The Devil's Dictionary. Ambrose Bierce

Born in Ohio in 1842, journalist, short-story writer and critic Ambrose Bierce developed into one of this country's most celebrated and cynical wits–a merciless «American Swift» whose literary barbs were aimed at folly, self-delusion, politics, business, religion, literature and the arts. In this splendid «dictionary» of epigrams, essays, verses and vignettes, you'll find over 1,000 pointed definitions, e.g. Congratulation («The civility of envy»), Coward («One who in a perilous emergency thinks with his legs») and Historian («A broad-gauge gossip»). Anyone who likes to laugh will love The Devil's Dictionary. Anyone looking for a bon mot to enliven their next speech, paper or conversation will have a field day thumbing through what H. L. Mencken called «some of the most gorgeous witticisms in the English language.»