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THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY Ambrose Bierce - Sunny Hills High School

THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY Ambrose Bierce - Sunny Hills High School

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intellectual debility.<br />

<strong>Ambrose</strong> <strong>Bierce</strong> The Devil’s Dictionary<br />

PATIENCE, n. A minor form of despair, disguised as a virtue.<br />

PATRIOT, n. One to whom the interests of a part seem superior to<br />

those of the whole. The dupe of statesmen and the tool of conquerors.<br />

PATRIOTISM, n. Combustible rubbish read to the torch of any one<br />

ambitious to illuminate his name.<br />

In Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the<br />

last resort of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened<br />

but inferior lexicographer I beg to submit that it is the first.<br />

PEACE, n. In international affairs, a period of cheating between two<br />

periods of fighting.<br />

O, what's the loud uproar assailing<br />

Mine ears without cease?<br />

'Tis the voice of the hopeful, all‐hailing<br />

The horrors of peace.<br />

Ah, Peace Universal; they woo it‐‐<br />

Would marry it, too.<br />

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