Quote #4

Abstainer, n. A weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure. A total abstainer is one who abstains from everything but abstention, and especially from inactivity in the affairs of others.

More from Ambrose Bierce

  1. To men a man is but a mind. Who cares What face he carries or what form he wears? But woman's body is the woman. O, Stay thou, my sweethear…
  2. Absurdity, n. A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion.
  3. Peyton Fahrquhar was dead; his body, with a broken neck, swung gently from side to side beneath the timbers of the Owl Creek bridge.
  4. Mark how my fame rings out from zone to zone: A thousand critics shouting: 'He's unknown!'
  5. Accordion, n. An instrument in harmony with the sentiments of an assassin.
  6. Acquaintance, n. A person whom we know well enough to borrow from, but not well enough to lend to. A degree of friendship called slight whe…
  7. Admiration, n. Our polite recognition of another's resemblance to ourselves.
  8. Bacchus, n. A convenient deity invented by the ancients as an excuse for getting drunk.

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