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Husband, N. One Who, Having Dined, Is Charged With The Care Of The Plate.
-Ambrose Bierce
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Husband, N. One Who,

Ambrose Bierce
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Husband, N. One Who, Having Dined, Is Charged With The Care Of The Plate.

Understanding the Quote: "husband, n. one who, having dined, is charged with the care of..."

This quote by Ambrose Bierce reflects deeply on the theme of husband. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Husband, Care, Plates, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Ambrose Bierce interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Ambrose Bierce

Ambrose Bierce is celebrated for insightful thoughts on husband and care. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Husband
Care
Plates
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Death Is Not The End. There Remains The Litigation Over The Estate.
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Degrees
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Women
Roots
Brain
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Men
Numbers
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Oblivion
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Ten
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Character
Italian
Play
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Abnormal
Matter
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Weak
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Thinking
Persons
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Legacy
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People
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Judging
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Appearance
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Mind
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Evil
Moderation
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Disappointment
Moving
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Science
Giving
Fool
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Party
Grandmother
Office
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Life
Death
Power
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Sarcastic
Art
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Mind
Comfort
Neighbor
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Philistines
Remarks
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War
Gentleman
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Vanity
Fool
Ass
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Editing
Independence
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Distance
Technology
Devil
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Recalls
Known
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Issues
Stories
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Change
Strong
Taken
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Way
One Of The Greatest Of Poets, Coleridge Was One Of The Wisest Of Men, And It Was Not For Nothing That He Read Us This Parable. Let Us Have A Little Less Of "hands Across The Sea," And A Little More Of That Elemental Distrust That Is The Security Of Nations. War Loves To Come Like A Thief In The Night; Professions Of Eternal Amity Provide The Night.
War
Night
Men
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Love
Temporary Insanity
Patient
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Jealous
Reality
Losing
Ridicule, N. Words Designed To Show That The Person Of Whom They Are Uttered Is Devoid Of The Dignity Of Character Distinguishing Him Who Utters Them.
Character
Dignity
Ridicule
Pessimism- Philosophy Forced Upon The Convictions Of The Observer By The Disheartening Prevalence Of The Optimist With His Scarecrow Hope And His Unsightly Smile.
Hope
Philosophy
Pessimism
War Is God's Way Of Teaching Americans Geography.
Funny
Peace
Military
Railroad, N. The Chief Of Many Mechanical Devices Enabling Us To Get Away From Where We Are To Where We Are No Better Off. For This Purpose The Railroad Is Held In Highest Favor By The Optimist, For It Permits Him To Make The Transit With Great Expedition.
Science
Railroads
Purpose
Rite, N. A Religious Or Semi-religious Ceremony Fixed By Law, Precept Or Custom, With The Essential Oil Of Sincerity Carefully Squeezed Out Of It.
Religious
Oil
Law
Zenith, N. The Point In The Heavens Directly Overhead To A Man Standing Or A Growing Cabbage. A Man In Bed Or A Cabbage In The Pot Is Not Considered As Having A Zenith, Though Horizontalists Hold That The Posture Of The Body Was Immaterial.
Men
Heaven
Growing
Be As Decent As You Can. Don't Believe Without Evidence. Treat Things Divine With Marked Respect — Don't Have Anything To Do With Them. Do Not Trust Humanity Without Collateral Security; It Will Play You Some Scurvy Trick. Remember That It Hurts No One To Be Treated As An Enemy Entitled To Respect Until He Shall Prove Himself A Friend Worthy Of Affection. Cultivate A Taste For Distasteful Truths. And, Finally, Most Important Of All, Endeavor To See Things As They Are, Not As They Ought To Be.
Hurt
Believe
Play
The Gambling Known As Business Looks With Austere Disfavor Upon The Business Known As Gambling.
Sarcastic
Money
Business
When Prosperous The Fool Trembles For The Evil That Is To Come; In Adversity The Philosopher Smiles For The Good That He Has Had.
Adversity
Evil
Fool
Riven And Torn With Cannon-shot, The Trunks Of The Trees Protruded Bunches Of Splinters Like Hands, The Fingers Above The Wound Interlacing With Those Below.
Hands
Tree
Splinters
An Election Is Nothing More Than The Advanced Auction Of Stolen Goods.
Deception
Auctions
Election
Female, N. One Of The Opposing, Or Unfair, Sex.
Sex
Science
Female
The Creator And Arbiter Of Beauty Is The Heart; To The Male Rattlesnake The Female Rattlesnake Is The Loveliest Thing In Nature.
Beauty
Heart
Males
Reconciliation, N. A Suspension Of Hostilities. An Armed Truce For The Purpose Of Digging Up The Dead.
Digging
Purpose
Truce
Life, N. A Spiritual Pickle Preserving The Body From Decay. We Live In Daily Apprehension Of Its Loss; Yet When Lost It Is Not Missed.
Life
Spiritual
Loss
A Bird In The Hand Is Worth What It Will Bring.
Hands
Bird
Finance Is The Art Or Science Of Managing Revenues And Resources For The Best Advantage Of The Manager
Art
Finance
Advantage
To Apologize Is To Lay The Foundation For A Future Offense.
Future
Apology
Foundation
God Alone Knows The Future, But Only An Historian Can Alter The Past.
Past
History
Historian
Tzetze (or Tsetse) Fly, N. An African Insect ("glossina Morsitans") Whose Bite Is Commonly Regarded As Nature's Most Efficacious Remedy For Insomnia, Though Some Patients Prefer That Of The American Novelist ("mendax Interminabilis").
Nature
Insomnia
Novelists
Imagination, N. A Warehouse Of Facts, With Poet And Liar In Joint Ownership.
Liars
Science
Imagination
Wisdom Is Known Only By Contrasting It With Folly; By Shadow Only We Perceive That All Visible Objects Are Not Flat. Yet Philanthropos Would Abolish Evil!
Evil
Shadow
Flats
While You Have A Future Do Not Live Too Much In Contemplation Of Your Past: Unless You Are Content To Walk Backward The Mirror Is A Poor Guide.
Past
Mirrors
Too Much
Queen, N. A Woman By Whom The Realm Is Ruled When There Is A King, And Through Whom It Is Ruled When There Is Not.
Kings
Queens
Women
Exhort, V.t. In Religious Affairs, To Put The Conscience Of Another Upon The Spit And Roast It To A Nut-brown Discomfort.
Religious
Nuts
Affair
Hyena, N. A Beast Held In Reverence By Some Oriental Nations From Its Habit Of Frequenting At Night The Burial-places Of The Dead. But The Medical Student Does That
Night
Doe
Hyenas
The Place Whereon The Priest Formerly Raveled Out The Small Intestine Of The Sacrificial Victim For Purposes Of Divination And Cooked Its Flesh For The Gods. The Word Is Now Seldom Used, Except With Reference To The Sacrifice Of Their Liberty And Peace By A Male And A Female Fool.
Sacrifice
Atheism
Liberty
Disabuse, V.t. To Present Your Neighbor With Another And Better Error Than The One Which He Has Deemed Advantageous To Embrace.
Errors
Neighbor
Embrace
Prehistoric, Adj. Belonging To An Early Period And A Museum. Antedating The Art And Practice Of Perpetuating Falsehood.
Art
Museums
Practice
Distress: A Disease Incurred By Exposure To The Prosperity Of A Friend.
Disease
Prosperity
Exposure
A Bad Workman Quarrels With The Man Who Calls Him That.
Men
He Man
Incompetence
Extinction, N. The Raw Material Out Of Which Theology Created The Future State.
Sarcastic
Future
Raw Materials
Pyrrhonism- An Ancient Philosophy, Named For Its Inventor. It Consisted Of An Absolute Disbelief In Everything But Pyrrhonism. Its Modern Professors Have Added That.
Philosophy
Ancient
Modern
Reach, N. The Radius Of Action Of The Human Hand. The Area Within Which It Is Possible (and Customary) To Gratify Directly The Propensity To Provide.
Hands
Action
Propensity
Prejudice - A Vagrant Opinion Without Visible Means Of Support.
Mean
Support
Religion
Selfish, Adj. Devoid Of Consideration For The Selfishness Of Others.
Selfish
Selfishness
Consideration
Material, Adj. Having An Actual Existence, As Distinguished From An Imaginary One. Important.
Important
Existence
Distinguished
Self-restraint Is Indulgence Of The Propensity To Forgo.
Self
Restraint
Indulgence
Human Nature Is Pretty Well Balanced; For Every Lacking Virtue There Is A Rough Substitute That Will Serve At A Pinch--as Cunning Is The Wisdom Of The Unwise, And Ferocity The Courage Of The Coward.
Coward
Human Nature
Virtue
Economy, N. Purchasing The Barrel Of Whiskey That You Do Not Need For The Price Of The Cow That You Cannot Afford.
Needs
Cows
Whiskey
Photograph, N. A Picture Painted By The Sun Without Instruction In Art. It Is A Little Better Than The Work Of An Apache, But Not Quite So Good As That Of A Cheyenne.
Photography
Art
Work
Sacerdotalist, N. One Who Holds The Belief That A Clergyman Is A Priest. Denial Of This Momentous Doctrine Is The Hardest Challenge That Is Now Flung Into The Teeth Of The Episcopalian Church By The Neo-dictionarians.
Challenges
Church
Teeth
True, More Than A Half Of The Green Graves In The Grafton Cemetery Are Marked "unknown," And Sometimes It Occurs That One Thinks Of The Contradiction Involved In "honoring The Memory" Of Him Of Whom No Memory Remains To Honor; But The Attempt Seems To Do No Great Harm To The Living, Even To The Logical.
Memories
Thinking
Honor
Rostrum, N. In Latin, The Beak Of A Bird Or The Prow Of A Ship. In America, A Place From Which A Candidate For Office Energetically Expounds The Wisdom, Virtue And Power Of The Rabble.
Wisdom
Latin
America
Republic, N. A Nation In Which, The Thing Governing And The Thing Governed Being The Same, There Is Only A Permitted Authority To Enforce An Optional Obedience.
Republic
Obedience
Authority
You Can Effect A Change Of Robbers Every Four Years. Inestimable Privilege - To Pull Off The Glutted Leech And Attach The Lean One! And You Can Not Even Choose Among The Lean Leeches, But Must Accept Those Designated By The Programmers And Showmen Who Have The Reptiles On Tap!
Years
Leeches
Reptiles
The Bold And Discerning Writer Who, Recognizing The Truth That Language Must Grow By Innovation If It Grow At All, Makes New Words And Uses The Old In An Unfamiliar Sense Has No Following And Is Tartly Reminded That 'it Isn't In The Dictionary' - Although Down To The Time Of The First Lexicographer No Author Ever Had Used A Word That Was In The Dictionary.
Innovation
Lexicographer
Use
Good-bye -- If You Hear Of My Being Stood Up Against A Stone Wall And Shot To Rags Please Know That I Think That A Pretty Good Way To Depart This Life. It Beats Old Age, Disease Or Falling Down The Cellar Stairs.
Wall
Fall
Thinking
Heaven Lies About Us In Our Infancy And The World Begins Lying About Us Pretty Soon Afterward.
Time
Lying
Childhood
Decide, V.i. To Succumb To The Preponderance Of One Set Of Influences Over Another Set.
Influence
The God Of The World's Leading Religion.
Atheism
World
Consumerism
As A Means Of Dispensing Formulated Ignorance Our Boasted Public School System Is Not Without Merit; It Spreads Out Education Sufficiently Thin To Give Everyone Enough To Make Him A More Competent Fool Than He Would Have Been Without It.
School
Ignorance
Mean
Philanthropist, N.: A Rich (and Usually Bald) Old Gentleman Who Has Trained Himself To Grin While His Conscience Is Picking His Pocket.
Gentleman
Pockets
Philanthropy
Story, N. A Narrative, Commonly Untrue.
Stories
Narrative
Untrue
Proboscis, N. The Rudimentary Organ Of An Elephant Which Serves Him In Place Of The Knife-and-fork That Evolution Has As Yet Denied Him. For Purposes Of Humor It Is Popularly Called A Trunk.
Science
Knives
Elephants
Piracy, N. Commerce Without Its Folly-swaddles, Just As God Made It.
Justice
Made
Folly
Oyster, N. A Slimy, Gobby Shellfish Which Civilization Gives Men The Hardihood To Eat Without Removing Its Entrails! The Shells Are Sometimes Given To The Poor.
Food
Men
Oysters
Penitent, Adj. Undergoing Or Awaiting Punishment.
Punishment
Bigot: One Who Is Obstinately And Zealously Attached To An Opinion That You Do Not Entertain.
Racist
Literature
Opinion
Insurrection. An Unsuccessful Revolution; Disaffection's Failure To Substitute Misrule For Bad Government.
Success
Failure
Government
Slang Is The Speech Of Him Who Robs The Literary Garbage Carts On Their Way To The Dumps.
Speech
Way
Garbage
Oath, N. In Law, A Solemn Appeal To The Deity, Made Binding Upon The Conscience By A Penalty For Perjury.
Law
Deities
Made
Architect. One Who Drafts A Plan Of Your House, And Plans A Draft Of Your Money.
Funny
Money
Badass
Force, N. "force Is But Might," The Teacher Said P/ "that Definition's Just."/ The Boy Said Naught But Throught Instead,/ Remembering His Pounded Head:/ "force Is Not Might But Must!"
Teacher
Boys
Justice
Deliberation, N.: The Act Of Examining One's Bread To Determine Which Side It Is Buttered On.
Food
Cooking
Bread
April Fool, N. The March Fool With Another Month Added To His Folly.
Fools Day
Months
April
Ultimatum, N. In Diplomacy, A Last Demand Before Resorting To Concessions.
Demand
Lasts
Diplomacy
Crayfish, N. A Small Crustacean Very Much Resembling The Lobster, But Less Indigestible.
Food
Cooking
Lobster
Philosophy: A Route Of Many Roads Leading From Nowhere To Nothing.
Leadership
Philosophy
Math
Who Never Doubted, Never Half Believed. Where Doubt Is, There Truth Is - It Is Her Shadow.
Doubt
Shadow
Half
Hash: There Is No Definition For This Word - Nobody Knows What Hash Is.
Food
Cooking
Definitions
Labor Is One Of The Processes By Which A Acquires Property For B.
Process
Labor
Property
Fear Has No Brains; It Is An Idiot. The Dismal Witness That It Bears And The Cowardly Counsel That It Whispers Are Unrelated.
Brain
Bears
Idiot
War: A By-product Of The Arts Of Peace.
Art
War
Products
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