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English Quotes by Ambrose Bierce
- Belladonna, n.: In Italian a beautiful lady; in English a deadly poison. A striking example of the essential identity of the two tongues.
- J, n. A consonant in English, but some nations use it as a vowel . . . from a Latin verb, "jacere", "to throw," because…
- BLANK-VERSE, n. Unrhymed iambic pentameters - the most difficult kind of English verse to write acceptably; a kind, therefore, much affected by those who cannot…
- MUSTANG, n. An indocile horse of the western plains. In English society, the American wife of an English nobleman.
- TECHNICALITY, n. In an English court a man named Home was tried for slander in having accused his neighbor of murder. His exact words were:…
- PERFECTION, n. An imaginary state of quality distinguished from the actual by an element known as excellence; an attribute of the critic. The editor of…
- me, pro. The objectionable case of I. The personal pronoun in English has three cases, the dominative, the objectionable and the oppressive. Each is all…
- ELEGY, n. A composition in verse, in which, without employing any of the methods of humor, the writer aims to produce in the reader's mind…
- BAAL, n. An old deity formerly much worshiped under various names. As Baal he was popular with the Phoenicians; as Belus or Bel he had…
More English Quotes
- Well, I'm having a good time. Which makes me feel guilty too. How very English. — David Attenborough
- You hear doom and gloom about the Internet ruining young people's command of English - that's nonsense. — Margaret Atwood
- I can scarcely manage to scribble a tolerable English letter. I know that I am not a scholar, but meantime I am… — John James Audubon
- No real English gentleman, in his secret soul, was ever sorry for the death of a political economist. — Walter Bagehot
- Kingsley Amis was one of a trio of brilliant comic novelists who made English literature sparkle in the twentieth century. — Russell Baker
- 'Batman' took 10 months to film, and by the time I stopped working on it, it took a long time before my… — Christian Bale
- I look at myself, and I see a Spanish person who's trying to be understood by an English-speaking audience and is putting… — Javier Bardem
- I'm very sensitive to the English language. I studied the dictionary obsessively when I was a kid and collect old dictionaries. Words,… — Drew Barrymore
- I was crossing the English Channel with a carbon-fiber wing on my back. — Felix Baumgartner
- I do love cricket - it's so very English. — Sarah Bernhardt
- The English may not like music, but they absolutely love the noise it makes. — Thomas Beecham
- Drawing on my fine command of the English language, I said nothing. — Robert Benchley