A Quote by Ambrose Bierce

Fashion, n. A despot whom the wise ridicule and obey.

Ambrose Bierce

Quote Topics

Despot Fashion Obey Ridicule Whom Wise

Quote Author

Ambrose Bierce
American - Journalist
June 24, 1842 - 1914

It is not hard to obey when we love the one whom we obey.

Saint Ignatius

Here Fashion is a despot, and no one dreams of evading its dictates.

Marguerite Gardiner

Idealism is the despot of thought, just as politics is the despot of will.

Mikhail Bakunin

Jesus Christ, as he is attested to us in Holy Scripture, is the one Word of God whom we have to hear, and whom we have to trust and obey in life and in death.

Karl Barth

Thou art my father, thou my author, thou my being gav'st me; whom should I obey but thee, whom follow?

John Milton

Lucky are you, reader, if you happen not to be of that sex to whom it is forbidden all good things; to whom liberty is denied; to whom almost all virtues are denied; lucky are you if you are one of those who can be wise without its being a crime.

Marie de Gournay

There are three kinds of despots. There is the despot who tyrannizes over the body. There is the despot who tyrannizes over the soul. There is the despot who tyrannizes over the soul and body alike. The first is called the Prince. The second is called the Pope. The third is called the People.

Oscar Wilde

Obey your head. Obey your heart. Obey your gut. In fact, obey everything except commands.

Matt Haig

Much has seen said of the wisdom of old age. Old age is wise, I grant, for itself, but not wise for the community. It is wise in declining new enterprises, for it has not the power nor the time to execute them; wise in shrinking from difficulty, for it has not the strength to overcome it; wise in avoiding danger, for it lacks the faculty of ready and swift action, by which dangers are parried and converted into advantages. But this is not wisdom for mankind at large, by whom new enterprises must be undertaken, dangers met, and difficulties surmounted.

William C. Bryant

I think you can make fun of anything except things people can't help. They can't help their race or their sex or their age, so you ridicule their pretension or their ego instead. You can ridicule ideas - ideas don't have feelings. You can ridicule an idea that someone holds without hurting them.

Ricky Gervais

What Nature bids is good, is wise, and faultless we obey.

John Armstrong

If you think of yourselves as helpless and ineffectual, it is certain that you will create a despotic government to be your master. The wise despot, therefore, maintains among his subjects a popular sense that they are helpless and ineffectual.

Frank Herbert

RIDICULE, n. Words designed to show that the person of whom they are uttered is devoid of the dignity of character distinguishing him who utters them.

Ambrose Bierce

I think it's different in fashion, because even if I would be an outsider, I would still be in the middle of the whole world of contemporary fashion. But it's interesting to think what outsider fashion could be. Does it mean to be completely disconnected from the regular system or just disconnected style-wise?