To be positive: To be mistaken at the top of one's voice.

This line is one of Ambrose Bierce’s satirical “definitions,” written in the late 19th century as part of his long-running newspaper column of cynical lexicography that culminated in The Devil’s Dictionary. Bierce, a journalist and veteran of the American Civil War, became famous for his mordant skepticism about politics, religion, and human self-importance. The definition targets the social habit—common in public debate and journalism—of equating loud certainty with truth. In Bierce’s era of partisan newspapers and booming public oratory, “positiveness” often functioned as a rhetorical weapon, and Bierce’s mock-definition punctures that posture.

Bierce treats “being positive” not as a virtue of clarity or evidence, but as a performance: the louder the assertion, the more it masks the possibility of error. The sting lies in the inversion of a compliment—“positive” usually signals confidence and decisiveness—into a diagnosis of overconfidence. The phrase “at the top of one’s voice” implies that volume substitutes for reasoning, and that certainty can be a social tactic rather than an epistemic achievement. The definition remains pointed in any culture of argument where conviction is rewarded more than accuracy, warning readers to distrust bluster and to separate confidence from correctness.