雙語智慧書·切勿言過其實

41．切勿言過其實
　　切勿言過其實。細心謹(jǐn)慎的一個重要目的，就是說話不過分使用"最"字，以免違背事實，或是讓人對你的判斷力產(chǎn)生懷疑。言過其實糟蹋你的判斷力，顯得你學(xué)識淺薄，品位低劣。贊美之辭引來人們的好奇心，好奇心又滋生欲望。待之后人們發(fā)現(xiàn)你是在夸大其詞時，期望落空，就會有種被欺騙的感覺，于是滋生報復(fù)之心，將贊美者和被贊美者一起貶低下去。因此，謹(jǐn)小慎微之人在評價事物時總是很謹(jǐn)慎，寧可言之不足，也不夸大其詞。非凡的事物是很少見的，因此，你要節(jié)制你的評價?？浯笃湓~近乎說謊，會危及自身聲譽，讓人對你的品味產(chǎn)生懷疑；更糟糕的是，讓人懷疑你的見識。


41．Never exaggerate
　Never exaggerate. It is an important object of attention not to talk in superlatives, so as neither to offend against truth nor to give a mean idea of one's understanding. Exaggeration is a prodigality of the judgment which shows the narrowness of one's knowledge or one's taste. Praise arouses lively curiosity, begets desire, and if afterwards the value does not correspond to the price, as generally happens, expectation revolts against the deception, and revenges itself by under-estimating the thing recommended and the person recommending. A prudent man goes more cautiously to work, and prefers to err by understatement than by overstatement. Extraordinary things are rare, therefore moderate your valuation. Exaggeration is a branch of lying, and you lose by it the credit of good taste, which is much, and of good sense, which is more.