Idiot, n. A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in human affairs has always been dominant and controlling.

RICE-WATER, n. A mystic beverage secretly used by our most popular novelists and poets to regulate the imagination and narcotize the conscience.

Take not God's name in vain; select a time when it will have effect.

Bigot: One who is obstinately and zealously attached to an opinion that you do not entertain.

PHYSIOGNOMY, n. The art of determining the character of another by the resemblances and differences between his face and our own, which is the standard of excellence.

APHORISM, n. Predigested wisdom. The flabby wine-skin of his brain Yields to some pathologic strain, And voids from its unstored abysm The driblet of an aphorism. "The Mad Philosopher," 1697

To seek a justification for a decision already made.