Ambrose Bierce Virtue Quotations

Fidelity - a virtue peculiar to those who are about to be betrayed.

Patience, n. A minor form of dispair, disguised as a virtue.

PILLORY, n. A mechanical device for inflicting personal distinction - prototype of the modern newspaper conducted by persons of austere virtues and blameless lives.

One who, professing virtues that he does not respect, secures the advantage of seeming to be what he despises.

Human nature is pretty well balanced; for every lacking virtue there is a rough substitute that will serve at a pinch--as cunning is the wisdom of the unwise, and ferocity the courage of the coward.

Epitaph: An inscription on a tomb showing that virtues acquired by death have a retroactive effect.

VIRTUES, n.pl. Certain abstentions.

RIGHTEOUSNESS, n. A sturdy virtue that was once found among the Pantidoodles inhabiting the lower part of the peninsula of Oque. Some feeble attempts were made by returned missionaries to introduce it into several European countries . .

UGLINESS, n. A gift of the gods to certain women, entailing virtue without humility.