Georg C. Lichtenberg Quotes

To call Keegan a superstar is stretching a point.

Hyperbole engaged in consciously to achieve a desired effect can be, as we have noted, a useful rhetorical tool. Indeed, its use in this manner is sometimes called "exaggeration in the service of truth." However, there's much to be said for restraint of tongue and pen, and restraint refers not only to what we say but also to how we say it. It is possible, believe it or not, to be emphatic without indulging in overstatement; it is possible to be forceful without exaggerating.

I'm prone to hyperbole.

There are some things people avoid saying in interviews because they sound pompous or sentimental or too mystical.

I love the 20 million people that live in my state and 100 million tourists.

Hyperbole is not easily dealt with. Usually, it collapses under its own weight.

I've seen Hugh Jackman in a thousand Broadway shows.

I don't believe in sensationalism, but I do believe in the sensational.

It's true, I did write - but it's probably not as dramatic as it sounds.

Americans like to add the word 'super' when they're describing things.

I think a lot of things get blown out of proportion in the media.

It's amazing how much things can get exaggerated.

I went to UMass-Amherst and was like, 'I want to work in news, I want to be a journalist.' Then I got there and was like, 'what kind of crap is this?' They inflate everything. It will be like snowing outside, like just a little bit, and they are like 'Giant storm coming, batten down the hatches!' and I just didn't like that aspect of it.

Genius is an exaggeration of dimension. So is elephantiasis. Both may be only a disease.

I admit that when the facts are not good enough, I always exaggerate them.

Anything more than the truth would have seemed too weak.

You know what's the greatest part of anything ever in the history of everything? Exaggeration. No, wait; it's correcting yourself. No, better yet, it's making lists.

There is apparently no surer way of turning a thing into its opposite than by exaggerating it

Everything is 'colossalized' - events, fortunes, accidents, climate, conversation, ambitions - everything is in the extreme ... They can't even have a tram run off a line, which in England or France might kill one or two people, without its making a holocaust of half a street full. ... The thing which surprises me is they should still employ animals of normal size; one would expect to see elephants and mammoths drawing the hansoms and carts!

I was raised by and have raised people who regard telling one story when two would do as a sign someone is not really trying.

I tend to basically exaggerate in life, and in writing, it's fine to exaggerate. I really enjoy overstating for the purpose of getting a laugh. For another thing, writing is easier than digging ditches. Well, actually, that's an exaggeration. It isn't.

Exaggeration! was ever any virtue attributed to a man without exaggeration? was ever any vice, without infinite exaggeration? Do we not exaggerate ourselves to ourselves, or do we recognize ourselves for the actual men we are? Are we not all great men? Yet what are we actually, to speak of? We live by exaggeration.

The final key to the way I promote is bravado. I play to people's fantasies. People may not always think big themselves, but they can still get very excited by those who do. That's why a little hyperbole never hurts.

Maybe he overreacted a bit." - "A bit? That's like Hitler saying, 'Oooh, I just meant to go for a little walk, but then I accidentally invaded Poland".

Exaggeration is in the course of things. Nature sends no creature, no man into the world, without adding a small excess of his proper quality. Given the planet, it is still necessary to add the impulse; so, to every creature nature added a little violence of direction in its proper path, a shove to put it on its way; in every instance, a slight generosity, a drop too much.