Devil defines Mad
12/10/04 21:27 Filed by Saswat Pattanayak in:
Reference
Wit doesn’t get much better than this. Bierce would
have liked me to say it does not get any better than
his! Here is one definition from the strictly
adorable
Devil's Dictionary:
MAD, adj. Affected with a high degree of
intellectual independence; not conforming to
standards of thought, speech and action derived by
the conformants from study of themselves; at odds
with the majority; in short, unusual. It is
noteworthy that persons are pronounced mad by
officials destitute of evidence that themselves are
sane. For illustration, this present (and
illustrious) lexicographer is no firmer in the
faith of his own sanity than is any inmate of any
madhouse of the land; yet for aught he knows to the
contrary, instead of the lofty occupation that
seems to him to be engaging his powers he may
really be beating his hands against the window bars
of an asylum and declaring himself Noah Webster, to
the innocent delights of many thoughtless
spectators.
Tags: Saswat, Literature, Humor, Academic