OBLIVION, n. The state or condition in which the wicked cease from struggling and the dreary are at rest. Fame's eternal dumping ground.
Interpretation
Oblivion refers to a state where both the wicked and the weary find peace in absence of struggle or recognition.
Ambrose Bierce's quote on oblivion articulates a stark and somewhat cynical view of death and anonymity. It suggests that oblivion is a realm where both the 'wicked' and the 'dreary' escape their struggles, highlighting the inevitability of death as a form of equalizing rest. Fame, in this context, is depicted not as a glorious legacy but rather as a transient state that eventually leads to the 'eternal dumping ground' of forgotten souls, questioning the value society places on recognition and legacy.
In practice
In a discussion about the nature of fame and mortality, you could use this quote to emphasize the temporary nature of both.
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.
Blessed is the servant who esteems himself no more highly when he is praised and exalted by people than when he is considered worthless, foolish, and to be despised; since what a man is before God, that he is and nothing more.
These most crafty enemies [the devils] have filled and inebriated with gall and bitterness the Church, the spouse of the Immaculate Lamb, and have laid impious hands on Her most sacred possessions. In the Holy Place itself, where has been set up the See of the most holy Peter and the Chair of Truth for the light of the world, they have raised the throne of their abominable impiety, with the iniquitous design that when the Pastor has been struck, the sheep may be scattered.
One is left with the horrible feeling now that war settles nothing; that to win a war is as disastrous as to lose one.
The same stream of life that runs through the world runs through my veins night and day.
Tokenism does not change stereotypes of social systems but works to preserve them, since it dulls the revolutionary impulse.
I guess I just couldn't see standing there -- alive, talking, thinking, breathing, being -- one second, and dead the next. It really bothered me. Death by violence isn't the same as dying any other way, accident or disease or old age. It just ain't the same.
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