DISCRIMINATE, v.i. To note the particulars in which one person or thing is, if possible, more objectionable than another.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the act of distinguishing negative traits among people or things.
Ambrose Bierce's definition of 'discriminate' emphasizes the critical nature of evaluating and identifying the faults or undesirable qualities in individuals or objects. It suggests that the process of discrimination involves a subjective judgment that examines the particulars where one may be deemed less favorable than another, thus pointing to the nuanced considerations inherent in our perceptions of value and morality.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion about social justice and the effects of bias in society.
PALM, n. A species of tree . . . of which the familiar "itching palm" ("Palma hominis") is most widely distributed . . . . This noble vegetable exudes a kind of invisible gum, which may be detected by applying to the bark a piece of gold or silver.
Human nature is pretty well balanced; for every lacking virtue there is a rough substitute that will serve at a pinch--as cunning is the wisdom of the unwise, and ferocity the courage of the coward.
Indigestion: A disease which the patient and his friends frequently mistake for deep religious conviction and concern for the salvation of mankind. As the simple Red Man of the Western Wild put it, with, it must be confessed, a certain force: 'Plenty well, no pray; big belly ache, heap God.'
Disobey n:To celebrate with an appropriate ceremony the maturity of a command
NOUMENON, n. That which exists, as distinguished from that which merely seems to exist, the latter being a phenomenon. The noumenon is a bit difficult to locate; it can be apprehended only by a process of reasoning - which is a phenomenon.
PARDON, v. To remit a penalty and restore to the life of crime. To add to the lure of crime the temptation of ingratitude.
An intellectual inferiority of the masses would manifest itself most evidently in their aiming at the abolition of the system in which they themselves are supreme and are served by the elite of the most talented men.
That God cannot lie, is no advantage to your argument, because it is no proof that priests can not, or that the Bible does not.
God has allowed some magical reversal to occur, so that you see the scorpion pit as an object of desire, and all the beautiful expanse around it as dangerous and swarming with snakes.
The average is that which no person quite ever is.
Most sets of values would give rise to universes that, although they might be very beautiful, would contain no one able to wonder at that beauty.
Time heals griefs and quarrels, for we change and are no longer the same persons. Neither the offender nor the offended are any more themselves.
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