"Bigot: One who is obstinately and zealously attached to an opinion that you do not entertain"
About this Quote
Bierce turns the word "bigot" into a mirror and then dares you to look. The sting here is that the definition doesn’t really define bigotry at all; it defines how people weaponize the label. By adding "that you do not entertain", he flips the accusation back onto the accuser, suggesting that in everyday speech bigotry often means "I hate your opinion", not "your opinion is morally indefensible". It’s a classic Bierce move: take a moralized term and expose the petty psychology hiding inside it.
The intent is not to exonerate actual intolerance; it’s to mock the self-congratulating certainty with which people assign motives to their opponents. "Obstinately and zealously" sounds like a real diagnostic, the kind of high-minded language a reasonable person might use right before dismissing someone else. Bierce knows that moral vocabulary frequently doubles as social currency: call someone a bigot and you announce your own enlightenment. His subtext is that the most righteous-sounding condemnations can be astonishingly self-serving.
Context matters. Bierce wrote as a journalist in the Gilded Age, when American public life was loud with crusades, pamphleteering, and partisan moral panic. His Devil's Dictionary is basically a field guide to hypocrisy in an era of booming institutions and shrinking patience. The line lands because it refuses comfort: it suggests that "bigot" can be both a serious charge and a lazy reflex, depending on who’s speaking and why.
The intent is not to exonerate actual intolerance; it’s to mock the self-congratulating certainty with which people assign motives to their opponents. "Obstinately and zealously" sounds like a real diagnostic, the kind of high-minded language a reasonable person might use right before dismissing someone else. Bierce knows that moral vocabulary frequently doubles as social currency: call someone a bigot and you announce your own enlightenment. His subtext is that the most righteous-sounding condemnations can be astonishingly self-serving.
Context matters. Bierce wrote as a journalist in the Gilded Age, when American public life was loud with crusades, pamphleteering, and partisan moral panic. His Devil's Dictionary is basically a field guide to hypocrisy in an era of booming institutions and shrinking patience. The line lands because it refuses comfort: it suggests that "bigot" can be both a serious charge and a lazy reflex, depending on who’s speaking and why.
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| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
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