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Upon Quotes by Ambrose Bierce
- Consult: To seek approval for a course of action already decided upon.
- The gambling known as business looks with austere disfavor upon the business known as gambling.
- Forgetfulness - a gift of God bestowed upon debtors in compensation for their destitution of conscience.
- Trial. A formal inquiry designed to prove and put upon record the blameless characters of judges, advocates and jurors.
- Convent - a place of retirement for women who wish for leisure to meditate upon the sin of idleness.
- OUT-OF-DOORS, n. That part of one's environment upon which no government has been able to collect taxes. Chiefly useful to inspire poets.
- Responsibility, n. A detachable burden easily shifted to the shoulders of God, Fate, Fortune, Luck or one's neighbor. In the days of astrology it was…
- POLITICIAN, n. An eel in the fundamental mud upon which the superstructure of organized society is reared. When he wriggles, he mistakes the agitation of…
- DEPENDENT, adj. Reliant upon another's generosity for the support which you are not in a position to exact from his fears.
- A man who piously shuts himself up to meditate upon the sin of wickedness and to keep it fresh in his mind joins a brotherhood…
- REVIEW, v.t. To set your wisdom (holding not a doubt of it./ Although in truth there's neither bone nor skin to it)/ At work upon…
- POTABLE, n. Suitable for drinking. Water is said to be potable; indeed, some declare it our natural beverage, although even they find it palatable only…
- PHYSICIAN, n. One upon whom we set our hopes when ill and our dogs when well.
- ARTLESSNESS, n. A certain engaging quality to which women attain by long study and severe practice upon the admiring male, who is pleased to fancy…
- RETRIBUTION, n. A rain of fire-and-brimstone that falls alike upon the just and such of the unjust as have not procured shelter by evicting them.
- INJUSTICE, n. A burden which of all those that we load upon others and carry ourselves is lightest in the hands and heaviest upon the…
- OATH, n. In law, a solemn appeal to the Deity, made binding upon the conscience by a penalty for perjury.
- EXHORT, v.t. In religious affairs, to put the conscience of another upon the spit and roast it to a nut-brown discomfort.
- PESSIMISM- philosophy forced upon the convictions of the observer by the disheartening prevalence of the optimist with his scarecrow hope and his unsightly smile.
- PRESIDE, v. To guide the action of a deliberative body to a desirable result. In Journalese, to perform upon a musical instrument; as, "He presided…
- MAGNETISM, n. Something acting upon a magnet. The two definitions immediately foregoing are condensed from the works of one thousand eminent scientists, who have illuminated…
- As records of courts and justice are admissible, it can easily be proved that powerful and malevolent magicians once existed and were a scourge to…
- LUMINARY, One who throws light upon a subject; as an editor by not writing about it.
- GUNPOWDER, n. An agency employed by civilized nations for the settlement of disputes which might become troublesome if left unadjusted. By most writers the invention…
- 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:…
More Upon Quotes
- The trouble with lying and deceiving is that their efficiency depends entirely upon a clear notion of the truth that the liar… — Hannah Arendt
- Your lost friends are not dead, but gone before, advanced a stage or two upon that road which you must travel in… — Aristophanes
- Happiness depends upon ourselves. — Aristotle
- The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival. — Aristotle
- We are addicted to our egotism, our likes and dislikes and prejudices, and depend upon them for our own sense of identity. — Karen Armstrong
- Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon. July 1969 AD. We came in peace for all mankind. — Neil Armstrong
- Truth sits upon the lips of dying men. — Matthew Arnold
- Once upon a time, novelists of the 19th century, such as Charles Dickens, published in serial form. — Margaret Atwood
- Every American poet feels that the whole responsibility for contemporary poetry has fallen upon his shoulders, that he is a literary aristocracy… — Wystan Hugh Auden
- The weaker the data available upon which to base one's conclusion, the greater the precision which should be quoted in order to… — Norman Ralph Augustine
- The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no… — Marcus Aurelius
- Let it be your constant method to look into the design of people's actions, and see what they would be at, as… — Marcus Aurelius