Quotes by Ambrose Bierce

About Ambrose Bierce:

Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was an American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist. He wrote the short story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" and compiled a satirical lexicon, The Devil's Dictionary. His vehemence as a critic, his motto "Nothing matters", and the sardonic view of human nature that informed his work, all earned him the nickname "Bitter Bierce".
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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.

Ambrose Bierce

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!

Ambrose Bierce

This is only a record of broken and apparently unrelated memories, some of them as distinct and sequent as brilliant beads upon a thread, others remote and strange, having the character of crimson dreams with interspaces blank and black -- witch-fire...

Ambrose Bierce

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-orbed or slender, remains to us. Sometimes it shines...

Ambrose Bierce

Quotation, n: The act of repeating erroneously the words of another.

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.

Ambrose Bierce

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

Ambrose Bierce

Academe, n.: An ancient school where morality and philosophy were taught. Academy, n.: A modern school where football is taught.

Ambrose Bierce

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

Ambrose Bierce

AMNESTY, n. The state's magnanimity to those offenders whom it would be too expensive to punish.

Ambrose Bierce

Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel.

Ambrose Bierce

, n. Garment worn by child when its mother is feeling chilly.

Ambrose Bierce

Birth, n.: The first and direst of all disasters.

Ambrose Bierce

Deliverance of sinners from the penalty of their sin through their murder of the deity against whom they sinned. The doctrine of Redemption is the fundamental mystery of our holy religions, and whoso believeth in it shall not perish, but have everlas...

Ambrose Bierce

A daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to Ignorance the nature of the Unknowable.

Ambrose Bierce

HOMICIDE, n. The slaying of one human being by another. There are four kinds of homicide: felonious, excusable, justifiable, and praiseworthy, but it makes no great difference to the person slain whether he fell by one kind or another -- the classifi...

Ambrose Bierce

MAN, n. An animal so lost in rapturous contemplation of what he thinks he is as to overlook what he indubitably ought to be. His chief occupation is extermination of other animals and his own species, which, however, multiplies with such insistent ra...

Ambrose Bierce

Inhumanity, n. One of the signal and characteristic qualities of humanity.

Ambrose Bierce

To ask that the laws of the universe be annulled in behalf of a single petitioner, confessedly unworthy.

Ambrose Bierce

The sacred books of our holy religion, as distinguished from the false and profane writings on which all other faiths are based.

Ambrose Bierce

Selfish, adj. Devoid of consideration for the selfishness of others.

Ambrose Bierce

Author Bio

  • NameAmbrose Bierce
  • DescriptionAmerican editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist
  • AliasesDod Grile; William Herman
  • BornJune 24, 1842
  • DiedDecember 26, 1913
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionWriter; Journalist; Aphorist; Poet
  • WorksAn Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge; The Damned Thing; The Devil's Dictionary