Some so speak in exaggerations and superlatives that we need to make a large discount from their statements before we can come at their real meaning.

Tryon Edwards (1809–1894) was an American Congregational minister and compiler of moral and religious aphorisms, best known for collections such as *A Dictionary of Thoughts*. The remark fits the 19th-century tradition of didactic “thought literature,” aimed at cultivating prudence in speech, judgment, and character. Edwards frequently distilled pastoral experience into brief maxims about truthfulness, self-control, and the hazards of rhetoric. This sentence reflects a common concern in Victorian-era homiletics and etiquette writing: that habitual hyperbole and superlatives can erode credibility and require listeners to mentally “correct” what is said to reach the speaker’s intended meaning.

Edwards observes that some people rely so heavily on overstatement—“exaggerations and superlatives”—that their words cannot be taken at face value. The listener must apply a “discount,” like reducing an inflated price, to estimate what is actually meant. The aphorism is both a warning to speakers (hyperbole diminishes trust and clarity) and advice to hearers (interpret claims critically, calibrating for a speaker’s habitual intensity). More broadly, it treats language as a moral instrument: accuracy and proportion in speech are tied to integrity, while rhetorical excess creates noise that obscures truth and weakens communication.