A Quote by Ambrose Bierce

MATERIAL, adj. Having an actual existence, as distinguished from an imaginary one. Important.

Ambrose Bierce

Quote Topics

Actual Distinguished Existence Having Imaginary Important Material

Quote Author

Ambrose Bierce
American - Journalist
June 24, 1842 - 1914

PERFECTION, n. An imaginary state of quality distinguished from the actual by an element known as excellence; an attribute of the critic.

Ambrose Bierce

PERFECTION, n. An imaginary state of quality distinguished from the actual by an element known as excellence; an attribute of the critic. The editor of an English magazine having received a letter pointing out the erroneous nature of his views and style, and signed "Perfection," promptly wrote at the foot of the letter: "I don't agree with you," and mailed it to Matthew Arnold.

Ambrose Bierce

Everything actual must also first have been possible, before having actual existence.

Albert Pike

Making fake biography, false history, concocting a half-imaginary existence out of the actual drama of my life is my life.

Philip Roth

PITIFUL, adj. The state of an enemy or opponent after an imaginary encounter with oneself.

Ambrose Bierce

We do not content ourselves with the life we have in ourselves and in our being; we desire to live an imaginary life in the mind of others, and for this purpose we endeavor to shine. We labor unceasingly to adorn and preserve this imaginary existence and neglect the real.

Blaise Pascal

To say that a thing is imaginary is not to dispose of it in the realm of mind, for the imagination, or the image making faculty, is a very important part of our mental functioning. An image formed by the imagination is a reality from the point of view of psychology; it is quite true that it has no physical existence, but are we going to limit reality to that which is material? We shall be far out of our reckoning if we do, for mental images are potent things, and although they do not actually exist on the physical plane, they influence it far more than most people suspect.

Dion Fortune

I had an imaginary friend. I don't know when I stopped having an imaginary friend, but my mom and everybody in my family remembers it pretty good. It's definitely true.

CC Sabathia

The moment always comes when, having collected one's ideas, certain images, an intuition of a certain kind of development- whether psychological or material- one must pass on to the actual realization.

Michelangelo Antonioni

Imagination in poetry, as distinguished from mere fancy is the transfiguring of the real or actual to the ideal.

Alfred Austin

Most of what we take as being important is not material, whether it's music or feelings or love. They're things we can't really see or touch. They're not material, but they're vitally important to us.

Judy Collins

The world consists of imaginary people, claiming imaginary virtues and suffering from imaginary happiness.

Vernon Howard

moral, adj. Conforming to a local and mutable standard of right. Having the quality of general expediency.

Ambrose Bierce

It is a queer thing, but imaginary troubles are harder to bear than actual ones.

Dorothy Dix

I was very moved to see that the name of the boat was Hamlet - an imaginary character becomes so important to people, we think about them so much that we name a ship after them. The imaginary lives on in the real.