Examples
- Conservative
- (n.) A statesman who is enamoured of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others.
- Cynic
- (n.) A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be. Hence the custom among the Scythians of plucking out a cynic's eyes to improve his vision.
- Gas meter
- (n.) The family liar in the basement.
- Lawyer
- (n.) One skilled in circumvention of the law.
- Marriage
- (n.) A household consisting of a master, a mistress, and two slaves, making in all, two.
- Religion
- (n.) A daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to Ignorance the nature of the Unknowable.
- Youth
- (n.) The Period of Possibility, when Archimedes finds a fulcrum, Cassandra has a following and seven cities compete for the honor of endowing a living Homer.
- Youth is the true Saturnian Reign, the Golden Age on earth again, when figs are grown on thistles, and pigs betailed with whistles and, wearing silken bristles, live ever in clover, and cows fly over, delivering milk at every door, and Justice is never heard to snore, and every assassin is made a ghost and, howling, is cast into Baltimost! —Polydore Smith
Read more about this topic: The Devil's Dictionary
Famous quotes containing the word examples:
“There are many examples of women that have excelled in learning, and even in war, but this is no reason we should bring ‘em all up to Latin and Greek or else military discipline, instead of needle-work and housewifry.”
—Bernard Mandeville (1670–1733)
“Histories are more full of examples of the fidelity of dogs than of friends.”
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744)
“It is hardly to be believed how spiritual reflections when mixed with a little physics can hold people’s attention and give them a livelier idea of God than do the often ill-applied examples of his wrath.”
—G.C. (Georg Christoph)