Quotes About Understatement

Man often overstates the trivial things and understates the vital ones!

A discerning eye needs only a hint, and understatement leaves the imagination free to build its own elaborations.

Useful Figure The litotes ("didn't appreciate") understates a point ironically. It has fallen out of favor in our hyperbolic times, but makes for a more sophisticated kind of speech.

The beer came and I said, "Joe, I'm thinking that there is something larger here than an attorney's zealous defense of his client." The master of understatement.

some stories don't need telling

Increase in Reports of Influenza. A masterpiece of understatement, as if it were only the reporting that had increased, or perhaps the pandemic was a figment of the collective imagination. I wondered whether it was the newspaper publisher's decision to play down the danger or if he'd received orders from above.

Don't overstate your likely achievements; when in doubt, understate them.

Kenney knows two essential truths about melodrama: First that it is most powerful when combined with irony and understatement; and second that it is a salient feature of modern life.

It rained a lot in Seattle. What a hello an understatement that was.

Yes, they're a little biased there," I agree. Mike smiles at this understatement, knowing as I do that saying they're a little biased in Mudd's favor at the Mudd-family-run Mudd home in Maryland is like saying cheese steaks are kind of associated with Philadelphia.

A discerning eye needs only a hint, and understatement leaves the imagination free to build its own elaborations.

the kind of place that thrived on understatement and quiet privilege.

It is an understatement to say that in this society injustices abound: In truth it is itself the quintessence of injustice.

It was not, they observed with exquisite understatement, a cry for help.

I should warn you—he's not at all respectful of you," she wrote. I suspected that was an understatement.

You said I was pretty, before." "Did I?" A new laugh escaped him, mirthless. "How unoriginal. I must be the master of understatement. I think you're goddamned radiant, and you know it. Sometimes I think if I look at you too long I'll go blind, like a lunatic staring straight into the sun. No," he said in a savage undertone, and let the gown fall back to the floor. "You're not pretty.

To say that George Lucas cannot write a love scene is an understatement; greeting cards have expressed more passion.

Even the revolutionary writer will err if he fails to grasp the enormous effectiveness of occasional understatement.

Das den Nürnberger Prozessen zugrunde liegende Londoner Statut hat, wie bereits erwähnt, die Verbrechen gegen die Menschheit als unmenschliche Handlungen definiert, woraus dann in der deutschen Übersetzung die bekannten Verbrechen gegen die Menschlichkeit geworden sind - als hätten es die Nazis lediglich an Menschlichkeit fehlen lassen, als sie Millionen in die Gaskammern schickten, wahrhaftig das Understatement des Jahrhunderts.

It is an understatement to say that in this society injustices abound: in truth, it is itself the quintessence of injustice.

Even the English, who understand it, are not exactly riotously amused by the understatement. At best, a well-timed, well-turned understatement only raises a slight smirk.

The reasons for our prolific understating are not hard to discover: our strict prohibitions on earnestness, gushing, emoting and boasting require almost constant use of understatement.

I was impressed. She had already mastered the art of not saying much of anything at all.

There's a lot of good things about England, but I don't want to tell you too many of them.