RUMOR, n. A favorite weapon of the assassins of character.
Interpretation
Rumors can harm individuals' reputations and character without any substantial evidence.
This quote highlights the destructive power of rumors, portraying them as a tool used by those who aim to undermine others' reputations. Ambrose Bierce's selection of the word 'assassins' suggests that rumors can be lethal in a social context, capable of permanently damaging someone's character based on unfounded claims.
In practice
In a speech about the harmful effects of social media, one might quote Bierce to illustrate the dangers of spreading unfounded information.
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.
My main ambition as a historian is to figure out what's really happening in the world, instead of the fictions that humans have been creating for thousands of years in order to explain or control what's happening in the world.
Good souls many will one day be horrified at the things they now believe of God.
War is murder. And the military preparations now being made for a potential major confrontation are aimed at collective murder. In a nuclear age the victims would be numbered by the millions. This naked truth must be faced.
Men are the only animals that devote themselves, day in and day out, to making one another unhappy. It is an art like any other. Its virtuosi are called altruists.
I realize today that nothing in the world is more distasteful to a man than to take the path that leads to himself.
Journalism can never be silent: that is its greatest virtue and its greatest fault.
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