"Overstate" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... reconstruction of official Soviet statistics); note—because of the continued unraveling of Soviet economic and statistical controls, the estimate is subject to even greater uncertainties than in earlier years; the dollar estimates most likely overstate Soviet GNP to some extent because of an incomplete allowance for the poor quality, narrow assortment, and low performance characteristics of Soviet goods and services; the - 2.4% growth figure is based on the application of CIA's usual estimating methods whereas the - 5.0% figure is ...
— The 1991 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.
... real-estate advertisements, I could find absolutely nothing that on the face of it seemed fraudulent, and very little that was misleading. The advertisers have at last come to realize that for the long run, whatever the rule may be for the short run, it does not pay to overstate the qualities of their merchandise. You can now order your purchases by mail from the advertising pages of any reputable publication about as safely as over the counter of a store. At all events the phenomenal ...
— Commercialism and Journalism • Hamilton Holt
... State of Massachusetts, vaunting itself for its progressiveness, enlightenment and culture, the textile factories were a horror beyond description. The Convention of the Boston Eight Hour League, in 1872, did not overstate when it declared of the factory system that "it employs tens of thousands of women and children eleven and twelve hours a day; owns or controls in its own selfish interest the pulpit and the press; prevents the operative classes ...
— Great Fortunes from Railroads • Gustavus Myers
... is the Australasian National Day. It would be difficult to overstate its importance. It overshadows all other holidays and specialized days of whatever sort in that congeries of colonies. Overshadows them? I might almost say it blots them out. Each of them gets attention, but not everybody's; each of them evokes interest, but not everybody's; each of them ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... describe slavery generally, and in the narration of my own case I have dwelt as little as possible upon the dark side—have spoken mostly of the bright. In whatever I have been obliged to say unfavorable to others, I have endeavored not to overstate, but have chosen rather to come short of giving the full picture—omitting much which it did not seem important to my object to relate. And yet I would not venture to say that this publication does not contain ...
— The Narrative of Lunsford Lane, Formerly of Raleigh, N.C. • Lunsford Lane
... if here were something whose meanings no single explanation could exalt, something to be felt rather than understood. The Cross so seen is the symbol at once of love and need, of moral defeat and moral discipline, of suffering helplessness and overcoming goodness. We cannot overstate the influence of this faith upon the better ...
— Modern Religious Cults and Movements • Gaius Glenn Atkins
... by the door facing the Palais Royal, Turner moved to the left. To say that he walked would be to overstate the action of his little stout legs, which took so short a stride that his progress suggested wheels and some one pushing behind. He turned to the left again, and ambled under the great arch, to take the path ...
— The Last Hope • Henry Seton Merriman
... of the new school of opinion as a party, moreover, is to overstate the case as to the relative positions of three small groups of Unionist opinion, which have little or nothing in common except a joint denunciation of the ...
— Ireland and the Home Rule Movement • Michael F. J. McDonnell
... [Fr.]; stretch of fancy, stretch of the imagination; flight of fancy &c (imagination) 515. false coloring &c (falsehood) 544; aggravation &c 835. V. exaggerate, magnify, pile up, aggravate; amplify &c (expand) 194; overestimate &c 482; hyperbolize; overcharge, overstate, overdraw, overlay, overshoot the mark, overpraise; make over much, over the most of; strain, strain over a point; stretch, stretch a point; go great lengths; spin a long yarn; draw with a longbow, shoot ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget
... onbridgable gulf in her eyes between her offspring an' other folks' offspring; an' while disclaiming all disloyalty to Tucson Jennie, I'm obleeged to say that as between Annalinda an' little Enright Peets, she wouldn't be cap'ble of a even break. Do I overstate the trooth, Dave?' ...
— Faro Nell and Her Friends - Wolfville Stories • Alfred Henry Lewis
... this period of his life, that is to say, when he was of the age of thirteen, or we may perhaps say fourteen years, for we do not wish to overstate his precocity, that he experienced a sensation so entirely novel, that, to the best of his belief, it was such as no other young person had ever known, at least in anything like the same degree. This extraordinary emotion was brought on by the sight of Myrtle Hazard, with whom he ...
— The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (The Physician and Poet not the Jurist)
... is the end and purpose of the tragedy, and the end is everywhere the chief thing. Besides this, a tragedy is impossible without action, but there may be one without character." (Bywater's Translation.) The last sentence is, in my view, the gist of the matter; the preceding sentences greatly overstate the case. There was a lively controversy on the subject in the Times Literary Supplement in May, 1902. It arose from a review of Mr. Phillips's Paolo and Francesco, and Mr. Andrew Lang, Mr. Churton Collins, and Mr. A.B. Walkley took ...
— Play-Making - A Manual of Craftsmanship • William Archer
... the difficulties which have to be grappled with, I shall endeavour in all things to understate rather than overstate my case. I do this for two reasons: first, any exaggeration would create a reaction; and secondly, as my object is to demonstrate the practicability of solving the problem, I do not wish to magnify its dimensions. In this and in subsequent chapters ...
— "In Darkest England and The Way Out" • General William Booth
... commander is apt to overstate the enemy's force and underrate his own, it is not always easy to get at the facts. Pleasonton claims that the rebels had about twelve thousand cavalry and twelve guns. Major McClellan of Stuart's staff, puts the number at nine thousand three hundred and thirty-five ...
— Chancellorsville and Gettysburg - Campaigns of the Civil War - VI • Abner Doubleday
... "Win mothers and sisters, and the fathers and brothers cannot fail you." It was in that belief that she acted, and before long the Nursing Corps might with equal justice have been called The Women Citizens. It became a great league of domestic patriots, and it would not be easy to overstate the value of its influence upon the rising ...
— The Message • Alec John Dawson
... a given occasion. This is deplorable, but it is the ordinary course. Moreover, it is possible that in a season of great joy like that which the Quadricentenary of the Reformation has ushered in orators and writers may fail to put a due check on their enthusiasm and may overstate a fact. Such things happen even among Catholics, we believe, But they will be negligible quantities in the present celebration. The proper corrective for them will be provided by Protestants themselves. The ...
— Luther Examined and Reexamined - A Review of Catholic Criticism and a Plea for Revaluation • W. H. T. Dau
... Court suggests no reply, and upon them it offers no criticism. On the contrary, it in terms concedes "the strength of this appeal to recognized and widely prevalent sentiment." It declares that "no word of praise could overstate the industry and Intelligence of the Commission" which prepared the New York law, and it apparently agrees with the conclusion of the Commission, based on "a most voluminous array of statistical tables, extracts from the works of philosophical writers, and the ...
— The Making of Arguments • J. H. Gardiner |
