Quotes by Ambrose Bierce

“In the presence of death reason and philosophy are silent”

“Idiot - A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in human affairs has always been dominant and controlling. The Idiot's activity is not confined to any special field of thought or act...”

“Cynic, n. A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are not as they ought to be.”

“The hardest tumble a man can take is to fall over his own bluff.”

“ABNORMAL, adj. Not conforming to standards in matters of thought and conduct. To be independent is to be abnormal, to be abnormal is to be detested.A striving toward the straiter [sic] resemblance ...”

“A popular author is one who writes what the people think. Genius invites them to think something else.”

“In this world one must have a name; it prevents confusion, even when it does not establish identity. Some, though, are known by numbers, which also seem inadequate distinctions.”

“From the vast, invisible ocean of moonlight overhead fell, here and here, a slender, broken stream that seemed to plash against the intercepting branches and trickle to earth, forming small white p...”

“Ah, children of the sunlight and the gaslight, how little you know of the world in which you live!”

“What did I fear, and why? I, to whom the night had beena more familiar facethan that of man I, in whom that element of hereditary superstition from which none of us is altogether free had given to...”

“So I say a name, even if self-bestowed, is better than a number. In the register of the potter's field I shall soon have both. What wealth!”

“TELEPHONE n. An invention of the devil which abrogates some of the advantages of making a disagreeable person keep his distance.”

“There, conspicuous in the light of the conflagration, lay the dead body of a womanthe white face turned upward, the hands thrown out and clutched full of grass, the clothing deranged, the long dark...”

“When he had ended, the holy hermit was a moment silent, then said: "My son, I have attended to thy story and I know the maiden. I have myself seen her, as have many. Know, then, that she is caprici...”

“Apologize: To lay the foundation for a future offence.”

“They were obviously headstones of graves, though the graves themselves no longer existed as either mounds or depressions; the years had leveled all. Scattered here and there, more massive blocks sh...”

“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 ...”

“DOG: A kind of additional or subsidiary Diety designed to catch the overflow or surplus of the world's worship.”

“JEALOUS, adj. Unduly concerned about the preservation of that which can be lost only if not worth keeping.”

“On this night I had searched for them without success, fearing to find them; they were nowhere in the house, nor about the moonlit dawn. For, although the sun is lost to us for ever, the moon, full...”