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War, N. A By-product Of The Arts Of Peace. The Most Menacing Political Condition Is A Period Of International Amity.
-Ambrose Bierce
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War, N. A By-product

Ambrose Bierce
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War, N. A By-product Of The Arts Of Peace. The Most Menacing Political Condition Is A Period Of International Amity.

Understanding the Quote: "war, n. a by-product of the arts of peace. the most menacing..."

This quote by Ambrose Bierce reflects deeply on the theme of art. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Art, Peace, War, 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 art and peace. 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
Art
Peace
War
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Drawing
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Absence
Absent
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Character
Cat
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Hyenas
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Narrative
Untrue
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Justification
Wronged
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Quality
Characteristics
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Tree
Fruit
Culture
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Critics
Please
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Family
Faith
Daughter
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Christian
Doors
World
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Novelists
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Principles
Determined
Behavior
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Christian
Character
Widows
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Men
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Bible
Book
Done
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Science
Disorder
Bowels
Laocoon, N. A Famous Piece Of Antique Scripture Representing A Priest Of That Name And His Two Sons In The Folds Of Two Enormous Serpents. The Skill And Diligence With Which The Old Man And Lads Support The Serpents And Keep Them Up To Their Work Have Been Justly Regarded As One Of The Noblest Artistic Illustrations Of The Mastery Of Human Intelligence Over Brute Inertia.
Son
Men
Illustration
Take, V.t. To Acquire, Frequently By Force But Preferably By Stealth.
Force
Stealth
Acquire
Lexicographer, N. A Pestilent Fellow Who, Under The Pretense Of Recording Some Particular Stage In The Development Of A Language, Does What He Can To Arrest Its Growth, Stiffen Its Flexibility And Mechanize Its Methods.
Growth
Lexicographer
Doe
A Penny Saved Is A Penny To Squander.
Pennies
Thrift
Saved
Monument, N. A Structure Intended To Commemorate Something Which Either Needs No Commemoration Or Cannot Be Commemorated.
Needs
Structure
Commemoration
Distress: A Disease Incurred By Exposure To The Prosperity Of A Friend.
Disease
Prosperity
Exposure
Rome Has Seven Sacraments, But The Protestant Churches, Being Less Prosperous, Feel That They Can Afford Only Two, And These Of Inferior Sanctity.
Rome
Two
Church
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
Age Is Provident Because The Less Future We Have The More We Fear It.
Age
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
Epigram, N. A Short, Sharp Saying In Prose Or Verse, Frequently Characterize By Acidity Or Acerbity And Sometimes By Wisdom.
Wisdom
Sometimes
Prose
J, N. A Consonant In English, But Some Nations Use It As A Vowel . . . From A Latin Verb, "jacere", "to Throw," Because When A Stone Is Thrown At A Dog The Dog's Tail Assumes That Shape.
Dog
Latin
Verbs
Intimacy, N. A Relation Into Which Fools Are Providentially Drawn For Their Mutual Destruction.
Fool
Intimacy
Destruction
Truce, N. Friendship.
Friendship
Truce
Alligator: The Crocodile Of America, Superior In Every Detail To The Crocodile Of The Effete Monarchies Of The Old World.
America
Details
World
Reverence For The Supreme Being, Based Upon His Supposed Resemblance To Man. The Pig Is Taught By Sermons And Epistles / To Think The God Of Swine Has Snout And Bristles.
Men
Thinking
Pigs
It Is Evident That Skepticism, While It Makes No Actual Change In Man, Always Makes Him Feel Better.
Change
Feel Better
Men
Quotient, N. A Number Showing How Many Times A Sum Of Money Belonging To One Person Is Contained In The Pocket Of Another - Usually About As Many Times As It Can Be Got There.
Money
Numbers
Pockets
Optimism, N. The Doctrine, Or Belief, That Everything Is Beautiful, Including What Is Ugly, Everything Good, Especially The Bad, And Everything Right That Is Wrong. It Is Held With Greatest Tenacity By Those Most Accustomed To The Mischance Of Falling Into Adversity, And Is Most Acceptably Expounded With Disproof - An Intellectual Disorder, Yielding To No Treatment But Death. It Is Hereditary, But Fortunately Not Contagious.
Beautiful
Fall
Adversity
Monkey, N. An Arboreal Animal Which Makes Itself At Home In Genealogical Trees.
Home
Animal
Tree
That Part Of Your Friend Which It Is Your Privilege To Contemplate In Your Adversity
Friendship
Adversity
Privilege
Even The Laws Of Justice Themselves Cannot Subsist Without Mixture Of Injustice.
Law
Justice
Mixtures
Pleonasm, N. An Army Of Words Escorting A Corporal Of Thought.
Army
Escorting
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
Pride
Thinking
Adolescence: The Stage Between Puberty And Adultery.
Cynical
Adultery
Cynicism
Beg, V. To Ask For Something With An Earnestness Proportioned To The Belief That It Will Not Be Given.
Belief
Given
Asks
Sweater, N.: Garment Worn By Child When Its Mother Is Feeling Chilly.
Family
Mothers Day
Mom
The Game Of Discontent Has Its Rules, And He Who Disregards Them Cheats. It Is Not Permitted To You To Wish To Add Another's Advantages Or Possessions To Your Own; You Are Permitted Only To Wish To Be Another.
Games
Wish
Add
Washingtonian, N. A Potomac Tribesman Who Exchanged The Privilege Of Governing Himself For The Advantage Of Good Government. In Justice To Him It Should Be Said That He Did Not Want To.
Change
Government
Justice
Cannon, N. An Instrument Employed In The Rectification Of National Boundaries.
Peace
War
Boundaries
Labor Is One Of The Processes By Which A Acquires Property For B.
Process
Labor
Property
Physician, N. One Upon Whom We Set Our Hopes When Ill And Our Dogs When Well.
Hope
Dog
Health
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
The Fact That Boys Are Allowed To Exist At All Is Evidence Of A Remarkable Christian Forebearance Among Men.
Christian
Children
Humorous
Money. A Blessing That Is Of No Advantage To Us Excepting When We Part With It.
Money
Blessing
Wealth
Suddenly To Change One's Opinions And Go Over To Another Party. The Most Notable Flop On Record Was That Of Saul Of Tarsus, Who Has Been Severely Criticised As A Turn-coat By Some Of Our Partisan Journals.
Change
Art
Records
Teetotaler, N. One Who Abstains From Strong Drink, Sometimes Totally, Sometimes Tolerably Totally.
Strong
Food
Cooking
Preference, N. A Sentiment, Or Frame Of Mind, Induced By The Erroneous Belief That One Thing Is Better Than Another.
Time
Mind
Belief
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
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
Hail, High Excess Especially In Wine, To Thee In Worship Do I Bend The Knee Who Preach Abstemiousness Unto Me My Skull Thy Pulpit, As My Paunch Thy Shrine. Precept On Precept, Aye, And Line On Line, Could Ne'er Persuade So Sweetly To Agree With Reason As Thy Touch, Exact And Free, Upon My Forehead And Along My Spine. At Thy Command Eschewing Pleasure's Cup, With The Hot Grape I Warm No More My Wit; When On Thy Stool Of Penitence I Sit I'm Quite Converted, For I Can't Get Up. Ungrateful He Who Afterward Would Falter To Make New Sacrifices At Thine Altar!
Wine
Sacrifice
Skulls
Nature's Fortuitous Manifestation Of Her Purposeless Objectionableness.
Nature
Science
Admonition
Pray: To Ask The Laws Of The Universe To Be Annulled On Behalf Of A Single Petitioner Confessedly Unworthy.
Funny
Prayer
Humor
Botany, N. The Science Of Vegetables - Those That Are Not Good To Eat, As Well As Those That Are. It Deals Largely With Their Flowers, Which Are Commonly Badly Designed, Inartistic In Color, And Ill-smelling.
Flower
Color
Vegetables
A Man Is Known By The Company He Organizes.
Business
Work
Men
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
In The Algebra Of Psychology, X Stands For A Woman's Heart.
Heart
Funny Relationship
Psychology
Serial, N. A Literary Work, Usually A Story That Is Not True, Creeping Through Several Issues Of A Newspaper Or Magazine.
Work
Issues
Stories
Success Is The One Unpardonable Sin Against Our Fellows.
Success
Thought Provoking
Sin
Along The Road Of Life Are Many Pleasure Resorts, But Think Not That By Tarrying In Them You Will Take More Days To The Journey. The Day Of Your Arrival Is Already Recorded.
Life
Journey
Thinking
Commerce, N. A Kind Of Transaction In Which A Plunders From B The Goods Of C, And For Compensation B Picks The Pocket Of D Of Money Belonging To E.
Money
Pockets
Kind
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
Enough, Pro. All There Is In The World If You Like It.
World
You Like It
Enough
Politeness, N: The Most Acceptable Hypocrisy.
Hypocrisy
Manners
Etiquette
Condole - To Show That Bereavement Is A Smaller Evil Than Sympathy.
Evil
Bereavement
Shows
Dejeuner, N. The Breakfast Of An American Who Has Been In Paris. Variously Pronounced.
Food
Paris
Cooking
Close-fisted, Adj. Unduly Desirous Of Keeping That Which Many Meritorious Persons Wish To Obtain.
Wish
Persons
One Engaged In A Commercial Pursuit. A Commercial Pursuit Is One In Which The Thing Pursued Is A Dollar.
Dollars
Pursuit
Engaged
Truth Is So Good A Thing That Falsehood Can Not Afford To Be Without It.
Truth Is
Can Not
Falsehood
If Every Hypocrite In The United States Were To Break His Leg To-day The Country Could Be Successfully Invaded To-morrow By The Warlike Hypocrites Of Canada.
Country
Hypocrite
United States
Rear, N. In American Military Matters, That Exposed Part Of The Army That Is Nearest To Congress.
Military
Army
Matter
Electricity Is The Power That Causes All Natural Phenomena Not Known To Be Caused By Something Else
Home
Energy
Causes
Christian - One Who Follows The Teachings Of Christ Insofar As They Are Not Inconsistent With A Life Of Sin.
Life
God
Christian
Improvidence, N. Provision For The Needs Of To-day From The Revenues Of To-morrow.
Needs
Morrow
Provision
Congratulations Is The Civility Of Envy.
Success
Congratulations
Envy
Disobey N:to Celebrate With An Appropriate Ceremony The Maturity Of A Command
Maturity
Celebrate
Ceremony
Quorum, N. A Sufficient Number Of Members Of A Deliberative Body To Have Their Own Way And Their Own Way Of Having It. In The U.s. Senate A Quorum Consists Of The Chairman Of The Committee On Finance And A Messenger From The White House.
White
Numbers
House
Pilgrim, N. A Traveler That Is Taken Seriously. A Pilgrim Father Was One Who [was] Not Permitted To Sing Psalms Through His Nose [in Europe], Followed It To Massachusetts, Where He Could Personate God According To The Dictates Of His Conscience.
Father
Taken
Europe
Pleasure, N. The Least Hateful Form Of Dejection.
Hateful
Pleasure
Form
Extinction, N. The Raw Material Out Of Which Theology Created The Future State.
Sarcastic
Future
Raw Materials
A Less Popular Name For The Second Person Of That Delectable Newspaper Trinity, The Roomer, The Bedder, And The Mealer.
Names
Popularity
Newspapers
Picture, N. A Representation In Two Dimensions Of Something Wearisome In Three.
Art
Two
Three
The Covers Of This Book Are Too Far Apart.
Funny
Witty
Humorous
Trending Author
John Hume
Adrian Grenier
Dick Schaap
Karen Kingsbury
Dominic Monaghan
David Johansen
Category
Information