Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Excessive or overstretched truths become absurd.
In plain terms
If you push a truth too far, it turns ridiculous.
What can you take from it?
Stay within the limits of an idea's relevance.

Where it applies

  • public discourse
  • scientific claims

Putting it to work

  • moderate arguments
  • use precise language

Questions to consider

  • When does a claim become absurd?
  • Who decides the limits?

Another view

What counts as 'overdone' can be subjective.

More from Vladimir Lenin

  1. Rectilinearity and one-sidedness, woodenness and petrification, subjectivism and subjective blindness-voila the epistemological roots of idealism.

    Permalink to quote #13
  2. It is logical to assert that all matter possesses a property which is essentially akin to sensation, the property of reflection.

    Permalink to quote #15
  3. A full 'definition of an object must include the whole of human experience, both as a criterion of truth and a practical indicator of its connection with human…

    Permalink to quote #12

Related quotes

  1. Thou must be true thyself, If thou the truth wouldst teach; Thy soul must overflow, if thou Another's soul would'st reach! It needs the overflow of heart To gi…

    Horatius BonarHoratius Bonar quote #1
  2. By means of beauty all beautiful things become beautiful. For this appears to me the safest answer to give both to myself and others; and adhering to this, I t…

    SocratesSocrates quote #1
  3. Semiotics is in principle the discipline studying everything which can be used in order to lie. If something cannot be used to tell a lie, conversely it cannot…

    Umberto EcoUmberto Eco quote #3