The Unabridged Devil's DictionaryIf we could only put aside our civil pose and say what we really thought, the world would be a lot like the one alluded to in The Unabridged Devil’s Dictionary. There, a bore is "a person who talks when you wish him to listen," and happiness is "an agreeable sensation arising from contemplating the misery of another." This is the most comprehensive, authoritative edition ever of Ambrose Bierce’s satiric masterpiece. It renders obsolete all other versions that have appeared in the book’s ninety-year history. |
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... his life, for his life was largely dedicated to the solitary work of writing, but instead a record of the life of the mind. Even such terse, unexplicated statements as dictionary definitions speak volumes about. INTRODUCTION.
... mind. Palmam qui meruit ferat—Ishall be content with the profit." The Devil's Dictionary, regardless of whether Satan composed or inspired it, mockingly celebrates humanity's proclivity for willfully bending and distorting language to ...
... mind is a merely human affair and will occasionally cut its caper. Observe this, from Webster's latest and biggest: “VICEREGENT, n. [L. vicem regens, acting in the place of another.] A lieutenant; a vicar; an officer who is deputed by a ...
... mind of rewriting and enlarging the original plan.” Ernest J. Hopkins repeats this in his Enlarged Devil's Dictionary (1967). The unsigned column to which McWilliams and Hopkins refer, dated 1 January 1881 (two months before Bierce's ...
... mind to which monuments are erected by posterity above the bones of paupers. Abject, adj. Innocent of income; without estate; devoid of good clothing. Abjectly, adv. In the manner of a poor but honest person. Abjure, v.t. To take the ...
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Gestalt Therapy and Human Nature: Evolutionary Psychology Applied John Wymore No preview available - 2006 |