Litigant. A person about to give up his skin for the hope of retaining his bones.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the idea of sacrificing something significant for a potentially minimal gain.
Ambrose Bierce's quote uses the metaphor of a litigant, someone who is embroiled in legal battles, to express the often futile and self-destructive nature of fighting for something that may ultimately not be worth the cost. The imagery of giving up 'skin' for the hope of keeping 'bones' suggests that people may risk their well-being or integrity in pursuit of something that may not offer substantial rewards, reflecting a deeper commentary on human behavior in conflicts and negotiations.
In practice
This quote might be shared during a legal seminar to illustrate the risks involved in legal disputes.
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.
To be doing good deeds is man's most glorious task.
Wherever anything lives, there is, open somewhere, a register in which time is being inscribed.
I would not have traded the delights of my suffering for anything in the world.
The irrational in the human has something about it altogether repulsive and terrible, as we see in the maniac, the miser, the drunkard or the ape.
To embarrass justice by multiplicity of laws, or to hazard it by confidence in judges, seem to be the opposite rocks on which all civil institutions have been wrecked, and between which legislative wisdom has never yet found an open passage.
Adults are only obsolete children.
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