Quotes About Understatement

To say I didn't have great luck in the guy department was like saying Ryan Seacrest didn't have great luck in the height department: total understatement.

People in New Zealand go out of their way to not be impressed by things.

Emptiness and boredom: what an understatement. What I felt was complete desolation. Desolation, despair, and depression. Isn't there some other way to look at this? After all, angst of these dimensions is a luxury item. You need to be well fed, clothes, and housed to have time for this much self-pity.

Something's wrong!" he said, which was the understatement of the year.

All this display, while the working classes were pinched beyond bearing; it was not wise, or tasteful: it smacked of ostentatious wealth. The Europe from which Phryne had lately come was impoverished, even the nobility; and was keeping its head down, still shocked by the Russian revolution. It had become fashionable to make no display; understatement had become most stylish.

That's when the British captain, Eric Moody, made one of the most famous understatements in the history of aviation. "Ladies and gentlemen," he told the passengers, "this is your captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four of the engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them going again. I trust you are not in too much distress.

The ideal woman which is in every man's mind is evoked by a word or phrase or the shape of her wrist, her hand. The most beautiful description of a woman is by understatement. Remember, all Tolstoy ever said to describe Anna Karenina was that she was beautiful and could see in the dark like a cat. Every man has a different idea of what's beautiful, and it's best to take the gesture, the shadow of the branch, and let the mind create the tree.

For me, generally speaking, I don't like to make a big deal out of stuff.

I don't like to make a big splash anyway.

But then, even with sex, I'm more in the school of less is more in movies.

To say that Effrom was not a particularly good cook was an understatement akin to saying that genocide is not a particularly effective public relations strategy.

Die Behauptung, daß Effrom nicht besonders gut kochen konnte, war eine Untertreibung von ähnlichem Kaliber wie die Feststellung, daß es sich bei Völkermord um eine nicht besonders erfolgversprechende PR-Strategie handele.

The understatement is the English contribution to comedy.

I don't like being flattered. It doesn't suit my English sensibilities. Remember, we are the great country of understatement.

Films like 'The Godfather,' 'Chinatown' and 'The Exorcist' brought a realism and currency and understatement to their genres that we wanted for 'Mildred Pierce.'

However old-fashioned and right-wing this may sound, the American genius for language lies in understatement, in saying things simply, pointedly and quickly, and in making new and clean and swift what otherwise might be ponderous, round and slow.

I don't really like making too much of a statement with what I'm wearing.

Kalona's back. The spell worked. One of Neferet's hostages got out. And to say Neferet's pissed is like saying Louis Vuitton makes cute purses. Hello, understatement of the decade.

It seems the less I do and say, the better everyone likes my work!

My modus operandi has always been understatement and that just doesn't really work in pop.

I have never been one for the over-the-top.

The worst thing about irony for me is that it attenuates emotion.

Just remember, New York isn't an offshoot of Bloomsbury. Forget refinement, understatement and irony. However much it's against your better nature, you'll have to learn to sell your wares like an East End barrow boy.

I admire an actor that can do a lot with doing nothing really, for the most part. I like doing a lot by doing so little.