HAG, n. An elderly lady whom you do not happen to like sometimes called, also, a hen, or cat. Old witches, sorceresses, etc., were called hags from the belief that their heads were surrounded by a kind of baleful lumination or nimbus --hag being the popular name of that peculiar electrical light sometimes observed in the hair. At one time hag was not a word of reproach Drayton speaks of a beautiful hag, all smiles, much as Shakespeare said, sweet wench. It would not now be proper to call your sweetheart a hag --that compliment is reserved for the use of her grandchildren.
More Quotes from Ambrose Gwinett Bierce:
HEARSE, n. Death's baby-carriage.Ambrose Gwinett Bierce
APHORISM, n. Predigested wisdom. The flabby wine-skin of his brain Yields to some pathologic strain, And voids from its unstored abysm The driblet of an aphorism. --The Mad Philosopher, 1697
Ambrose Gwinett Bierce
COURT FOOL, n. The plaintiff.
Ambrose Gwinett Bierce
HOVEL, n. The fruit of a flower called the Palace.Twaddle had a hovel, Twiddle had a palace Twaddle said I'll grovel Or he'll think I bear him malice -- A sentiment as novel As a castor on a chalice.Down upon the middle Of his legs fell Twaddle And astonished Mr. Twiddle, Who began to lift his noddle. Feed upon the fiddle- Faddle flummery, unswaddle A new-born self-sufficiency and think himself a mockery. --G.J.
Ambrose Gwinett Bierce
KEEP, v.t.He willed away his whole estate, And then in death he fell asleep, Murmuring Well, at any rate, My name unblemished I shall keep. But when upon the tomb 'twas wrought Whose was it --for the dead keep naught. --Durang Gophel Arn
Ambrose Gwinett Bierce
DEGENERATE, adj. Less conspicuously admirable than one's ancestors. The contemporaries of Homer were striking examples of degeneracy it required ten of them to raise a rock or a riot that one of the heroes of the Trojan war could have raised with ease. Homer never tires of sneering at men who live in these degenerate days, which is perhaps why they suffered him to beg his bread --a marked instance of returning good for evil, by the way, for if they had forbidden him he would certainly have starved.
Ambrose Gwinett Bierce
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Based on Topics: Beauty Quotes, Belief & Faith Quotes, Cats Quotes, Fame Quotes, Hair Quotes, Praise Quotes, Smiling QuotesBased on Keywords: baleful, drayton, hag, hags, nimbus, sweetheart, wench
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