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''Trial. A formal inquiry designed to prove and put upon record the blameless characters of judges, advocates and jurors.''
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Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914), U.S. author. The Devil's Dictionary (1881-1906).
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''Future. That period of time in which our affairs prosper, our friends are true and our happiness is assured.''
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Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914), U.S. author. The Devil's Dictionary (1881-1906), repr. In Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, vol. 7 (1911).
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''Genealogy. An account of one's descent from an ancestor who did not particularly care to trace his own.''
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Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914), U.S. author. The Devil's Dictionary (1881-1906).
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''To be positive. To be mistaken at the top of one's voice.''
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Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914), U.S. author. The Devil's Dictionary (1881-1906).
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''Religion. A daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to Ignorance the nature of the Unknowable.''
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Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914), U.S. author. The Devil's Dictionary (1881-1906).
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''To apologize is to lay the foundation for a future offense.''
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Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914), U.S. author. The Devil's Dictionary (1881-1906).
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''Saint. A dead sinner revised and edited.''
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Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914), U.S. author. The Devil's Dictionary (1881-1906), repr. In Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, vol. 7 (1911).
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''Sabbath. A weekly festival having its origin in the fact that God made the world in six days and was arrested on the seventh.''
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Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914), U.S. author. The Devil's Dictionary (1881-1906).
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''Heaven lies about us in our infancy ... and the world begins lying about us pretty soon afterward.''
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Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914), U.S. author. The Devil's Dictionary (1881-1906).
A cynical comment on Wordsworth's famous line on "childhood."
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''Abscond. To "move" in a mysterious way, commonly with the property of another.''
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Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914), U.S. author. The Devil's Dictionary (1881-1906).
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