BLACKGUARD, n. A man whose qualities, prepared for display like a box of berries in a market --the fine ones on top --have been opened on the wrong side. An inverted gentleman.
More Quotes from Ambrose Gwinett Bierce:
A revolution, in politics, is an abrupt change in the form of misgovernment. The substitution of the rule of an administration for that of a ministry, whereby the welfare and happiness of the people were advanced a full half-inch.Ambrose Gwinett Bierce
APOTHECARY, n. The physician's accomplice, undertaker's benefactor and grave worm's provider.When Jove sent blessings to all men that are, And Mercury conveyed them in a jar, That friend of tricksters introduced by stealth Disease for the apothecary's hea
Ambrose Gwinett Bierce
Self-denial is indulgence of a propensity to forego
Ambrose Gwinett Bierce
SANDLOTTER, n. A vertebrate mammal holding the political views of Denis Kearney, a notorious demagogue of San Francisco, whose audiences gathered in the open spaces (sandlots) of the town. True to the traditions of his species, this leader of the proletariat was finally bought off by his law-and-order enemies, living prosperously silent and dying impenitently rich. But before his treason he imposed upon California a constitution that was a confection of sin in a diction of solecisms. The similarity between the words sandlotter and sansculotte is problematically significant, but indubitably suggestive.
Ambrose Gwinett Bierce
K is a consonant that we get from the Greeks, but it can be traced away back beyond them to the Cerathians, a small commercial nation inhabiting the peninsula of Smero. In their tongue it was called Klatch, which means destroyed. The form of the letter was originally precisely that of our H, but the erudite Dr. Snedeker explains that it was altered to its present shape to commemorate the destruction of the great temple of Jarute by an earthquake, circa 730 B.C. This building was famous for the two lofty columns of its portico, one of which was broken in half by the catastrophe, the other remaining intact. As the earlier form of the letter is supposed to have been suggested by these pillars, so, it is thought by the great antiquary, its later was adopted as a simple and natural --not to say touching --means of keeping the calamity ever in the national memory. It is not known if the name of the letter was altered as an additional mnemonic, or if the name was always Klatch and the destruction one of nature's pums. As each theory seems probable enough, I see no objection to believing both --and Dr. Snedeker arrayed himself on that side of the question.
Ambrose Gwinett Bierce
LOGIC, n. The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities of the human misunderstanding. The basic of logic is the syllogism, consisting of a major and a minor premise and a conclusion --thusMajor Premise Sixty men can do a piece of work sixty times as quickly as one man.Minor Premise One man can dig a posthole in sixty seconds therefore --Conclusion Sixty men can dig a posthole in one second. This may be called the syllogism arithmetical, in which, by combining logic and mathematics, we obtain a double certainty and are twice blessed.
Ambrose Gwinett Bierce
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Based on Topics: Man QuotesBased on Keywords: blackguard
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