Merism Quotes & Sayings

It is a belief of the mediocre that extreme effort kills. — Moffat Machingura

Well, let's see, I found out Pagan has low blood sugar and becomes a complete b
witch if she doesn't eat a candy bar during a stressful moment. — Abbi Glines

If the sacrifice is the ultimate way for that person to show you that they love you, you should let them do it. — Veronica Roth

I think if you've been invited to someone's house, you eat what they serve you. Even if you leave hungry, you be gracious enough to eat what they've prepared. — Paula Deen

The beauty of merism is that it's absolutely unnecessary. It's words for words' sake: a gushing torrent of invention filled with noun and noun and signifying nothing. Why a rhetorical figure that gabs on and on for no good reason should be central to the rite of marriage is beyond me. — Mark Forsyth

I looked through a lens and ended up abandoning everything else. — Sebastiao Salgado

The law requires a paper towel ad to be scrupulously honest, but allows political candidates to lie without reproach. What's wrong with this picture? — Jef I. Richards

Between nine and ten, at last, in the high clear picture--he was moving in these days, as in a gallery, from clever canvas to clever canvas--he drew a long breath: it was so presented to him from the first that the spell of his luxury wouldn't be broken. — Henry James

The lawyer's lucky phrase is 'including but not limited to', which gets you out of the utterly unnecessary trouble that the unnecessary trouble merism got you into in the first place. — Mark Forsyth

You will remember that Albertus Magnus, after describing minutely the process by which spirits may be invoked and commanded, adds emphatically that the process will instruct and avail only to the few - that a man must be born a magician! - that is, born with a peculiar physical temperament, as a man is born a poet. Rarely are men in whose constitution lurks this occult power of the highest order of intellect - usually in the intellect there is some twist, perversity, or disease.' ("The House And The Brain") — Edward Bulwer-Lytton

I've learned a lot of tricks from working with a lot of great producers over the years, and I think I should write a book about it! — Ace Frehley

But the true and natural home of merism is in legal documents. Lawyers are like Cole Porter and Alfred Lord Tennyson with a blender. A lawyer, for a reason or reasons known only to him or herself, cannot see a whole without dividing it into its parts and enumerating them in immense detail. This may be something to do with the billing system. — Mark Forsyth