SYLPH, n. An immaterial but visible being that inhabited the air when the air was an element and before it was fatally polluted with factory smoke, sewer gas and similar products of civilization.
More Quotes from Ambrose Bierce:
HYBRID, n. A pooled issue.Ambrose Bierce
FICKLENESS, n. The iterated satiety of an enterprising affection.
Ambrose Bierce
IMMIGRANT, n. An unenlightened person who thinks one country better than another.
Ambrose Bierce
RIDICULE, n. Words designed to show that the person of whom they are uttered is devoid of the dignity of character distinguishing him who utters them.
Ambrose Bierce
DEFENCELESS, adj. Unable to attack.
Ambrose Bierce
POSTERITY, n. An appellate court which reverses the judgment of a popular author's contemporaries, the appellant being his obscure competitor.
Ambrose Bierce
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Based on Topics: Society & Civilization QuotesBased on Keywords: fatally, immaterial, sewer, sylph
Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.
Theodore Roosevelt
To overturn orthodoxy is no easier in science than in philosophy, religion, economics, or any of the other disciplines through which we try to comprehend the world and the society in which we live.
Ruth Hubbard
Those who are believed to be most abject and humble are usually most ambitious and envious.
Baruch Spinoza