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The Liberality Of One Who Has Much, In Permitting One Who Has Nothing To Get All That He Can.
-Ambrose Bierce
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The Liberality Of One

Ambrose Bierce
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The Liberality Of One Who Has Much, In Permitting One Who Has Nothing To Get All That He Can.

Understanding the Quote: "the liberality of one who has much, in permitting one who has..."

This quote by Ambrose Bierce reflects deeply on the theme of liberality. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Liberality, 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 liberality and motivation. 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
Liberality
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Portuguese, N.pl. A Species Of Geese Indigenous To Portugal. They Are Mostly Without Feathers And Imperfectly Edible, Even When Stuffed With Garlic.
Food
Cooking
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Zigzag, V.t. To Move Forward Uncertainly, From Side To Side, As One Carrying The White Man's Burden.
Moving
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Notoriety, N. The Fame Of One's Competitor For Public Honors. The Kind Of Renown Most Accessible And Acceptable To Mediocrity. A Jacob's-ladder Leading To The Vaudeville Stage, With Angels Ascending And Descending.
Leadership
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Referendum, N. A Law For Submission Of Proposed Legislation To A Popular Vote To Learn The Nonsensus Of Public Opinion.
Learning
Popular Vote
Law
President, N. The Leading Figure In A Small Group Of Men Of Whom - And Of Whom Only - It Is Positively Known That Immense Numbers Of Their Countrymen Did Not Want Any Of Them For President.
Leadership
Men
Numbers
A Popular Author Is One Who Writes What The People Think. Genius Invites Them To Think Something Else.
Writing
Thinking
People
Optimist – A Proponent Of The Doctrine That Black Is White.
Optimistic
White
Optimism
Legacy, N. A Gift From One Who Is Legging It Out Of This Vale Of Tears.
Tears
Legacy
Phonograph, N. An Irritating Toy That Restores Life To Dead Noises.
Life
Noise
Toys
History Is An Account, Mostly False, Of Events, Mostly Unimportant, Which Are Brought About By Rulers, Mostly Knaves, And Soldiers, Mostly Fools.
Lying
History
Soldier
In Our Civilization, And Under Our Republican Form Of Government, Intelligence Is So Highly Honored That It Is Rewarded By Exemption From The Cares Of Office.
Funny
Humor
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Fidelity - A Virtue Peculiar To Those Who Are About To Be Betrayed.
Peculiar
Betrayed
Virtue
Material, Adj. Having An Actual Existence, As Distinguished From An Imaginary One. Important.
Important
Existence
Distinguished
A Rabbit's Foot May Bring Good Luck To You, But It Brought None To The Rabbit.
Good Luck
Feet
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Learning, N. The Kind Of Ignorance Distinguishing The Studious.
Education
Ignorance
Kind
Rebel, N. A Proponent Of A New Misrule Who Has Failed To Establish It.
Failure
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Contempt; The Feeling Of A Prudent Man For An Enemy Who Is Too Formidable Safely To Be Opposed.
Men
Feelings
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Houseless: Having Paid All Taxes On Household Goods.
Taxes
Goods
Household
Turkey: A Large Bird Whose Flesh, When Eaten On Certain Religious Anniversaries Has The Peculiar Property Of Attesting Piety And Gratitude.
Thanksgiving
Gratitude
Religious
We Must Stop Chasing Dollars, Stop Lying, Stop Cheating, Stop Ignoring Art, Literature, And All The Refining Agencies And Instrumentalities Of Civilization.
Cheating
Art
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To Dogmatism The Spirit Of Inquiry Is The Same As The Spirit Of Evil.
Evil
Inquiry
Spirit
Price, N. Value, Plus A Reasonable Sum For The Wear And Tear Of Conscience In Demanding It.
Tears
Plus
Reasonable
Incompatibility, N. In Matrimony A Similarity Of Tastes, Particularly The Taste For Domination. Incompatibility May, However, Consist Of A Meek-eyed Matron Living Just Around The Corner. It Has Even Been Known To Wear A Moustache.
Life
Justice
May
Plagiarize, V. To Take The Thought Or Style Of Another Writer Whom One Has Never, Never Read.
Style
The Poor Man's Price Of Admittance To The Favor Of The Rich Is His Self-respect.
Men
Self
Favors
Nominate, V. To Designate For The Heaviest Political Assessment. To Put Forward A Suitable Person To Incur The Mudgobbling And Deadcatting Of The Opposition.
Assessment
Political
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Virtues, N.pl. Certain Abstentions.
Virtue
Certain
Certainty
Wine, N.fermented Grape-juice Known To The Women's Christian Union As "liquor," Sometimes As "rum." Wine, Madam, Is God's Next Best Gift To Man.
Christian
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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 Action, But "pervades And Regulates The Whole." He Has The Last Word In Everything; His Decision Is Unappealable. He Sets The Fashions And Opinion Of Taste, Dictates The Limitations Of Speech And Circumscribes Conduct With A Dead-line.
Fashion
Powerful
Decision
X, N. In Our Alphabet Being A Needless Letter Has An Added Invincibility To The Attacks Of The Spelling Reformers, And Like Them, Will Doubtless Last As Long As The Language.
Long
Letters
Lasts
The Speech Of One Who Utters With His Tongue What He Thinks With His Ear, And Feels The Pride Of A Creator In Accomplishing The Feat Of A Parrot. A Means (under Providence) Of Setting Up As A Wit Without A Capital Of Sense.
Mean
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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
Cemetery, N. An Isolated Suburban Spot Where Mourners Match Lies, Poets Write At A Target And Stone-cutters Spell For A Wager.
Lying
Writing
Target
Laughter, N. An Interior Convulsion, Producing A Distortion Of The Features And Accompanied By Inarticulate Noises. It Is Infectious And, Though Intermittent, Incurable.
Laughter
Noise
Inarticulate
Accordion, N. An Instrument In Harmony With The Sentiments Of An Assassin.
Musical
Assassins
Harmony
Redemption, N. Deliverance Of Sinners From The Penalty Of Their Sin, Through Their Murder Of The Deity Against Whom They Sinned . . . . Whoso Believeth In It Shall Not Perish, But Have Everlasting Life In Which To Try To Understand It.
Life
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There Are Four Kinds Of Homicide: Felonious, Excusable, Justifiable, And Praiseworthy.
Humorous
Profound
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Vote: The Instrument And Symbol Of A Freeman's Power To Make A Fool Of Himself And A Wreck Of His Country.
Country
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Power
Brain: An Apparatus With Which We Think We Think.
Education
Math
Thinking
Satiety, N. The Feeling That One Has For The Plate After He Has Eaten Its Contents, Madam.
Food
Cooking
Feelings
Telephone, N. An Invention Of The Devil Which Abrogates Some Of The Advantages Of Making A Disagreeable Person Keep His Distance.
Distance
Technology
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Impartial - Unable To Perceive Any Promise Of Personal Advantage From Espousing Either Side Of A Controversy.
Promise
Literature
Sides
Adherent, N. A Follower Who Has Not Yet Obtained All That He Expects To Get.
Leadership
Followers
An Appellate Court Which Reverses The Judgment Of A Popular Author's Contemporaries, The Appellant Being His Obscure Competitor.
Judgment
Popularity
Obscure
The Fact That Boys Are Allowed To Exist At All Is Evidence Of A Remarkable Christian Forebearance Among Men.
Christian
Children
Humorous
Satire, N. An Obsolete Kind Of Literary Composition In Which The Vices And Follies Of The Author's Enemies Were Expounded With Imperfect Tenderness.
Kindness
Imperfection
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Patriotism. Combustible Rubbish Ready To The Torch Of Any One Ambitious To Illuminate His Name.
Patriotic
Names
Patriotism
Dawn: When Men Of Reason Go To Bed.
Morning
Sleep
Insomnia
Bigamy, N. A Mistake In Taste For Which The Wisdom Of The Future Will Adjudge A Punishment Called Trigamy.
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Punishment
Taste
Slang Is The Speech Of Him Who Robs The Literary Garbage Carts On Their Way To The Dumps.
Speech
Way
Garbage
Suffrage, Noun. Expression Of Opinion By Means Of A Ballot. The Right Of Suffrage (which Is Held To Be Both A Privilege And A Duty) Means, As Commonly Interpreted, The Right To Vote For The Man Of Another Man's Choice, And Is Highly Prized.
Mean
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Duty - That Which Sternly Impels Us In The Direction Of Profit, Along The Line Of Desire.
Desire
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All Are Lunatics, But He Who Can Analyze His Delusions Is Called A Philosopher.
Insanity
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Martyr, One Who Moves Along The Line Of Least Reluctance To A Desired Death.
Death
Moving
Lines
Mouse, N. An Animal Which Strews Its Path With Fainting Women.
Science
Animal
Path
Siren, N. One Of Several Musical Prodigies Famous For A Vain Attempt To Dissuade Odysseus From A Life On The Ocean Wave. Figuratively, Any Lady Of Splendid Promise, Dissembled Purpose And Disappointing Performance.
Life
Ocean
Musical
Wall Street, N. A Symbol For Sin For Every Devil To Rebuke. That Wall Street Is A Den Of Thieves Is A Belief That Serves Every Unsuccessful Thief In Place Of A Hope In Heaven.
Success
Wall
Heaven
Flag, N. A Colored Rag Borne Above Troops And Hoisted On Forts And Ships. It Appears To Serve The Same Purpose As Certain Signs That One Sees And Vacant Lots In London
Rags
Troops
Purpose
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 Rapidity As To Infest The Whole Habitable Earth And Canada.
Animal
Men
Thinking
Love, N. A Temporary Insanity Curable By Marriage Or By Removal Of The Patient From The Influences Under Which He Incurred The Disorder. This Disease, Like Caries And Many Other Ailments, Is Prevalent Only Among Civilized Races Living Under Artificial Conditions; Barbarous Nations Breathing Pure Air And Eating Simple Food Enjoy Immunity From Its Ravages. It Is Sometimes Fatal, But More Frequently To The Physician Than To The Patient.
Life
Simple
Temporary Insanity
Past, N. That Part Of Eternity With Some Small Fraction Of Which We Have A Slight And Regrettable Acquaintance... The Past Is The Future Of Yesterday, The Future Is The Past Of To-morrow. They Are One - The Knowledge And The Dream.
Dream
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Past
Humorist, N. A Plague That Would Have Softened Down The Hoar Austerity Of Pharaoh's Heart And Persuaded Him To Dismiss Israel With His Best Wishes, Cat-quick.
Heart
Cat
Israel
Kiss, N. A Word Invented By The Poets As A Rhyme For "bliss." It Is Supposed To Signify, In A General Way, Some Kind Of Rite Or Ceremony Appertaining To A Good Understanding; But The Manner Of Its Performance Is Unknown To This Lexicographer.
Kissing
Understanding
Lexicographer
Prospect, N. An Outlook, Usually Forbidding. An Expectation, Usually Forbidden.
Expectations
Outlook
Forbidden
Primate, N. The Head Of A Church, Especially A State Church Supported By Involuntary Contributions. The Primate Of England Is The Archbishop Of Canterbury, An Amiable Old Gentleman, Who Occupies Lambeth Palace When Living And Westminster Abbey When Dead. He Is Commonly Dead.
Gentleman
Church
Palaces
Sarcophagus, N. Among The Greeks A Coffin Which Being Made Of A Certain Kind Of Carnivorous Stone, Had The Peculiar Property Of Devouring The Body Placed In It.
Kindness
Greek
Peculiar
Effect, N. The Second Of Two Phenomena Which Always Occur Together In The Same Order. The First, Called A Cause, Is Said To Generate The Other-which Is No More Sensible Than It Would Be For One Who Has Never Seen A Dog Except In Pursuit Of A Rabbit To Declare The Rabbit The Cause Of The Dog.
Dog
Science
Order
A Statesman Who Shakes The Fruit Trees Of His Neighbors - To Dislodge The Worms.
Tree
Fruit
Culture
Pigmy, N. One Of A Tribe Of Very Small Men Found By Ancient Travelers In Many Parts Of The World, But By Modern In Central Africa Only. The Pigmies Are So Called To Distinguish Them From The Bulkier Caucasians - Who Are Hogmies.
Men
World
Tribes
When You Doubt, Abstain.
Doubt
Democracy Is Defended In 3 Stages. Ballot Box, Jury Box, Cartridge Box.
Government
Democracy
Boxes
Prejudice - A Vagrant Opinion Without Visible Means Of Support.
Mean
Support
Religion
Dependent, Adj. Reliant Upon Another's Generosity For The Support Which You Are Not In A Position To Exact From His Fears.
Fear
Generosity
Support
I Never Said All Democrats Were Saloonkeepers. What I Said Was That All Saloonkeepers Are Democrats.
Funny
Humorous
Party
Uncommon Extension Of The Fear Of Death.
Aging
Fear Of Death
Uncommon
Logomachy, N. A War In Which The Weapons Are Words And The Wounds Punctures In The Swim-bladder Of Self-esteem - A Kind Of Contest In Which, The Vanquished Being Unconscious Of Defeat, The Victor Is Denied The Reward Of Success.
War
Self Esteem
Swim
Cat: A Soft Indestructible Automaton Provided By Nature To Be Kicked When Things Go Wrong In The Domestic Circle.
Nature
Cat
Circles
A Pessimist Asked God For Relief. Ah, You Wish Me To Restore Your Hope And Cheerfulness, Said God. No, Replied The Petitioner, I Wish You To Create Something That Would Justify Them. The World Is All Created,said God, But You Have Overlooked Something
Wish
Relief
World
Pantheism, N. The Doctrine That Everything Is God, In Contradistinction To The Doctrine That God Is Everything.
Doctrine
Pantheism
Miss, N. A Title Which We Brand Unmarried Women To Indicate That They Are In The Market.
Women
Missing
Titles
Miss, N. A Title With Which We Brand Unmarried Women To Indicate They Are In The Market. Miss, Misses (mrs.) And Mister (mr.) Are The Three Most Distinctly Disagreeable Words In The Language, In Sound And Sense. Two Are Corruptions Of Mistress, The Other Of Master. In The General Abolition Of Social Titles In This Our Country They Miraculously Escaped To Plague Us. If We Must Have Them Let Us Be Consistent And Give One To The Unmarried Man. I Venture To Suggest Mush, Abbreviated To Mh.
Country
Men
Two
Battle, N., A Method Of Untying With The Teeth A Political Knot That Would Not Yield To The Tongue.
Yield
Political
Battle
Confidante: One Entrusted By A With The Secrets Of B Confided To Herself By C.
Gossip
Secret
Confidant
A Lottery Is A Tax On Stupidity.
Stupidity
Taxes
Lottery
A Total Abstainer Is One Who Abstains From Everything But Abstention, And Especially From Inactivity In The Affairs Of Others.
Affair
Inactivity
Abstention
Vanity, N. The Tribute Of A Fool To The Worth Of The Nearest Ass.
Vanity
Fool
Ass
Rich, Adj. Holding In Trust And Subject To An Accounting The Property Of The Indolent, The Incompetent, The Unthrifty, The Envious And The Luckless.
Trust
Envy
Rich
Rimer, N. A Poet Regarded With Indifference Or Disesteem.
Differences
Indifference
Poet
Justice Is A Commodity Which In A More Or Less Adulterated Condition The State Sells To The Citizen As A Reward For His Allegiance, Taxes And Personal Service.
Justice
Rewards
Citizens
Oath, N. In Law, A Solemn Appeal To The Deity, Made Binding Upon The Conscience By A Penalty For Perjury.
Law
Deities
Made
Fickleness, N. The Iterated Satiety Of An Enterprising Affection.
Affection
Satiety
Enterprising
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
An Immaterial But Visible Being That Inhabited The Air When The Air Was An Element And Before It Was Fatally Polluted With Factory Smoke, Sewer Gas And Similar Products Of Civilization.
Air
Civilization
Elements
Here's To Woman! Would That We Could Fold Into Her Arms Without Falling Into Her Hands.
Love
Women
Fall
Disobey N:to Celebrate With An Appropriate Ceremony The Maturity Of A Command
Maturity
Celebrate
Ceremony
Reconciliation, N. A Suspension Of Hostilities. An Armed Truce For The Purpose Of Digging Up The Dead.
Digging
Purpose
Truce
Refusal, N. Denial Of Something Desired; Refusals Are Graded In A Descending Scale Of Finality Thus: The Refusal Absolute, The Refusal Condition, The Refusal Tentative And The Refusal Feminine. The Last Is Called By Some Casuists The Refusal Assentive.
Desire
Denial
Lasts
In The Algebra Of Psychology, X Stands For A Woman's Heart.
Heart
Funny Relationship
Psychology
Guillotine, N. A Machine Which Makes A Frenchman Shrug His Shoulders With Good Reason.
Science
Machines
Reason
Sacred, Adj. Dedicated To Some Religious Purpose; Having A Divine Character; Inspiring Solemn Thoughts Or Emotions; As... The Cow In India; The Crocodile, The Cat And The Onion Of Ancient Egypt.
Religious
Character
Cat
Reveille, N. A Signal To Sleeping Soldiers To Dream Of Battlefields No More, But Get Up And Have Their Blue Noses Counted.
Dream
Sleep
Blue
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
The Best Kind Of Onion Soup Is The Simplest Kind.
Onions
Soup
Kind
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 Three.
Ego
Three
Pronouns
To Those Who View The Voyage Of Life From The Port Of Departure The Bark That Has Accomplished Any Considerable Distance Appears Already In Close Approach To The Farther Shore.
Life
Distance
Views
Folly, N. That "gift And Faculty Divine" Whose Creative And Controlling Energy Inspires Man's Mind, Guides His Actions And Adorns His Life.
Life
Men
Creative
Woman Absent Is Woman Dead.
Absence
Absent
I Think I Think, Therefore I Think I Am.
Math
Thinking
Logic
Teetotaler, N. One Who Abstains From Strong Drink, Sometimes Totally, Sometimes Tolerably Totally.
Strong
Food
Cooking
Doubt Is The Father Of Invention.
Father
Stupidity
Doubt
Unitarian, N. One Who Denies The Divinity Of A Trinitarian.
Divinity
Deny
Unitarian
Clergyman, N. A Man Who Undertakes The Management Of Our Spiritual Affairs As A Method Of Better His Temporal Ones.
Spiritual
Men
Affair
An Aged Burgundy Runs With A Beardless Port. I Cherish The Fancy That Port Speaks Sentences Of Wisdom, Burgundy Sings The Inspired Ode.
Running
Wine
Alcohol
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
Immoral, Adj. Inexpedient. Whatever In The Long Run And With Regard To The Greater Number Of Instances Men Find To Be Generally Inexpedient Comes To Be Considered Wrong, Wicked, Immoral.
Running
Men
Numbers
Police, N. An Armed Force For Protection And Participation.
Police
Protection
Force
Lead, N. A Heavy Blue-gray Metal Much Used In Giving Stability To Light Lovers - Particularly To Those Who Love Not Wisely But Other Men's Wives.
Love
Men
Light
Neighbor, N. One Whom We Are Commanded To Love As Ourselves, And Who Does All He Knows How To Make Us Disobedient.
Love
Funny
Humor
Owe, V. To Have (and To Hold) A Debt. The Word Formerly Signified Not Indebtedness, But Possession; It Meant "own," And In The Minds Of Debtors There Is Still A Good Deal Of Confusion Between Assets And Liabilities.
Confusion
Confusing
Mind
Nominee. A Modest Gentleman Shrinking From The Distinction Of Private Life And Diligently Seeking The Honorable Obscurity Of Public Office.
Life
Office
Gentleman
We Submit To The Majority Because We Have To. But We Are Not Compelled To Call Our Attitude Of Subjection A Posture Of Respect.
Attitude
Majority
Posture
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.
Fun
Inspiration
Government
Insurrection. An Unsuccessful Revolution; Disaffection's Failure To Substitute Misrule For Bad Government.
Success
Failure
Government
A Violin Is The Revenge Exacted By The Intestines Of A Dead Cat.
Revenge
Cat
Violin
Something That Is Supposed To Typify Or Stand For Something Else. Many Symbols Are Mere "survivals" - As Funereal Urns Carved On Memorial Monuments. We Cannot Stop Making Them, But We Can Give Them A Name That Conceals Our Helplessness.
Names
Giving
Memorial
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
Freebooter, N. A Conqueror In A Small Way Of Business, Whose Annexations Lack Of The Sanctifying Merit Of Magnitude.
Business
Way
Merit
Congratulations Is The Civility Of Envy.
Success
Congratulations
Envy
Scribbler, N. A Professional Writer Whose Views Are Antagonistic To One's Own.
Writing
Views
Indigestion: A Disease Which The Patient And His Friends Frequently Mistake For Deep Religious Conviction And Concern For The Salvation Of Mankind. As The Simple Red Man Of The Western Wild Put It, With, It Must Be Confessed, A Certain Force: 'plenty Well, No Pray; Big Belly Ache, Heap God.'
Religious
Mistake
Food
There's No Free Will," Says The Philosopher; "to Hang Is Most Unjust." "there Is No Free Will," Assents The Officer; "we Hang Because We Must.
Unjust
Philosopher
Free Will
Money. A Blessing That Is Of No Advantage To Us Excepting When We Part With It.
Money
Blessing
Wealth
Palmistry, N. The 947th Method . . . Of Obtaining Money By False Pretences [by] "reading Character" In The Wrinkles [of] The Hand. The Pretence Is Not Altogether False. . . For The Wrinkles In Every Hand Submitted Plainly Spell The Word "dupe."
Money
Reading
Character
Epitaph: An Inscription On A Tomb Showing That Virtues Acquired By Death Have A Retroactive Effect.
Death
Dying
Virtue
Faith: Belief Without Evidence In What Is Told By One Who Speaks Without Knowledge, Of Things Without Parallel.
Inspirational
Faith
Atheist
He Laughs Best Who Laughs Least.
Laughing
Impiety. Your Irreverence Toward My Deity.
Respect
Irreverence
Deities
Idiot, N. A Member Of A Large And Powerful Tribe Whose Influence In Human Affairs Has Always Been Dominant And Controlling.
Powerful
Hatred
Tribes
Finance Is The Art Or Science Of Managing Revenues And Resources For The Best Advantage Of The Manager
Art
Finance
Advantage
Geographer, N. A Chap Who Can Tell You Offhand The Difference Between The Outside Of The World And The Inside.
Differences
World
Geographers
What A Woman Most Admires In A Man Is Distinction Among Men. What A Man Most Admires In A Woman Is Devotion To Himself.
Men
Devotion
Distinction
Tedium, N. Ennui, The State Or Condition Of One That Is Bored. Many Fanciful Derivations Of The Word Have Been Affirmed, But So High An Authority As Father Jape Says That It Comes From A Very Obvious Source --the First Words Of The Ancient Latin Hymn _te Deum Laudamus_. In This Apparently Natural Derivation There Is Something That Saddens.
Father
Latin
Hymns
Education, N.: That Which Discloses To The Wise And Disguises From The Foolish Their Lack Of Understanding.
Education
Wise
Wisdom
Antipathy, N. The Sentiment Inspired By One's Friend's Friend.
Friendship
Inspiration
Inspired
To Be Comic Is Merely To Be Playful, But Wit Is A Serious Matter. To Laugh At It Is To Confess That You Do Not Understand.
Laughing
Matter
Serious
Immigrant: An Unenlightened Person Who Thinks One Country Better Than Another.
Country
Thinking
Persons
A Person Of Greater Enterprise Than Discretion, Who In Embracing An Opportunity Has Formed An Unfortunate Attachment.
Opportunity
Attachment
Enterprise
Ocean: A Body Of Water Occupying About Two-thirds Of A World Made For Man - Who Has No Gills.
Sarcastic
Beach
Nature
A Man Is Known By The Company He Organizes.
Business
Work
Men
Pity, N. A Failing Sense Of Exemption, Inspired By Contrast.
Failure
Inspired
Failing
A Large Stone Presented By The Archangel Gabriel To The Patriarch Abraham, And Preserved At Mecca. The Patriarch Had Perhaps Asked The Archangel For Bread.
Atheism
Gabriel
Mecca
Finance, N. The Art Or Science Of Managing Revenues And Resources For The Best Advantage Of The Manager. The Pronunciation Of This Word With The I Long And The Accent On The First Syllable Is One Of America's Most Precious Discoveries And Possessions.
Art
Discovery
America
Dance, V.i. To Leap About To The Sound Of Tittering Music, Preferably With Arms About Your Neighbor's Wife Or Daughter. There Are Many Kinds Of Dances, But All Those Requiring The Participation Of The Two Sexes Have Two Characteristics In Common: They Are Conspicuously Innocent, And Warmly Loved By The Vicious.
Dance
Daughter
Sex
Discriminate, V.i. To Note The Particulars In Which One Person Or Thing Is, If Possible, More Objectionable Than Another.
Discrimination
Notes
Persons
Reparation, N. Satisfaction That Is Made For A Wrong And Deducted From The Satisfaction Felt In Committing It.
Satisfaction
Made
Felt
A Man Is The Sum Of His Ancestors; To Reform Him You Must Begin With A Dead Ape And Work Downward Through A Million Graves. He Is Like The Lower End Of A Suspended Chain; You Can Sway Him Slightly To The Right Or The Left, But Remove Your Hand And He Falls Into Line With The Other Links.
Fall
Men
Hands
Alligator: The Crocodile Of America, Superior In Every Detail To The Crocodile Of The Effete Monarchies Of The Old World.
America
Details
World
Who Never Doubted, Never Half Believed. Where Doubt Is, There Truth Is - It Is Her Shadow.
Doubt
Shadow
Half
Peace In International Affairs: A Period Of Cheating Between Periods Of Fighting
Cheating
Peace
Fighting
Habit: A Shackle For The Free.
Nihilism
Habit
Shackles
Calamities Are Of Two Kinds: Misfortunes To Ourselves, And Good Fortune To Others.
Funny
Jealousy
Sarcastic
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
According To The Most Trustworthy Statistics The Number Of Adult Dullards In The United States Is But Little Short Of Thirty Millions, Including The Statisticians.
Numbers
Adults
United States
Redress, N. Reparation Without Satisfaction.
Satisfaction
Redress
Reparations
Repartee, N. Prudent Insult In Retort. Practiced By Gentlemen With A Constitutional Aversion To Violence, But A Strong Disposition To Offend. In A War Of Words, The Tactics Of The North American Indian.
Strong
War
Gentleman
The Most Offensive Egotist Is He That Fears To Say "i" And "me." "it Will Probably Rain" - That Is Dogmatic. "i Think It Will Rain" - That Is Natural And Modest. Montaigne Is The Most Delightful Of Essayists Because So Great Is His Humility That He Does Not Think It Important That We See Not Montaigne. He So Forgets Himself That He Employs No Artifice To Make Us Forget Him.
Rain
Humility
Thinking
Future. That Period Of Time In Which Our Affairs Prosper, Our Friends Are True And Our Happiness Is Assured.
Friendship
Happiness
Future
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
The Liberality Of One Who Has Much, In Permitting One Who Has Nothing To Get All That He Can.
Liberality
Projectile, N. The Final Arbiter In International Disputes. With The Growth Of Prudence In Military Affairs The Projectile Came More And More Into Favor, And Is Now Held In High Esteem By The Most Courageous.
Courage
Military
Growth
Illustrious, Adj. Suitably Placed For The Shafts Of Malice, Envy And Detraction.
Envy
Malice
In Theology, The State Of A Luckless Mortal Prenatally Damned. The Doctrine Of Reprobation Was Taught By Calvin, Whose Joy In It Was Somewhat Marred By The Sad Sincerity Of His Conviction That Although Some Are Foredoomed To Perdition, Others Are Predestined To Salvation.
Joy
Atheism
Doctrine
Zeus /n./ The Chief Of Grecian Gods, Adored By The Romans As Jupiter And By The Modern Americans As God, Gold, Mob And Dog.
Dog
Gold
Jupiter
Medicine, N. A Stone Flung Down The Bowery To Kill A Dog In Broadway.
Dog
Science
Medicine
Obstinate, Adj. Inaccessible To The Truth As It Is Manifest In The Splendor And Stress Of Our Advocacy.
Truth
Stress
Splendor
Coward: One Who, In A Perilous Emergency, Thinks With His Legs.
Sarcastic
Courage
Peace
Magic: (n) The Art Of Converting Superstition Into Coin.
Art
Magic
Coins
Riot – A Popular Entertainment Given To The Military By Innocent Bystanders.
Peace
War
Military
Lap, N. One Of The Most Important Organs Of The Female System - An Admirable Provision Of Nature For The Repose Of Infancy, But Chiefly Useful In Rural Festivities To Support Plates Of Cold Chicken And Heads Of Adult Males.
Nature
Support
Important
Scarabaeus, N. The Sacred Beetle Of The Ancient Egyptians, Allied To Our Familiar "tumble-bug." It Was Supposed To Symbolize Immortality, The Fact That God Knew Why Giving It Its Peculiar Sanctity. Its Habit Of Incubating Its Eggs In A Ball Of Ordure May Also Have Commended It To The Favor Of The Priesthood, And May Some Day Assure It An Equal Reverence Among Ourselves. True, The American Beetle Is An Inferior Beetle, But The American Priest Is An Inferior Priest.
Eggs
Giving
Sacred
Respectability, N. The Offspring Of A Liaison Between A Bald Head And A Bank Account.
Bank Accounts
Liaison
Offspring
Existence, N. A Transient, Horrible, Fantastic Dream,/ Wherein Is Nothing Yet All Things Do Seem:/ From Which We're Wakened By A Friendly Nudge/ Of Our Bedfellow Death, And Cry: "o Fudge!"
Dream
Nudge Nudge
Friendly
Clarinet N. An Instrument Of Torture Operated By A Person With Cotton In His Ears. There Are Two Instruments Worse Than A Clarinet – Two Clarinets.
Two
Ears
Cotton
Misericorde, N. A Dagger Which In Mediaeval Warfare Was Used By The Foot Soldier To Remind An Unhorsed Knight That He Was Mortal.
Knights
Feet
Soldier
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
Youth Looks Forward, For Nothing Is Behind! Age Backward, For Nothing Is Before.
Age
Looks
Youth
Acknowledge, V.t. To Confess. Acknowledgment Of One Another's Faults Is The Highest Duty Imposed By Our Love Of Truth.
Love
Truth
Faults
Historian - A Broad-gauge Gossip.
History
Gossip
Gauges
Age, With His Eyes In The Back Of His Head, Thinks It Wisdom To See The Bogs Through Which He Has Floundered.
Eye
Thinking
Age
Multitude, N. A Crowd; The Source Of Political Wisdom And Virtue. In A Republic, The Object Of The Statesman's Adoration.
Wisdom
Political
Crowds
Whangdepootenawah, N. In The Ojibwa Tongue, Disaster; An Unexpected Affliction That Strikes Hard.
Affliction
Tongue
Unexpected
Pre-adamite, N. One Of An Experimental And Apparently Unsatisfactory Race Of Antedated Creation. . . . Little Its Known Of Them Beyond The Fact That They Supplied Cain With A Wife And Theologians With A Controversy.
Race
Wife
Cain
The Fact That Boys Are Allowed To Exist At All Is Evidence Of Remarkable Christian Forbearance Among Men - Were It Not For A Mawkish Humanitarianism, Coupled With Imperfect Digestive Powers, We Should Devour Our Young, As Nature Intended.
Christian
Men
Boys
Enough, Pro. All There Is In The World If You Like It.
World
You Like It
Enough
Nectar, N. A Drink Served At Banquets Of The Olympian Deities. The Secret Of Its Preparation Is Lost, But The Modern Kentuckians Believe That They Come Pretty Near To A Knowledge Of Its Chief Ingredient.
Believe
Preparation
Secret
Love: A Temporary Insanity Curable By Marriage.
Love
Funny
Marriage
Religion. A Daughter Of Hope And Fear, Explaining To Ignorance The Nature Of The Unknowable.
Daughter
Religious
Nature
Bigot: One Who Is Obstinately And Zealously Attached To An Opinion That You Do Not Entertain.
Racist
Literature
Opinion
When God Makes A Beautiful Woman, The Devil Opens A New Register.
Beautiful
Women
Devil
Loss, N. Privation Of That Which We Had, Or Had Not. Thus, In The Latter Sense, It Is Said Of A Defeated Candidate That He "lost His Election".
Loss
Losing
Election
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