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.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Bierce mocks those who abstain from pleasure, suggesting they are weak or hypocritical.
- In plain terms
- People who deny themselves pleasure are actually weak.
- What can you take from it?
- Avoiding pleasure can be seen as a form of indulgence in itself.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Is abstention ever truly neutral?
- Who defines weakness here?
Another view
It ignores genuine reasons for abstention like health or belief.
More from Ambrose Bierce
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 sweetheart, and do never go, …
Permalink to quote #3 Absurdity, n. A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion.
Permalink to quote #5 Peyton Fahrquhar was dead; his body, with a broken neck, swung gently from side to side beneath the timbers of the Owl Creek bridge.
Permalink to quote #2
Related quotes
If a child shows himself to be incorrigible, he should be decently and quietly beheaded at the age of twelve, lest he grow to maturity marry, and perpetuate hi…
Don MarquisDon Marquis quote #49 An OBE is what you get if you clean the toilets well at King's Cross station.
Michael WinnerMichael Winner quote #1 At least one way of measuring the freedom of any society is the amount of comedy that is permitted, and clearly a healthy society permits more satirical commen…
Eric IdleEric Idle quote #5