Euphemism quotes:

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Euphemism is a euphemism for lying. -- Bobbie Gentry
Euphemism is a human device to conceal the horrors of reality. -- Paul Johnson
Sleeping together is a euphemism for people, but tantamount to marriage with cats. -- Marge Piercy
A composite is a euphemism for a lie. It's disorderly. It's dishonest and it's not journalism. -- Fred W. Friendly
Patrimonial capitalism's legacy is that many people see reform as a euphemism for corruption and self-dealing. -- James Surowiecki
Asymmetrical warfare is a euphemism for terrorism, just like collateral damage is a euphemism for killing innocent civilians. -- Alan Dershowitz
Any euphemism ceases to be euphemistic after a time and the true meaning begins to show through. It's a losing game, but we keep on trying. -- Joseph Wood Krutch
Euphemism in the workplace does not end with job descriptions. It reaches a pusillanimous peak at the other end of the work process - in dismissal. -- Nigel Rees
The language of the younger generation has the brutality of the city and an assertion of threatening power at hand, not to come. It is military, theatrical, and at its most coherent probably a lasting repudiation of empty courtesy and bureaucratic euphemism. -- Elizabeth Hardwick
The more syllables a euphemism has, the further divorced from reality it is. -- George Carlin
Once one understands that 'racial tensions' is a euphemism for a black animosity toward whites and a left-wing construct, one begins to understand why the election of a black president has had no impact on most blacks or on the left. -- Dennis Prager
As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city by destroying it. Words are to confuse, so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their own interests. -- Gore Vidal
Euphemisms are unpleasant truths wearing diplomatic cologne. -- Quentin Crisp
I've never been a fan of euphemism. -- Jo Brand
'Spoilt' is a euphemism for 'loved.' -- James Nesbitt
"Fussy eater" is a euphemism for "big pain in the ass." -- George Carlin
To use a Southern euphemism, our space program has been snake-bit. -- Al Gore
The Good Book - one of the most remarkable euphemisms ever coined. -- Ashley Montagu
Women's fashion is a euphemism for fashion created by men for women. -- Andrea Dworkin
'Women's fashion' is a euphemism for fashion created by men for women. -- Andrea Dworkin
All euphemisms are dishonest, but many are designed to make life easier -- Kate Burridge
Faith is a euphemism for prejudice and religion is a euphemism for superstition. -- Paul Kenneth Keller
Controversial' as we all know, is often a euphemism for 'interesting and intelligent. -- Kevin Smith
Cloud computing is a great euphemism for centralization of computer services under one server. -- Evgeny Morozov
Negotiations are a euphemism for capitulation if the shadow of power is not cast across the bargaining table. -- George P. Shultz
Though intelligence is powerless to modify character, it is a dab hand at finding euphemisms for its weaknesses. -- Quentin Crisp
Negotiations are a euphemism for capitulation if the shadow of power is not cast across the bargaining table. -- George P. Shultz
when I spoke of having a drink, it was a euphemism for having a whole flock of them. -- Margaret Halsey
There is a term called political correctness, and I consider it to be a euphemism for political cowardice. -- Milos Zeman
When we shrink from the sight of something, when we shroud it in euphemism, that is usually a sign of inner conflict, of unsettled hearts, a sign that something has gone wrong in our moral reasoning. -- Matthew Scully
In many previously classified documents relating to activities at the base, the words 'Area 51' are conveniently blacked out. There's always a euphemism for it - like 'the test facility' or 'the base' - but never 'Area 51.' -- Annie Jacobsen
Every individual needs revolution, inner division, overthrow of the existing order, and renewal, but not by forcing them upon his neighbors under the hypocritical cloak of Christian love or the sense of social responsibility or any of the other beautiful euphemisms for unconscious urges to personal power. -- Carl Jung
The middles cleave to euphemisms not just because they're an aid in avoiding facts. They like them also because they assist their social yearnings towards pomposity. This is possible because most euphemisms permit the speaker to multiply syllables, and the middle class confuses sheer numerousness with weight and value. -- Paul Fussell
There's a grosser irony about Politically Correct English. This is that PCE purports to be the dialect of progressive reform but is in fact - in its Orwellian substitution of the euphemisms of social equality for social equality itself - of vastly more help to conservatives and the US status quo than traditional SNOOT prescriptions ever were. -- David Foster Wallace
Euphemisms are not, as many young people think, useless verbiage for that which can and should be said bluntly; they are like secret agents on a delicate mission, they must airily pass by a stinking mess with barely so much as a nod of the head, make their point of constructive criticism and continue on in calm forbearance. Euphemisms are unpleasant truths wearing diplomatic cologne. -- Quentin Crisp
The Japanese tend to communicate via nuance and euphemism, often leaving important things unsaid; whereas Americans tend to think they're being subtle when they refrain from grabbing the listener by the shirt. -- Dave Barry
To call yourself 'plus size' is just a euphemism for being fat. Life is much easier when you're thinner. Big is not beautiful, of course a job comes down to how you look. -- Katie Hopkins
Planned Parenthood's entire existence is basically based on keeping people in the dark through euphemism. You don't call it genocide, you call it reproductive health. So that's why Planned Parenthood has - nobody really thought. -- Greg Gutfeld
Spoilt is a euphemism for loved. -- James Nesbitt
Gratitude is a euphemism for resentment. -- Robert A. Heinlein
Frankness is usually a euphemism for rudeness. -- Muriel Spark
Global governance is just a euphemism for global government. -- Jacques Attali
"Striking looking." That's a euphemism if I ever heard one. -- Ron Perlman
Political correctness is euphemism for "fear to speak truth to authority -- Bangambiki Habyarimana
Women's fashion' is a euphemism for fashion created by men for women. -- Andrea Dworkin
Tact is kind; diplomacy is useful; euphemism is harmless and sometimes entertaining -- Julian Burnside
It hurt, and that is not a euphemism. It hurt like a beating. -- John Green
in terms of the biology of the planet, development is a euphemism for destruction. -- Helen Caldicott
Underhand euphemism are used, not so much to conceal offence and to deliberately disguise a topic and deceive -- Kate Burridge
Although the term dialogue was really a euphemism for scientists trying to kill each other, this format worked very well... -- Joao Magueijo
We have entered a period of intolerance which combines, as it sometimes does in America, with a sugary taste for euphemism. -- Robert Hughes
The intangibles are a euphemism for we have no idea what we're looking for but we know it when we see it. -- Brian Billick
There should be a new, more honest euphemism. Like, I'm leaving office because I plan to solicit more anonymous sex in bathrooms. -- Tina Fey
We want to create a sort of linguistic Lourdes, where evil and misfortune are dispelled by a dip in the waters of euphemism -- Robert Hughes
When I heard you could get a disease from playing with your prairie dog, I thought, 'Wow, what a euphemism.' I thought playing with my prairie dog was the best way to avoid diseases. -- Greg Giraldo
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When you say a wall, you mean a wall. You want to build a fence, you say fence. You don't use it as a euphemism for a virtual, say surveillance from hot air balloons that are floating over the border which some people have advocated. -- Steve King

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