24th June: Ambrose Bierce

Ambrose Bierce, writer and satirist, was born this date in 1842. One of his famous works is The Devil's Dictionary. Here are 10 definitions from The Devil's Dictionary:

1. Present: That part of eternity dividing the domain of disappointment from the realm of hope.
2. Coward: One who, in a perilous emergency, thinks with his legs.
3. Life: a spiritual pickle preserving the body from decay.
4. Positive: Mistaken at the top of one's voice.
5. Mad: Affected with a high degree of intellectual independence.
6. Pray: To ask the laws of the universe to be annulled on behalf of a single petitioner confessedly unworthy.
7. Sweater: garment worn by child when its mother is feeling chilly.
8. Cabbage: a familiar kitchen-garden vegetable about as large and wise as a man's head.
9. Genius: to know without having learned; to draw just conclusions from unknown premises; to discern the soul of things.
10. Dog: a kind of additional or subsidiary Deity designed to catch the overflow and surplus of the world's worship.