ORPHAN, n. A living person whom death has deprived of the power of filial ingratitude . . .
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the complex nature of familial relationships and the concept of gratitude.
Ambrose Bierce's definition of an orphan highlights a cynical view on how people often take their family relationships for granted. It suggests that the absence of a parent may strip away not only the traditional expectations of familial love and care but also the burdensome expectations of ingratitude that can exist within those relationships. This plays on the irony of how loss can sometimes yield a clearer perspective on the dynamics of love and gratitude.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion about the challenges faced by orphans 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.
Every religion is goodβevery religion is true to him who in his good caution and conscience believes it.
Man is a wonder to himself; he can neither govern nor know himself.
Take me and cast me where you will; I shall still be possessor of the divinity within me, serene and content.
Fate finds for every man; his share of misery.
The settler makes history and is conscious of making it. And because he constantly refers to the history of his mother country, he clearly indicates that he himself is the extension of that mother country. Thus the history which he writes is not the history of the country which he plunders but the history of his own nation in regard to all that she skims off, all that she violates and starves.
We live in a society that compels us to go on using these concepts, and we no longer know what they mean.
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