ABRUPT, Adj. Sudden, Without Ceremony, Like The Arrival Of A Cannon- Shot And The Departure Of The Soldier Whose Interests Are Most Affected By It.

INEXPEDIENT, adj. Not calculated to advance one's interests.
-- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary...
Mad, adj.: Affected with a high degree of intellectual independence .
.. -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary...
ESOTERIC, adj. Very particularly abstruse and consummately occult.
The ancient philosophies were of two kinds, -- _exoteric_, those that the philosophers themselves could partly understand, and _esoteric_, those that nobody could understand....
INTRODUCTION, n. A social ceremony invented by the devil for the gratification of his servants and the plaguing of his enemies.
The introduction attains its most malevolent development in this century, being, indeed, closely related to our political system....
TALK, v.t. To commit an indiscretion without temptation, from an impulse without purpose.
-- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary...
RECRUIT, n. A person distinguishable from a civilian by his uniform and from a soldier by his gait.
Fresh from the farm or factory or street, His marching, in pursuit or in retreat, Were an impressive martial spectacle Except for two impediments -- his feet....
FAITH: Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks, without knowledge, of things without parallel.
-- Ambrose Bierce "The Devil's Dictionary...