to emphasize everything is to emphasize nothing
proverbEtymology Perhaps coined by American liberal arts professor John Scott Clark (see quote 1886) but more likely to be traditional. Used with many variations.
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Arts, Communications, Design, Journalism, Literature, Media, Publishing, Writing Emphasize excessively and nothing will stand out.
- The temptation is constantly to tresspass upon the domain of Elocution, and indicate beforehand all particular emphasis; moreover, to emphasize everything is to emphasize nothing.1886, John Scott Clark, chapter V, in A Practical Rhetoric for Instruction in English Composition and Revision in College and Intermediate Schools, New York: Henry Holt and Company, page 27: