Ambrose Gwinett Bierce Dictionary Quotations

PATRIOTISM, n. Combustible rubbish read to the torch of any one ambitious to illuminate his name. In Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last resort of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer I beg to submit that it is the first.

GENTEEL, adj. Refined, after the fashion of a gent.Observe with care, my son, the distinction I reveal: A gentleman is gentle and a gent genteel. Heed not the definitions your ""Unabridged"" presents, For dictionary makers are generally gents. --G.J.