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

Exaggeration is the inseparable companion of greatness.

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

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

Who breaks a butterfly on a wheel?

Imagine being in a room with two TV sets. One is a large screen TV with surround sound. The other is a miniature 1 screen TV. What would you tend to focus on and become absorbed in? Some people make their problems the size of the large screen TV and their personal goals the size of the miniature one. It is important to mentally minimize the problems and the cant's and maximize the goals and the cans.

Pretense is the overrating of any kind of knowledge we pretend to.

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.

There is no one who does not exaggerate!

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.