Quote#Books & Reading
[E]xaggeration establishes no good understanding between the reader…
Quote byAlice Meynell · 1847–1922
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Hearts of Controversy (1917), "Dickens", p. 26.
English (original)
[E]xaggeration establishes no good understanding between the reader and the author. It is a solemn appeal to our credulity, and we are right to resent it. It is the violence of a weakling hand—the worst manner of violence.
— Alice Meynell
More from Alice Meynell
Thou art like silence unperplexed, A secret and a mystery Between one footfall and the next.
O Spring, I know thee! Seek for sweet surprise In the young children's eyes. But I have learnt the years, and know the yet Leaf-folded violet.
Compassion in the highest degree is the divinest form of religion.
There is nothing in the world more peaceful than apple-leaves with an early moon.
Now, in our opinion, no author should be blamed for obscurity; nor should any pains be grudged in the effort to understand him, provided that he has done his best to be intelligible. Difficult thoughts are quite distinct from difficult …
[N]o mirror keeps its glances.