By: JB Kennedy
“COPYRIGHT 1911 BY ALBERT AND CHARLES BONI, INC.”
Among the book in which this notice appears is The Devil’s Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce.
Bierce was an honored veteran of the Civil War who, as a tenacious journalist, literary critic, and unconventional lexicographer, waged a personal war against hypocrisy, dishonesty, pretense, euphemism, yahoos and the ubiquity of nonsense.
The Devil’s Dictionary remains vibrantly alive. And in recognition of this 100th anniversary here are ten definitions – all as fresh and pungent as when they appeared a century ago:
Cannon, n. An instrument employed in the rectification of national boundaries.
Destiny, n. A tyrant’s authority for crime and a fool’s excuse for failure.
Diplomacy, n. The patriotic art of lying for one’s country.
Distance, n. The only thing that the rich are willing for the poor to call theirs, and to keep.
Friendless, adj. Having no favors to bestow. Destitute of fortune. Addicted to utterance of truth and common sense.
Lawyer, n. One skilled in circumvention of the law.
Politics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.
Prejudice, n. A vagrant opinion without visible means of support.
Reform, n. A thing that mostly satisfies reformers opposed to reformation.
Vote, n. The instrument and symbol of a freeman’s power to make a fool of himself and a wreck of his country. ER
