Political Economy

In our civilisation, 

and under our republican form of government, 

intelligence is so highly honoured 

that it is rewarded by exemption from the cares of office.

— Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914)

Ignoble Savagery

Politics: 

A strife of interests 

masquerading as a contest of principles. 

The conduct of public affairs 

for private advantage.

The Opposite Of Puritanism

Happiness: an agreeable sensation arising from contemplating the misery of another.

  — Ambrose Bierce

Indubitably

Men become civilised, 

not in proportion to their willingness to believe, 

but in proportion to their readiness to doubt.

 — Ambrose Bierce

War Is God's Way Of Teaching Americans Geography

Better Read When Dead

Saint: A dead sinner revised and edited.
 — Ambrose Bierce

Sorry

To apologise is to lay the foundation for a future offence.

 — Ambrose Bierce

Inheriting The Earth

Meekness: Uncommon patience in planning a revenge that is worth while.
 — Ambrose Bierce

Courtesy Costs Nothing

Politeness, n: The most acceptable hypocrisy.
— Ambrose Bierce

Triumph Of The Dill

Perseverance - a lowly virtue whereby mediocrity achieves an inglorious success.
 — Ambrose Bierce

Peerless Pressure

Friendless. Having no favours to bestow. Destitute of fortune. Addicted to utterance of truth and common sense.

States Men

Conservative, n: A statesman who is enamoured of existing evils, 

as distinguished from the Liberal who wishes to replace them with others.

 — Ambrose Bierce

Mutual Self-Deception

Diplomacy: The patriotic art of lying for one's country.

 — Ambrose Bierce

Imperfect Tenderness

SATIRE, n. An obsolete kind of literary composition in which the vices and follies of the author's enemies were expounded with imperfect tenderness.

Freedom

The loss of liberty is the price we pay for freedom.
— Alan Bennett 'The History Boys'

Liberty: One of Imagination's most precious possessions.
— Ambrose Bierce

Time Heals

ZEAL, n. A certain nervous disorder afflicting the young and inexperienced. A passion that goeth before a sprawl.

 — Ambrose Bierce

Slight

The slightest acquaintance with history shows that powerful republics are the most warlike and unscrupulous of nations. 

 — Ambrose Bierce

The Husband Of Necessity

Doubt is the father of invention.
— Ambrose Bierce

Thinking

If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; but if you really make them think they'll hate you.
— Don Marquis

A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.
— William James

Logic: The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities of the human misunderstanding.
— Ambrose Bierce

Education

Education, n, That which discloses to the wise, and disguises from the foolish, their lack of understanding.
— Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary.

Education is what’s left when you’ve forgotten everything you ever learned.
— Alan Bennett ‘Forty Years On’

'A' Levels are credentials, qualifications, the footings of your CV, your Cheat's Visa …
— Alan Bennett 'The History Boys'

I count exams, even for Oxford and Cambridge, as the enemy of education.
— Alan Bennett 'The History Boys'

The chief enemy of culture, in any school, is always the headmaster.
— Alan Bennett 'The History Boys'

Everybody who is incapable of learning has taken to teaching.
— Oscar Wilde

Learning, n. The kind of ignorance distinguishing the studious.
— Ambrose Bierce