Ambrose Bierce Time Quotations

EPIGRAM, n. A short, sharp saying in prose or verse, frequently characterize by acidity or acerbity and sometimes by wisdom.

ANTIPATHY, n. The sentiment inspired by one's friend's friend.

UBIQUITY, n. The gift or power of being in all places at one time, but not in all places at all times, which is omnipresence, an attribute of God and the luminiferous ether only.

OLD, adj. In that stage of usefulness which is not inconsistent with general inefficiency, as an "old man". Discredited by lapse of time and offensive to the popular taste, as an "old" book.

IMPENITENCE, n. A state of mind intermediate in point of time between sin and punishment.

EXECUTIVE, n. An officer of the Government, whose duty it is to enforce the wishes of the legislative power until such time as the judicial department shall be pleased to pronounce them invalid and of no effect.

PRESENTABLE, adj. Hideously appareled after the manner of the time and place.

Age - That period of life in which we compound for the vices that remain by reviling those we have no longer the vigor to commit.

Heaven lies about us in our infancy and the world begins lying about us pretty soon afterward.

Convictions are variable; to be always consistent is to be sometimes dishonest.

TEETOTALER, n. One who abstains from strong drink, sometimes totally, sometimes tolerably totally.

CLOCK, n. A machine of great moral value to man, allaying his concern for the future by reminding him what a lot of time remains to him.

Day, n. A period of twenty-four hours, mostly misspent.

An ingenious compound of desirability and appearance. Discovery of truth is the sole purpose of philosophy, which is the most ancient occupation of the human mind and has a fair prospect of existing with increasing activity to the end of time.

HATRED, n. A sentiment appropriate to the occasion of another's superiority.