Ambrose Bierce Punish Quotations

PENITENT, adj. Undergoing or awaiting punishment.

Amnesty, n. The state's magnanimity to those offenders whom it would be too expensive to punish.

PLAGUE, n. In ancient times a general punishment of the innocent for admonition of their ruler, as in the familiar instance of Pharaoh the Immune. The plague today . . . is merely Nature's fortuitous manifestation of her purposeless objectionableness.

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

Bigamy, n. A mistake in taste for which the wisdom of the future will adjudge a punishment called trigamy.

PRISON, n. A place of punishments and rewards. The poet assures us that - stone walls do not a prison make.

REPENTANCE, n. The faithful attendant and follower of Punishment. It is usually manifest in a degree of reformation that is not inconsistent with continuity of sin.