The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume 8 / Epigrams, On With the Dance, Negligible Tales

Having given out all the virtues that He had made, God made another.

'Give us that also,' said His children.

'Nay,' He replied, 'if I give you that you will slay one another till none is left. You shall have only its name, which is Justice.'

'That is a good name,' they said; 'we will give it to a virtue of our own creation.'

So they gave it to Revenge.

The sea-bird speeding from the realm of night
Dashes to death against the beacon-light.
Learn from its evil fate, ambitious soul,
The ministry of light is guide, not goal.

While you have a future do not live too much in contemplation of your past: unless you are content to walk backward the mirror is a poor guide.

'O dreadful Death, why veilest thou thy face?'
'To spare me thine impetuous embrace.'

He who knows himself great accepts the truth in reverent silence, but he who only believes himself great has embraced a noisy faith.

Life is a little plot of light. We enter, clasp a hand or two, and go our several ways back into the darkness. The mystery is infinitely pathetic and picturesque.

Cheerfulness is the religion of the little. The low hills are a-smirk with flowers and greenery; the dominating peaks, austere and desolate, holding a prophecy of doom.

It is not to our credit that women like best the men who are not as other men, nor to theirs that they are not particular as to the nature of the difference.

In the journey of life when thy shadow falls to the westward stop until it falls to the eastward. Thou art then at thy destination.

Seek not for happiness—'tis known
To hope and memory alone;
At dawn—how bright the noon will be!
At eve—how fair it glowed, ah, me!

Brain was given to test the heart's credibility as a witness, yet the philosopher's lady is almost as fine as the clown's wench.

'Who art thou, so sorrowful?'

'Ingratitude. It saddens me to look upon the devastations of Benevolence.'

'Then veil thine eyes, for I am Benevolence.'

'Wretch! thou art my father and my mother.'

Death is the only prosperity that we neither desire for ourselves nor resent in others.

To the small part of ignorance that we can arrange and classify we give the name Knowledge.

'I wish to enter,' said the soul of the voluptuary.

'I am told that all the beautiful women are here.'

'Enter,' said Satan, and the soul of the voluptuary passed in.

'They make the place what it is,' added Satan, as the gates clanged.

Woman would be more charming if one could fall into her arms without falling into her hands.

Think not to atone for wealth by apology: you must make restitution to the accuser.

Study good women and ignore the rest,
For he best knows the sex who knows the best.