Legitimate authority to be, to do or to have; as the right to be a king, the right to do one's neighbor, the right to have measles, and the like.
Ambrose BierceRespectability, n. The offspring of a liaison between a bald head and a bank account.
Ambrose BierceWEATHER, n. The climate of an hour. A permanent topic of conversation among persons whom it does not interest, but who have inherited the tendency to chatter about it from naked arboreal ancestors whom it keenly concerned. The setting up of official weather bureaus and their maintenance in mendacity prove that even governments are accessible to suasion by the rude forefathers of the jungle.
Ambrose BierceIf you would be accounted great by your contemporaries, be not too much greater than they.
Ambrose Bierce