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

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
Small
Prototype
Phoenix
Classical
Hot
Bird
Modern

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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.
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Miss: A title with which we brand unmarried women to indicate that they are in the market. Miss, Misses (Mrs.) and Mister (Mr.) are the three most distinctly disagreeable words in the language, in sound and sense.
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Education, n.: That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding.
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When lost in a forest go always down hill. When lost in a philosophy or doctrine go upward.
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Conservative, n: A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal who wishes to replace them with others.
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DIARY, n. A daily record of that part of one's life, which he can relate to himself without blushing.
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Idiot, n. A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in human affairs has always been dominant and controlling.
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EXILE, n. One who serves his country by residing abroad, yet is not an ambassador.
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Ambidextrous, adj.: Able to pick with equal skill a right-hand pocket or a left.
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PLENIPOTENTIARY, adj. Having full power. A Minister Plenipotentiary is a diplomatist possessing absolute authority on condition that he never exert it.
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IMPOSTOR n. A rival aspirant to public honors.
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For every man there is something in the vocabulary that would stick to him like a second skin. His enemies have only to find it.
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PRESBYTERIAN, n. One who holds the conviction that the government authorities of the Church should be called presbyters.
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Cribbage, n. A substitute for conversation among those to whom nature has denied ideas.
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LIAR, n. One who tells an unpleasant truth.
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Truth - An ingenious compound of desirability and appearance.
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BLANK-VERSE, n. Unrhymed iambic pentameters - the most difficult kind of English verse to write acceptably a kind, therefore, much affected by those who cannot acceptably write any kind.
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LIVER, n. A large red organ thoughtfully provided by nature to be bilious with. The liver is heaven's best gift to the goose without it that bird would be unable to supply us with the Strasbourg pate.
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PIRACY, n. Commerce without its folly-swaddles, just as God made it.
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He laughs best who laughs least.
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