Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce,
The Devil's Dictionary
Born: 24 June 1842, Meigs County, Ohio
Bierce wrote satiric "dictionary" entries as part of his newspaper columns between 1881 and 1906. He first suggested a Comic Dictionary in a column he wrote for the News Letter of San Francisco in 1869. Between 1877 and 1878 he twice used "The Demon's Dictionary" as a column title in The Argonaut, a weekly San Francisco magazine he edited. Between 1881 and 1906 he used the title The Devil's Dictionary for 88 columns in The Wasp, another San Francisco magazine where he was editor-in-chief, each including 15 to 20 definitions. Doubleday published The Cynic's Wordbook in 1906, featuring 500 definitions from A to L, and in 1911 Volume 7 of The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce was titled The Devil's Dictionary and included another 500, all of which were drawn from his columns for The Wasp. In 1967 an expanded version was published with an additional 851 definitions drawn from work other than the Wasp columns. Our collection is rather smaller than that, but still a great deal of fun to read.
Biography from Wikipedia and QOTD Main Entry
Ambrose Bierce's Devil's Dictionary quotes:
Quotes found : 253 — (15 per page, this is page 1 of 17) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Next
Click here to find books by Ambrose Bierce's Devil's Dictionary at Amazon.com
- Abscond, v. To move in a mysterious way, commonly with the property of another. permalink
Ambrose Bierce - Abstainer, n. A weak man who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure. permalink
Ambrose Bierce - Absurdity, n. A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's Own opinion. permalink
Ambrose Bierce - Academy, n. A modern school where football is taught. permalink
Ambrose Bierce - Accord, n. Harmony. permalink
Ambrose Bierce - Accordion, n. An instrument in harmony with the sentiments of an assassin. permalink
Ambrose Bierce - Acquaintance, n. A person whom we know well enough to borrow from, but not well enough to lend to. permalink
Ambrose Bierce - Admiral, n. That part of a warship which does the talking while the figurehead does the thinking. permalink
Ambrose Bierce - Admiration, n. Our polite recognition of another's resemblance to ourselves. permalink
Ambrose Bierce - Advice, n. The smallest current coin. permalink
Ambrose Bierce - Advice, n. The suggestions you give someone else which you hope will work for your benefit. permalink
Ambrose Bierce - Alliance, n. In international politics, the union of two thieves who have their hands so deeply inserted in each other's pockets that they cannot separately plunder a third. permalink
Ambrose Bierce - Alligator, n. The crocodile of America, superior in every detail to the crocodile of the effete monarchies of the Old World. permalink
Ambrose Bierce - Alone, adj. In bad company. permalink
Ambrose Bierce - Ambidextrous, adj. Able to pick with equal skill a right-hand pocket or a left. permalink
Ambrose Bierce
Quotes found : 253 — (15 per page, this is page 1 of 17) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Next
Please report any problems on this page! If you see any typos, incorrect attributions, deformed characters, or any other problem with this page, we want to fix it as soon
as possible. Please click here to report errors.
Note: Do not use titles in author searches, we don't use them, including president, senator, prime minister, king, queen, saint, pope, or doctor, or abbreviations thereof. See explanation here.
