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PITIFUL, adj. The state of an enemy or opponent after an imaginary encounter with oneself.

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
States
Opponent
Encounter
Encounters
Imaginary
Opponents
Oneself
Enemy
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Pitiful

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They say that hens do cackle loudest when there is nothing vital in the eggs they have laid.
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Adolescence: The stage between puberty and adultery.
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RETRIBUTION, n. A rain of fire-and-brimstone that falls alike upon the just and such of the unjust as have not procured shelter by evicting them.
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SACERDOTALIST, n. One who holds the belief that a clergyman is a priest. Denial of this momentous doctrine is the hardest challenge that is now flung into the teeth of the Episcopalian church by the Neo-Dictionarians.
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Fashion, n. A despot whom the wise ridicule and obey.
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Compromise, n. Such an adjustment of conflicting interests as gives each adversary the satisfaction of thinking he has got what he ought not to have, and is deprived of nothing except what was justly his due.
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REVIEW, v.t. To set your wisdom (holding not a doubt of it./ Although in truth there's neither bone nor skin to it)/ At work upon a book, and so read out of it/ The qualities that you have first read into it.
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QUEEN, n. A woman by whom the realm is ruled when there is a king, and through whom it is ruled when there is not.
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To be positive is to be mistaken at the top of one's voice.
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predilection, n. The preparatory stage of disillusion.
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PLEONASM, n. An army of words escorting a corporal of thought.
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ARTLESSNESS, n. A certain engaging quality to which women attain by long study and severe practice upon the admiring male, who is pleased to fancy it resembles the candid simplicity of his young.
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The covers of this book are too far apart.
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COMPULSION, n. The eloquence of power.
Ambrose Bierce
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PIGMY, n. One of a tribe of very small men found by ancient travelers in many parts of the world, but by modern in Central Africa only. The Pigmies are so called to distinguish them from the bulkier Caucasians - who are Hogmies.
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DAY, n. A period of twenty-four hours, mostly misspent. This period is divided into two parts, the day proper and the night, or day improper - the former devoted to sins of business, the latter consecrated to the other sort.
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ASS, n. A public singer with a good voice but no ear.
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PRISON, n. A place of punishments and rewards. The poet assures us that - stone walls do not a prison make.
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DEJEUNER, n. The breakfast of an American who has been in Paris. Variously pronounced.
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