Infancy, n. The period of our lives when, according to Wordsworth, “Heaven lies about us.” The world begins lying about us pretty soon afterward.
Ambrose Bierce Quotes
The average person thinks he isn’t.
Goose, n. A bird that supplies quills for writing. These (quills) when inked and drawn mechanically across paper by a person called an “author,” there results a very fair and accurate transcript of the fowl’s thought and feeling.
Oblivion, n. The state or condition in which the wicked cease from struggling and the dreary are at rest. Fame’s eternal dumping ground. Cold storage for high hopes. A place where ambitious authors meet their works without pride and their betters without envy. A dormitory without an alarm clock.
Australia, n. A country lying in the South Sea, whose industrial and commercial development has been unspeakably retarded by an unfortunate dispute among geographers as to whether it is a continent or an island.
Medal, n. A small metal disk given as a reward for virtues, attainments or services more or less authentic.
Absent, adj.: Exposed to the attacks of friends and acquaintances; defamed; slandered.
Molecule, n.: The ultimate, indivisible unit of matter. It is distinguished from the corpuscle, also the ultimate, indivisible unit of matter, by a closer resemblance to the atom, also the ultimate, indivisible unit of matter… The ion differs from the molecule, the corpuscle and the atom in that it is an ion.
Three great scientific theories of the structure of the universe are the molecular, the corpuscular and the atomic. A fourth affirms, with Haeckel, the condensation or precipitation of matter from ether – whose existence is proved by the condensation or precipitation… A fifth theory is held by idiots, but it is doubtful if they know […]
Observatory, n. A place where astronomers conjecture away the guesses of their predecessors.
