From the Devil’s Dictionary (Aus dem Wörterbuch des Teufels) von Ambrose Bierce ist eine witzige Sammlung von boshaft-spöttischen Epigrammen und Aussprüchen, die deutlich gekennzeichnet sind von der misanthropischen, bitter-nihilistischen Weltanschauung des Autors. Die kurzen Texte wurden ab 1881 einzeln publiziert, in Buchform erstmals 1906 unter dem Titel The Cynic’s Word Book. In desillusionierender Absicht entlarvt Bierce menschliche Dummheit, Eitelkeit und Heuchelei. Als Leseproben wurden die Stichwörter „Acquaintance”, „Alliance”, „Belladonna”, „Dawn”, „Debauchee”, „Pain” und „Painting” ausgewählt.

Ambrose Bierce: From the Devil’s Dictionary

ACQUAINTANCE

A person whom we know well enough to borrow from, but not well enough to lend to. A degree of friendship called slight when its object is poor or obscure, and intimate when he is rich or famous.

Auch bei Encarta •  Quiz-Archiv

(…)

ALLIANCE

In international politics, the union of two thieves who have their hands so deeply inserted in each other’s pockets that they cannot separately plunder a third.

(…)

BELLADONNA

In Italian a beautiful lady; in English a deadly poison. A striking example of the essential identity of the two tongues.

(…)

DAWN

The time when men of reason go to bed. Certain old men prefer to rise at about that time, taking a cold bath and a long walk with an empty stomach, and otherwise mortifying the flesh. They then point with pride to these practices as the cause of their sturdy health and ripe years; the truth being that they are hearty and old, not because of their habits, but in spite of them. The reason we find only robust persons doing this thing is that it has killed all the others who have tried it.

(…)

DEBAUCHEE

One who has so earnestly pursued pleasure that he has had the misfortune to overtake it.

(…)

PAIN

An uncomfortable frame of mind that may have a physical basis in something that is being done to the body, or may be purely mental, caused by the good fortune of another.

PAINTING

The art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather and exposing them to the critic.

Ambrose Bierce: From the Devil’s Dictionary/Aus dem Wörterbuch des Teufels. München 1988, S. 8, 10, 14, 30, 86.

Erscheint in:

Bierce, Ambrose Gwinett; Amerikanische Literatur