Bierce, Ambrose Archives - World Quotations

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.

Age and Aging

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.

When in Rome, do as Rome does.

Cities and City Life

When in Rome, do as Rome does.

Duty. That which sternly impels us in the direction of profit, along the line of desire.

Duty

Duty. That which sternly impels us in the direction of profit, along the line of desire.

Happiness is an agreeable sensation, arising from contemplating the misery of others.

Happiness

Happiness is an agreeable sensation, arising from contemplating the misery of others.

Incompatibility. In matrimony a similarity of tastes, particularly the taste for domination.

Marriage

Incompatibility. In matrimony a similarity of tastes, particularly the taste for domination.

All are lunatics, but he who can analyze his delusion is called a philosopher.

Philosophers and Philosophy

All are lunatics, but he who can analyze his delusion is called a philosopher.

Erudition. Dust shaken out of a book into an empty skull.

Scholars and Scholarship

Erudition. Dust shaken out of a book into an empty skull.

Alliance. 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.

Alliances

Alliance. 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.

Compromise. Such an adjustment of conflicting interests as gives each adversary the satisfaction of thinking he has got what he ought not to have, and is deprived of nothing except what was justly his due.

Compromise