Daily Inspiration Quote by Ambrose Bierce

Bierce takes a word that sounds like a Victorian compliment and drags it straight into the alley. "Ambidextrous" should signal admirable versatility; in his hands it becomes the practiced grace of a thief. The joke is tight because it rides on a linguistic bait-and-switch: a neutral dictionary entry snaps into a moral diagnosis. Not "able to use both hands", but able to steal from either pocket. Competence, he implies, is value-free. It can just as easily serve predation as progress.

The subtext is classic Bierce: suspicion toward public virtue and the polished language that sells it. By framing the punchline as a definition, he mocks the authority of reference books and, more broadly, the institutions that claim to name things honestly. Dictionaries are supposed to clarify; Bierce uses the format to show how easily "clarity" becomes cover. His America, in miniature, is a place where talent often means getting away with something.

Context matters. Bierce wrote as a journalist who watched Gilded Age capitalism and politics professionalize their grift. The era prized hustle, "smartness", and self-made success; it also normalized corruption so routine it could pass as mere skill. So the pocket-picker isn’t just a petty criminal; he’s a stand-in for a culture that celebrates dexterity while refusing to ask what it’s for.

The line lands because it’s cynical without being vague. It names a specific sin, makes it elegant, then lets the reader feel the discomfort of laughing at it.