THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY

Ambrose Bierce 

D

 

Day - A period of twenty-four hours, mostly misspent

Debt - An ingenious substitute for the chain and whip of the slave-driver

 

Destiny - A tyrant's authority for crime and a fool's excuse for failure

Dictator - The chief of a nation that prefers the pestilence of despotism to the plague of anarchy

Dictionary - A malevolent literary device for cramping the growth of language

Diplomacy - The patriotic art of lying for one's country

Disobedience - The silver lining to the cloud of servitude

Distress - A disease incurred by exposure to the prosperity of a friend