INDIFFERENT, adj. Imperfectly sensible to distinctions among things.
Interpretation
Indifference implies a lack of awareness or concern for the differences between things.
In this quote, Ambrose Bierce critiques the concept of indifference, suggesting that it reflects a limited awareness that prevents individuals from perceiving and appreciating the nuances and distinctions in life. This insensitivity may lead to a shallow existence where important values and relationships are overlooked or misunderstood.
In practice
During a discussion on emotions, you might use this quote to emphasize the importance of being responsive to feelings.
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 animal that embarks on forming states without greatly restricting egoism will perish.
The American War of Independence is the expulsion of the intrusive elements, alien to the American essence. If American reality is the reinvention of itself, whatever is found in any way irreducible or unassimilable is not American.
Adults are just obsolete children and the hell with them.
Our loyalties are to the species and the planet. We speak for Earth.
Confirming an intuitive sense I've always felt for the interconnectedness of all things, this doctrine has provided me ways to understand the intricate web of co-arising that links one being with all other beings, and to apprehend the reciprocities between thought and action, self and universe.
Everything lives by movement, everything is maintained by equilibrium, and harmony results from the analogy of contraries; this law is the form of forms.
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