SARCOPHAGUS, n. Among the Greeks a coffin which being made of a certain kind of carnivorous stone, had the peculiar property of devouring the body placed in it. The sarcophagus known to modern obsequiographers is commonly a product of the carpenter's art. - Ambrose Bierce
What men call good fellowship is commonly but the virtue of pigs in a litter which lie close together to keep each other warm. - Henry David Thoreau
The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it. - George Bernard Shaw
PHILISTINE, n. One whose mind is the creature of its environment, following the fashion in thought, feeling and sentiment. He is sometimes learned, frequently prosperous, commonly clean and always solemn. - Ambrose Bierce
Akin to the idea that time is money is the concept, less spoken but as commonly assumed, that we may be adequately represented by money. The giving of money has thus become our characteristic virtue. But to give is not to do. The money is given in lieu of action, thought, care, time. - Wendell Berry
Government scientists are commonly as corrupt as the corporate government that employs them. - Steven Magee
Let us not take it for granted that life exists more in what is commonly thought big than in what is commonly thought small. - Virginia Woolf
The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who haven't got it. - George Bernard Shaw
Money changes people. This process is more commonly known as trading. - Kevin Focke
ABSCOND, v.i. To "move in a mysterious way," commonly with the property of another. Spring beckons! All things to the call respond; The trees are leaving and cashiers abscond. Phela Orm - Ambrose Bierce
FOREFINGER, n. The finger commonly used in pointing out two malefactors. - Ambrose Bierce
PRIMATE, n. The head of a church, especially a State church supported by involuntary contributions. The Primate of England is the Archbishop of Canterbury, an amiable old gentleman, who occupies Lambeth Palace when living and Westminster Abbey when dead. He is commonly dead. - Ambrose Bierce
All generous minds have a horror of what are commonly called "Facts". They are the brute beasts of the intellectual domain. - Thomas Hobbes
All those who love Nature she loves in return, and will richly reward, not perhaps with the good things, as they are commonly called, but with the best things of this world-not with money and titles, horses and carriages, but with bright and happy thoughts, contentment and peace of mind. - John Lubbock
Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule - and both commonly succeed, and are right. - H. L. Mencken
Practical observation commonly consists of collecting a few facts and loading them with guesses.
INTERREGNUM, n. The period during which a monarchical country is governed by a warm spot on the cushion of the throne. The experiment of letting the spot grow cold has commonly been attended by most unhappy results from the zeal of many worthy persons to make it warm again. - Ambrose Bierce
The hero is commonly the simplest and obscurest of men. - Henry David Thoreau
What the world stigmatizes as romantic is often more nearly allied to the truth than is commonly supposed. - Anne Brontë
Wounded parents often unintentionally inflict pain and suffering on their children and these childhood wounds causes a laundry list of maladaptive behaviors commonly called codependency. These habits restrict people to love-limiting relationships causing much unhappiness and distress. - David W. Earle
ACCUSE, v.t. To affirm another's guilt or unworth; most commonly as a justification of ourselves for having wronged him. - Ambrose Bierce
CURSE, v.t. Energetically to belabor with a verbal slap-stick. This is an operation which in literature, particularly in the drama, is commonly fatal to the victim. Nevertheless, the liability to a cursing is a risk that cuts but a small figure in fixing the rates of life insurance. - Ambrose Bierce
How long will it be necessary to pay City men so entirely out of proportion to what other servants of society commonly receive for performing social services not less useful or difficult? - John Maynard Keynes
Truth and justice are commonly found in the personality of the paranoid delusional - Russian, Unknown
Reading is a source of liberation. Children who are taught to read early on, are commonly taught to communicate in other significant verbal and nonverbal ways. - Asa Don Brown
An new idea is rarely born like Venus attended by graces. More commonly it's modeled of baling wire and acne. More commonly it wheezes and tips over. - Marge Piercy
You will find that reason, which always ought to direct mankind, seldom does; but that passions and weaknesses commonly usurp its seat, and rule in its stead. - Philip Dormer Stanhope
Sincerity is like traveling on a plain, beaten road, which commonly brings a man sooner to his journey's end than by-ways, in which men often lose themselves.
BEARD, n. The hair that is commonly cut off by those who justly execrate the absurd Chinese custom of shaving the head. - Ambrose Bierce
The common theme of common sense is that it’s commonly rejected as uncommonly demanding. - Craig D. Lounsbrough
I wonder why people so commonly suppose that if two individuals are both writers they must therefore be hugely congenial," said Anne, rather scornfully. "Nobody would expect two blacksmiths to be violently attracted toward each other merely because they were both blacksmiths. - L.M. Montgomery
When avarice takes the lead in a state, it is commonly the forerunner of its fall. - Alexander Hamilton
QUILL, n. An implement of torture yielded by a goose and commonly wielded by an ass. This use of the quill is now obsolete, but its modern equivalent, the steel pen, is wielded by the same everlasting Presence. - Ambrose Bierce
TZETZE (or TSETSE) FLY, n. An African insect (_Glossina morsitans_) whose bite is commonly regarded as nature's most efficacious remedy for insomnia, though some patients prefer that of the American novelist (_Mendax interminabilis_). - Ambrose Bierce
When a lie makes a soft bed for everyone, may the truth lie low. God as commonly understood appears to be one such lie. God as non-existence is not everyone's cup of tea and He better remain so. - R. N. Prasher
Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable. - Francis Bacon
BOTANY, n. The science of vegetables -- those that are not good to eat, as well as those that are. It deals largely with their flowers, which are commonly badly designed, inartistic in color, and ill- smelling. - Ambrose Bierce
HAND, n. A singular instrument worn at the end of the human arm and commonly thrust into somebody's pocket. - Ambrose Bierce