Ambrose Quotes

Law is twofold -- natural and written. The natural law is in the heart, the written law on tables. All men are under the natural law.

Idiot, n. A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in human affairs has always been dominant and controlling.

And thou shalt in thy daughter see, This picture, once, resembled thee.

Dog - a kind of additional or subsidiary Deity designed to catch the overflow and surplus of the world's worship.

Forgetfulness - a gift of God bestowed upon debtors in compensation for their destitution of conscience.

Patriotism is as fierce as a fever, pitiless as the grave, blind as a stone, and irrational as a headless hen.

If you do not give the tenth part to God, he will take the nine parts.

Learning, n. The kind of ignorance distinguishing the studious.

If you have two shirts in your closet, one belongs to you and the other to the man with no shirt.

April fool, n. The March fool with another month added to his folly.

It is not death therefore that is burdensome, but the fear of death.

Debt, n. An ingenious substitute for the chain and whip of the slavedriver.

Corporation: An ingenious device for obtaining profit without individual responsibility.

Bacchus, n.: A convenient deity invented by the ancients as an excuse for getting drunk.

Incompatibility. In matrimony a similarity of tastes, particularly the taste for domination.

Contempt; the feeling of a prudent man for an enemy who is too formidable safely to be opposed.

Eisenhower had the clearest blue eyes. He would fix them on you. In my every interview with him, he would lock his eyes on to mine and keep them there.

PANTOMIME, n. A play in which the story is told without violence to the language. The least disagreeable form of dramatic action.

Convent - a place of retirement for women who wish for leisure to meditate upon the sin of idleness.

Riot – A popular entertainment given to the military by innocent bystanders.

As in paradise, God walks in the Holy Scriptures, seeking man.

HYENA, n. A beast held in reverence by some oriental nations from its habit of frequenting at night the burial-places of the dead. But the medical student does that

Studious of ease, and fond of humble things.

The past is a source of knowledge, and the future is a source of hope. Love of the past implies faith in the future.

There is nothing evil save that which perverts the mind and shackles the conscience.

He who thinks with difficulty believes with alacrity.

Irreligion - the principal one of the great faiths of the world.

Nothing is inevitable in life. People make choices, and those choices have results, and we all live with the results.

Your soul must hold fast to Him, you must follow after Him in your thoughts, you must tread His ways by faith, not in outward show.

PIRACY, n. Commerce without its folly-swaddles, just as God made it.

I was taught by professors who had done their schooling in the 1930s. Most of them were scornful of, even hated, big business.

Perseverance - a lowly virtue whereby mediocrity achieves an inglorious success.

Marriage, n: the state or condition of a community consisting of a master, a mistress, and two slaves, making in all, two.

KILT, n. A costume sometimes worn by Scotchmen in America and Americans in Scotland.

It is not enough just to wish well; we must also do well.

Cabbage: a familiar kitchen-garden vegetable about as large and wise as a man's head.

CRAYFISH, n. A small crustacean very much resembling the lobster, but less indigestible.

Accordingly, death is a harbor of peace for the just, but is believed a shipwreck for the wicked.

A kindness received should be returned with a freer hand.

ORPHAN, n. A living person whom death has deprived of the power of filial ingratitude . . .

This is an issue that women are not interested in debating.

A miracle is an act or event out of the order of nature and unaccountable, as beating a normal hand of four kings and an ace with four aces and a king.

GUNPOWDER, n. An agency employed by civilized nations for the settlement of disputes which might become troublesome if left unadjusted.

A revolution is a violent change of mismanagement.

Gout, a physician's name for the rheumatism of a rich patient

Respectability, n. The offspring of a liaison between a bald head and a bank account.

Friendless. Having no favors to bestow. Destitute of fortune. Addicted to utterance of truth and common sense.

The covers of this book are too far apart.

Philosophy: A route of many roads leading from nowhere to nothing.

International arbitration may be defined as the substitution of many burning questions for a smoldering one