouncing it may chance to have heard it spoken or seen it printed.
Ambrose Bierce