ESOTERIC, adj. Very particularly abstruse and consummately occult. The ancient philosophies were of two kinds, --exoteric, those that the philosophers themselves could partly understand, and esoteric, those that nobody could understand. It is the latter that have most profoundly affected modern thought and found greatest acceptance in our time.
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HEBREW, n. A male Jew, as distinguished from the Shebrew, an altogether superior creation.Ambrose Gwinett Bierce
BIRTH, n. The first and direst of all disasters. As to the nature of it there appears to be no uniformity. Castor and Pollux were born from the egg. Pallas came out of a skull. Galatea was once a block of stone. Peresilis, who wrote in the tenth century, avers that he grew up out of the ground where a priest had spilled holy water. It is known that Arimaxus was derived from a hole in the earth, made by a stroke of lightning. Leucomedon was the son of a cavern in Mount Aetna, and I have myself seen a man come out of a wine cellar.
Ambrose Gwinett Bierce
HALF, n. One of two equal parts into which a thing may be divided, or considered as divided. In the fourteenth century a heated discussion arose among theologists and philosophers as to whether Omniscience could part an object into three halves and the pious Father Aldrovinus publicly prayed in the cathedral at Rouen that God would demonstrate the affirmative of the proposition in some signal and unmistakable way, and particularly (if it should please Him) upon the body of that hardy blasphemer, Manutius Procinus, who maintained the negative. Procinus, however, was spared to die of the bite of a viper.
Ambrose Gwinett Bierce
Consult. To seek another's approval of a course already decided on.
Ambrose Gwinett Bierce
MEEKNESS, n. Uncommon patience in planning a revenge that is worth while.M is for Moses, Who slew the Egyptian. As sweet as a rose is The meekness of Moses. No monument shows his Post-mortem inscription, But M is for Moses Who slew the Egyptian. --The Biographical Alphabet
Ambrose Gwinett Bierce
REDUNDANT, adj. Superfluous needless de trop.The Sultan said There's evidence abundant To prove this unbelieving dog redundant. To whom the Grand Vizier, with mien impressive, Replied His head, at least, appears excessive. --Habeeb SuleimanMr. Debs is a redundant citizen. --Theodore Roosevelt
Ambrose Gwinett Bierce
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Based on Topics: Philosophy Quotes, Time QuotesBased on Keywords: abstruse, consummately, esoteric, occult
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