Exaggeration Is Quotes

• It is the essence of truth that it is never excessive.... We must not resort to the flame where only light is required.

  Victor Hugo

  Light, Flames, Essence

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• Every vice is only an exaggeration of a necessary and virtuous function.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Vices, Function, Virtuous

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1960). “The Journals”

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• The report of my death was an exaggeration.

  Mark Twain

  Funny, Death, Obituary

  Quoted in N.Y. Journal, 2 June 1897. These words were preceded by "James Ross Clemens, of St. Louis, a cousin of mine, was seriously ill two or three weeks ago in London, but is well now. The report of my illness grew out of his illness." The quotation is usually reported as "Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated." Much earlier (5 July 1863), the following appeared in a letter by Twain to the Territorial Enterprise: "There was a report about town, last night, that Charles Strong, Esq

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• Exaggeration is a blood relation to falsehood and nearly as blamable.

  Hosea Ballou

  Blood, Relation, Exaggerated

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• The average comedian is kind of an observer looking at everyday things that everyone could relate to and then trying to find the exaggeration in those things.

  Aries Spears

  Everyday Things, Average, Comedian

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• There are people so addicted to exaggeration that they actually can't tell the truth without lying.

  Josh Billings

  Lying, People, Comedy

  "Wit and Wisdom of Josh Billings: Choice Bits of Fun and Philosophy of the Great Humorist Carefully Collected and Revised".

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• An element of exaggeration clings to the popular judgment: great vices are made greater, great virtues greater also; interesting incidents are made more interesting, softer legends more soft.

  Walter Bagehot

  Interesting, Vices, Elements

  Richard Holt Hutton, Walter Bagehot (1858). “The National Review”, p.463

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• Love is a gross exaggeration of the difference between one person and everybody else.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Love, Funny, Break Up

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• Alcohol is perfectly consistent in its effects upon man. Drunkenness is merely an exaggeration. A foolish man drunk becomes maudlin; a bloody man, vicious; a coarse man, vulgar.

  Willa Cather

  Men, Foolish Man, Drunk

  Willa Cather (1970). “Collected Short Fiction, 1892-1912”, p.496, U of Nebraska Press

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• We exaggerate misfortune and happiness alike. We are never as bad off or as happy as we say we are.

  Honore de Balzac

  Literature, Bad Grades, Bad Hair

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• By speaking, by thinking, we undertake to clarify things, and that forces us to exacerbate them, dislocate them, schematize them. Every concept is in itself an exaggeration.

  Jose Ortega y Gasset

  Thinking, Force, Concepts

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• All cartoon characters and fables must be exaggeration, caricatures. It is the very nature of fantasy and fable.

  Walt Disney

  Life, Character, Cartoon

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• Exaggeration is truth that has lost its temper.

  Khalil Gibran

  Inspirational, Wisdom, Anger

  Sand and Foam (1926) p. 59

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• To a small man every greater is an exaggeration.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Men, Small Man, Greater

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Selected Essays of Henry David Thoreau”, p.95, Simon and Schuster

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• There is no one who does not exaggerate!

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Doe, Exaggeration, Exaggerating

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, David Mikics (2012). “The Annotated Emerson”, p.267, Harvard University Press

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• It is the essence of truth that it is never excessive. Why should it exaggerate? There is that which should be destroyed and that which should be simply illuminated and studied. How great is the force of benevolent and searching examination! We must not resort to the flame where only light is required.

  Victor Hugo

  Light, Flames, Essence

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• It is human to exaggerate the merits of the dead.

  Mark Twain

  Merit, Humans, Exaggerating

  Mark Twain (2012). “The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain: A Book of Quotations”, p.49, Courier Corporation

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• Thought is a process of exaggeration. The refusal to exaggerate is not infrequently an alibi for the disinclination to think or praise.

  Eric Hoffer

  Thinking, Literature, Praise

  Eric Hoffer (1996). “The Passionate State of Mind”

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• It is only a short step from exaggerating what we can find in the world to exaggerating our power to remake the world.

  Daniel J. Boorstin

  World, Steps, Remakes

  Daniel J. Boorstin (1978). “The Image”

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• There's no disappointment in memory, and one's exaggerations are always on the good side.

  George Eliot

  Memories, Disappointment, Sides

  George Eliot (1996). “Daniel Deronda”, p.350, Wordsworth Editions

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• Danger lies in the writer becoming the victim of his own exaggeration, losing the exact notion of sincerity, and in the end coming to despise truth itself as something too cold, too blunt for his purpose -- as, in fact, not good enough for his insistent emotion. From laughter and tears the descent is easy to sniveling and giggles.

  Joseph Conrad

  Laughter, Lying, Not Good Enough

  Joseph Conrad (2015). “The Napoleonic Novels: The Rover & Suspense: From the Renowned Author of The Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim, The Secret Agent and Under Western Eyes (Including Author’s Memoirs, Letters & Critical Essays)”, p.400, e-artnow

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• False eloquence is exaggeration; true eloquence is emphasis.

  William Rounseville Alger

  White Collar, Emphasis, Eloquent

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• It is only a short step from exaggerating what we can find in the world to exaggerating our power to remake the world. Expecting more novelty than there is, more greatness than there is, and more strangeness than there is, we imagine ourselves masters of a plastic universe. But a world we can shape to our will is a shapeless world.

  Daniel J. Boorstin

  Greatness, Imagination, World

  Daniel J. Boorstin (1978). “The Image”

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• There is no one who does not exaggerate. In conversation, men are encumbered with personality, and talk too much.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Men, Personality, Doe

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, David Mikics (2012). “The Annotated Emerson”, p.267, Harvard University Press

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• The rest, with very little exaggeration, was books. Meant-to-be-picked-up books. Permanently-left-behind books. Uncertain-what-to-do-with books. But books, books. Tall cases lined three walls of the room, filled to and beyond capacity. The overflow had been piled in stacks on the floor. There was little space left for walking, and none whatever for pacing.

  J. D. Salinger

  Wall, Book, Space

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