How to understand these sentences with "more...than..."? Thank you!

[thincat]

Dear teachers,

As an ESL learner, it is always my headache to understand sentences like the following ones with the structure of "more...than" conveying meanings in a seemingly indirect way:

Sentence 1: "I wouldn't be anymore scared of him than any ordinary criminal."
Sentence 2: "If I woke up tomorrow with my head sewn to the carpet, I wouldn't be more surprised than I am now."
Sentence 3: "You will not be more created by creating any more than you will be destroyed by destroying."

Can any teacher tell me their meanings and, if possible, the ways to decipher them?

Thank you very much!

 

[emsr2d2]

Where did you find those three sentences? It's important to quote your source.

 

[thincat]

Where did you find those three sentences? It's important to quote your source.

Sorry, as they are random sentences I marked down and collected when I was reading some books or watching some TV programmes, I don't think I can locate their sources anymore.

 

[emsr2d2]

OK, but in future when you note down a sentence, please try to make a quick note of what TV show it was in or which book. It can help us to help you if we know who wrote/spoke the line, especially knowing whether they were a native speaker or not.

I can't make a grammatical argument for Sentence 1 at all. I might use "I would be no more scared of him than any other criminal". That means "I wouldn't be more scared of him than the amount I would be scared of any criminal".

Sentence 2 is fairly literal. The speaker is surprised. He/she is probably very surprised. This is indicated by the fact that if he woke up tomorrow and found that his head had been sewn to the carpet, he would be surprised (so would I!) but he would not be more surprised than he is now.

Sentence 3 is very odd. Like sentence 1, if it said "You would be no more created by creating than you would be destroyed by destroying", I could make an argument for it. It means "You wouldn't be destroyed by the act of destroying someone/something else and, on the same basis, you are not created by creating something".

 

[SoothingDave]

1 should be "any more" not "anymore."