Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was born in 1842 in Ohio – that much is certain. What is not certain is how, where, and when he died. What is known is that in 1913 Bierce traveled to Mexico to gain first-hand experience of the Mexican Revolution. While traveling with rebel troops, he disappeared without a trace. Repeated efforts to determine what happened to him have all ended in failure.
Bierce was an editorialist, journalist, short storywriter, fabulist, and satirist. One of his most famous works was ‘The Devil’s Dictionary.’
Our LifeDaily team has selected some definitions which show the true cynicism of Ambrose Bierce.
During his career, Bierce was known to be a searing critic following his motto ‘Nothing Matters.’ His sardonic view of human nature earned him the nickname ‘Bitter Bierce.’
Checkout our list of the definitions of Ambrose Bierce to see if you agree:
- Bride: A woman with a fine prospect of happiness behind her.
- Marriage: The state or condition of a community consisting of a master, a mistress, and two slaves, making in all, two.
- Future: That period of time in which our affairs prosper, our friends are true and our happiness is assured.
- Logic: The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities of the human misunderstanding.
- Fidelity: A virtue peculiar to those who are about to be betrayed.
- Experience: The wisdom that enables us to recognise in an undesirable old acquaintance the folly that we have already embraced.
- Ocean: A body of water occupying about two-thirds of a world made for man – who has no gills.
- Love: A temporary insanity curable by marriage.
- War: God’s way of teaching Americans geography
- Patience: A minor form of dispair, disguised as a virtue.
- Education: That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding.
- History: an account, mostly false, of events, mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers, mostly knaves, and soldiers, mostly fools.
- Coward: One who, in a perilous emergency, thinks with his legs.
- Vote: the instrument and symbol of a freeman’s power to make a fool of himself and a wreck of his country.
- Telephone: An invention of the devil which abrogates some of the advantages of making a disagreeable
- Corporation: An ingenious device for obtaining profit without individual responsibility.
- Religion: A daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to Ignorance the nature of the Unknowable.
- Politeness: The most acceptable hypocrisy.
- Divorce: A resumption of diplomatic relations and rectification of boundaries.
- Perseverance: A lowly virtue whereby mediocrity achieves an inglorious success.
Are these definitions of Ambrose Bierce too cynical, or are they close to the truth?
Have you ever read any of Bierce’s work? Do you even know who he was?
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