Good-bye -- if you hear of my being stood up against a stone wall and shot to rags please know that I think that a pretty good way to depart this life. It beats old age, disease or falling down the cellar stairs.
Interpretation
The quote reflects a morbid acceptance of death as a preferable alternative to suffering through the decline of old age or illness.
In this quote, Ambrose Bierce humorously expresses his views on death, suggesting that facing a dramatic and sudden end is more desirable than experiencing the slow deterioration that comes with aging or illness. It highlights the human tendency to fear the process of dying rather than death itself, and presents a darkly comedic perspective that challenges traditional notions of a 'good death'.
In practice
In a eulogy, one might include this quote to reflect the person's humorous take on death.
PALM, n. A species of tree . . . of which the familiar "itching palm" ("Palma hominis") is most widely distributed . . . . This noble vegetable exudes a kind of invisible gum, which may be detected by applying to the bark a piece of gold or silver.
Human nature is pretty well balanced; for every lacking virtue there is a rough substitute that will serve at a pinch--as cunning is the wisdom of the unwise, and ferocity the courage of the coward.
Indigestion: A disease which the patient and his friends frequently mistake for deep religious conviction and concern for the salvation of mankind. As the simple Red Man of the Western Wild put it, with, it must be confessed, a certain force: 'Plenty well, no pray; big belly ache, heap God.'
Disobey n:To celebrate with an appropriate ceremony the maturity of a command
NOUMENON, n. That which exists, as distinguished from that which merely seems to exist, the latter being a phenomenon. The noumenon is a bit difficult to locate; it can be apprehended only by a process of reasoning - which is a phenomenon.
PARDON, v. To remit a penalty and restore to the life of crime. To add to the lure of crime the temptation of ingratitude.
... when the struggle seems to be drifting definitely towards a world social democracy, there may still be very great delays and disappointments before it becomes an efficient and beneficent world system. Countless people ... will hate the New World Order and will die protesting against it. When we attempt to evaluate its promise, we have to bear in mind the distress of a generation or so of malcontents, many of them quite gallant and graceful-looking people.
So long as you are ready to die for humanity, the life of your country is immortal.
There is no better proof of a man's being truly good than his desiring to be constantly under the observation of good men.
They deem him their worst enemy who tells them the truth.
The path up is the path down. The way forward is the way back. The universe inside is outside but the universe outside is inside.
Water, stories, the body, all the things we do, are mediums that hid and show what's hidden.
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