Ambrose Bierce was an American journalist and author of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, famed for both the volume and the wide variety of his literary output: he wrote realism, horror, poetry, fables, and satire.

He had fought in numerous battles of the Civil War (Union side), and in 1913, at the age of 71, he decided to depart Washington, D.C., on a tour of his old Civil War battlefields. He was last known to have passed through Texas and crossed into Mexico, which was then in the midst of revolution, but soon thereafter fell off the grid. He was last heard from around Christmas of 1913; the mystery of his disappearance has never been solved.

But he left behind a legacy of literature spread across several genres, of which my personal favorite is his gift for satire. And here is just one small sample, in which he artfully sums up the problem with politics as it existed then . . . and continues to plague us even now, more than 100 years later:

“In our civilization, and under our republican form of government, intelligence is so highly honored that it is rewarded by exemption from the cares of office.”

– Ambrose Bierce

Indeed so, Mr. Bierce . . . indeed so.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
1/13/26