A little Learning is a dang’rous Thing;
Alexander Pope, An Essay in Criticism (1709).
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian Spring:
There shallow Draughts intoxicate the Brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.
anoint, v.t.
To grease a king or other great functionary already sufficiently slippery.
Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary (1911).
A frog in a well cannot conceive of the ocean.
Zhuangzi (perhaps more famously transliterated from the Chinese as Chuang Tzu), from the book called Zhuangzi (third century B.C.).
When struck by a thunderbolt it is unnecessary to consult the Book of Dates as to the precise meaning of the omen.
Ernest Bramah, from “The Transmutation of Ling” in The Wallet of Kai Lung (1900).
amnesty, n.
The state’s magnanimity to those offenders whom it would be too expensive to punish.
Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary (1911).
Eat in the dark the bargain that you purchased in the dusk.
Ernest Bramah, from “The Story of Kin Wen and the Miraculous Tusk” in Kai Lung Unrolls His Mat (1928).
cynic, n.
A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be. Hence the custom among the Scythians of plucking out a cynic’s eyes to improve his vision.
Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary (1911).
Whose property is my body? Probably mine. I so regard it. If I experiment with it, who must be answerable? I, not the State. If I choose injudiciously, does the State die? Oh no.
Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.
Abigail Adams, Letter to John Quincy Adams (May 8, 1780).
Individual liberty is individual power, and as the power of a community is a mass compounded of individual powers, the nation which enjoys the most freedom must necessarily be in proportion to its numbers the most powerful nation.
John Quincy Adams, Letter to James Lloyd (October 1, 1822).