KILT, n. A costume sometimes worn by Scotchmen in America and Americans in Scotland.
Interpretation
The quote humorously comments on cultural attire and identity.
Ambrose Bierce's quote plays on the humorous ambiguity of cultural costumes, specifically the kilt, as it highlights the irony of how attire can become a marker of identity that is fluid between different cultures, particularly between Scots in America and Americans in Scotland. It suggests that what we choose to wear can often defy and complicate traditional cultural boundaries.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion about cultural appropriation in fashion.
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.
I think I could be a perfectly decent cat. I've been around cats long enough to know what the rules of being a cat are. When all else fails, wash. And I think I could master the thing that cats do, where they stalk away pretending they meant to do whatever it was in the first place; showing their wounded dignity.
As you get older as a comedian and keep doing it, what you actually start to cherish on stage is not the build-up to the jokes, but how comfortable you can be in the silence and the non-laughing parts, and how long you can take the audience without a laugh to then get a huge reaction.
A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti.
This looks like a job for inadvisably applied magic if ever I saw one.
If you've got a bloodstain on your T-shirt, maybe dirty laundry isn't your biggest problem.
Calvin: I'm a genius. I can't believe how smart I am. ...I've got more brains than I know what to do with. Hobbes: So I've noticed.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.