Best Generalization Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“Each category is generalized to the greatest possible extent, so that it eventually loses all specificity and is reabsorbed by all the other categories. When everything is political, nothing is political anymore, the word itself is meaningless. When everything is sexual, nothing is sexual any more, and sex loses its determinants. When everything is aesthetic, nothing is beautiful or ugly any more, and art itself disappears.”

Value Political Correctness Generalization Devaluation

Book:The Transparency of Evil: Essays in Extreme Phenomena

Source: The Transparency of Evil: Essays in Extreme Phenomena

“Language necessarily involves bringing any particular under more and more general and universal labels. That’s what conceptualization is all about: reducing particular things to fewer and fewer generalizations and universals, until, ultimately, reality is reduced to just one universal, the supreme concept that explains everything. This one concept is the Principle of Sufficient Reason (PSR). The whole point of concepts is to reach more and more general and universal levels until we ultimately arrive at one concept – the ultimate universal which explains the whole of reality. That concept is the PSR.”

Reason Language Knowledge Particular Concepts Universal Rationalism Generalization Psr

Book:The Stairway to Consciousness: The Birth of Self-Awareness from Unconscious Archetypes

Source: The Stairway to Consciousness: The Birth of Self-Awareness from Unconscious Archetypes

“To think is to forget a difference, to generalize, to abstract.”

Thinking Thought Abstraction Difference Generalization Borges

Book:Ficciones

Source: Ficciones

“Darwin based his theory on generalizations that were strictly empirical. You can go out and see that organisms do vary, that variations are inherited, and that every organism is capable of increasing its numbers in sufficiently favorable circumstances.”

Numbers Theory Circumstances Capable Organisms Variation Vary Generalization

Author:George C. Williams

“To make an absolutely gross generalization, I think a lot of people feel like if you're mixed, more often than not you're quote unquote white. So if you're mixed, you embrace the mainstream culture more than the African-American culture.”

People Ifs Thinking Feels Culture White Embrace African American Mainstream Gross American Culture Generalization Mainstream Culture African American Culture

Author:Keegan-Michael Key

“During the first half of the present century we had an Alexander von Humboldt, who was able to scan the scientific knowledge of his time in its details, and to bring it within one vast generalization. At the present juncture, it is obviously very doubtful whether this task could be accomplished in a similar way, even by a mind with gifts so peculiarly suited for the purpose as Humboldt's was, and if all his time and work were devoted to the purpose.”

Ifs Knows Way Mind Firsts Able Science Purpose Half Knowledge Century Tasks Details Accomplished Devoted Doubtful Generalization Scientific Knowledge Juncture

Author:Hermann von Helmholtz

“Law is no explanation of anything; law is simply a generalization, a category of facts. Law is neither a cause, nor a reason, nor a power, nor a coercive force. It is nothing but a general formula, a statistical table.”

Reason Facts Law Force Causes Tables Explanation Categories Formulas Generalization

Book:Suggestions for Thought by Florence Nightingale: Selections and Commentaries

Source: Suggestions for Thought by Florence Nightingale: Selections and Commentaries

“Too rigid specialization is almost as bad for a historian's mind, and for his ultimate reputation, as too early an indulgence in broad generalization and synthesis.”

Mind Ultimate Reputation Broads Historian Indulgence Synthesis Generalization Specialization

Book:By Land and by Sea: Essays and Addresses

Source: By Land and by Sea: Essays and Addresses

“Without doubt, if we are to go back to that ultimate, integral experience, unwarped by the sophistications of theory, that experience whose elucidation is the final aim of philosophy, the flux of things is one ultimate generalization around which we must weave our philosophical system.”

Ifs Philosophy Doubt Theory Ultimate Philosophical Aim Finals Sophistication Flux Generalization

Book:Process and Reality

Source: Process and Reality

“I think it's very easy for people who are not deep in the technology itself to make generalizations, which may be a little dangerous. And we've certainly seen that recently with Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Stephen Hawking, all saying AI is just taking off and it's going to take over the world very quickly. And the thing that they share is none of them work in this technological field.”

People Thinking World May Littles Easy Technology Share Dangerous Fields Bills Gates Technological Generalization Musk

Author:Rodney Brooks

“The eternal is omniembracing and permeative; and the temporal is linear. This opens up a very high order of generalizations of generalizations. The truth could not be more omni-important, although it is often manifestly operative only as a linear identification of a special-case experience on a specialized subject.”

Important Order Cases Special Subjects Eternal Linear Identification Generalization

Book:Synergetics: Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking

Source: Synergetics: Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking

“An aphorism is a generalization, therefore not modern.”

Modern Aphorism Generalization

Book:The Journals: Volume 1: 1949-1965

Source: The Journals: Volume 1: 1949-1965

“Conclusions which are merely verbal cannot bear fruit, only those do which are based on demonstrated fact. For affirmation and talk are deceptive and treacherous. Wherefore one must hold fast to facts in generalizations also, and occupy oneself with facts persistently, if one is to acquire that ready and infallible habit which we call "the art of medicine".”

Ifs Art Facts Ready Bears Habit Medicine Fruit Oneself Conclusion Acquire Affirmation Infallible Deceptive Treacherous Generalization Hold Fast

Author:Hippocrates

“An aphorism is a generalization of sorts, and our present-day writers seem more at home with the particular.”

Home Seems Particular Aphorism Present Day Generalization

Author:Anatole Broyard

“Prediction can never be absolutely valid and therefore science can never prove some generalization or even test a single descriptive statement and in that way arrive at final truth.”

Way Prove Tests Finals Statements Predictions Generalization

Author:Gregory Bateson

“There is a constant rush to judgment in Foucault. He is filled with specious generalizations, false categories, distortions, fudging, pretenses to knowledge in areas where he was ignorant. He had no ability whatsoever to distinguish among historical sources, where he makes terrible blunders.”

Ability Source Terrible Judgment Areas Filled Constant Historical Ignorant Categories Pretense Distortion Blunders Generalization

Author:Camille Paglia

“Particular facts are never scientific; only generalization can establish science.”

Facts Particular Generalization

Author:Claude Bernard

“A single observation that is inconsistent with some generalization points to the falsehood of the generalization, and thereby 'points to itself'.”

Observation Falsehood Inconsistent Generalization

Book:The Emergence of Probability: A Philosophical Study of Early Ideas about Probability, Induction and Statistical Inference

Source: The Emergence of Probability: A Philosophical Study of Early Ideas about Probability, Induction and Statistical Inference

“To minds of a certain cast there is nothing so captivating as simplification and generalization.”

Mind Certain Casts Generalization Simplification Captivating

Book:An Essay on the Principle of Population and Other Writings

Source: An Essay on the Principle of Population and Other Writings

“If it is to be effective as a tool of thought, a notation must allow convenient expression not only of notions arising directly from a problem, but also of those arising in subsequent analysis, generalization, and specialization.”

Ifs Problem Expression Tools Notion Analysis Convenient Generalization Specialization

Author:Kenneth E. Iverson

“( ...philosophy is more often the systematization of the prejudices of philosophers than the systematization of nature.) Distrust all generalizations: stick to the concrete.”

Philosophy Prejudice Sticks Philosopher Concrete Distrust Generalization

Author:Epifanio de los Santos

“Writing about race and crime was not new territory for me. But it can be treacherous. So here are my rules: No stereotypes. No generalizations. No explanations. No apologies. Just the facts, ma'am.”

Writing Facts Race Crime Explanation Territory Apology Stereotype Treacherous Generalization New Territory

Author:Colin Flaherty

“The church as we know it today seems a million miles from the New Testament church. That may be a great generalization, but I will stand on it. There is a gulf between our average Christianity and the church of New Testament that makes the Grand Canyon look like a cavity in someone's tooth.”

Knows Looks May Seems Today Church Christianity Millions Average Miles Teeth Testament New Testament Canyons Generalization Grand Canyon

Author:Leonard Ravenhill

“It is wiser, I believe, to arrive at theory by way of evidence rather than the other way around.... It is more rewarding, in any case, to assemble the facts first and, in the process of arranging them in narrative form, to discover a theory or a historical generalization emerging of its own accord.”

Way Firsts Believe Facts Form I Believe Process Cases Atheism Theory Evidence Historical Positive Atheism Narrative Wiser Accord Emerging Generalization Arranging

Book:Practicing History: Selected Essays

Source: Practicing History: Selected Essays

“Every generalization is dangerous, especially this one.”

Dangerous Danger Generalization

Author:Mark Twain

“Travelers are much at the mercy of phrases ... vast generalizations formulate in their exposed brains.”

Brain Mercy Phrases Exposed Traveler Generalization

Author:Virginia Woolf

“Happiness is a specific. Misery is a generalization. People usually know exactly why they are happy. They very rarely know why they are miserable.”

People Knows Misery Miserable Unhappiness Generalization Generalisation

Author:Jeanette Winterson

“Newton's great generalization, which he called the "third law of motion," was that "Action and reaction are always equal to each other;" and that law has been one of the most pregnant of all truths about the mystery of force;--one of the brightest windows through which modern eyes have looked into the world of Nature.”

World Has Beens Eye Action Law Force Mystery Modern Equal Window Thirds Reactions Pregnant Newton Generalization Action And Reaction Laws Of Motion

Author:Phillips Brooks

“Hate generalizes; love specifies. Or: The movements of hatred are toward generalization; love's movements are toward specification.”

Hate Movement Hatred Generalization Specifications

Book:The Word of a Woman: Feminist Dispatches

Source: The Word of a Woman: Feminist Dispatches

“Everyone in America (according to my generalizations) is a potential millionaire waiting for his or her big break. I was astonished lately to realize that Americans are definitely believing in and planning for the future, despite the fact that they elected Ronald Reagan twice.”

Believe Facts Bigs America Waiting Realizing Break Planning Despite Millionaire Future Plans Generalization

Book:Roseanne: my life as a woman

Source: Roseanne: my life as a woman

“Generalizations, one is told, are dangerous. So is life, for that matter, and it is built up on generalization - from the earliest effort of the adventurer who dared to eat a second berry because the first had not killed him.”

Firsts Matter Effort Dangerous Built Berries Adventurer Generalization

Book:The Journey's Echo: Selections

Source: The Journey's Echo: Selections

“There is nothing in the education of the average non-scientific human being to discourage him from the habit of generalizing from little or no evidence, and worse still and far more important, nothing to discourage him from the habit of starting with a generalization and ending up with the individual, instead of the other way round.”

Way Humans Littles Stills Important Individual Human Beings Habit Evidence Rounds Starting Average Discouraging Generalization

Book:Earth and High Heaven

Source: Earth and High Heaven

“there are people who are born superficial ... They prefer not to have to deal with more than a limited number of oversimplified ideas - they prefer the book reviews to the books, the headlines and the leading paragraph to the full report, the generalization to the facts, and the negative to the positive.”

People Book Ideas Facts Born Deals Numbers Negative Reports Reviews Superficial Headlines Paragraph Generalization Superficiality Book Review

Book:Earth and High Heaven

Source: Earth and High Heaven

“If there is one sweeping generalization I can make without fear of contradiction, it is that 'change' is the scariest word in the English language Nothing will change in our lives until we change our own behavior. Insight won't do it. Understanding why we do the self-defeating things we do won't make us stop doing them. Nagging and pleading with the other person to change won't do it. We have to act. We have to take the first step down a new road.”

“But here’s the thing: Appropriation occurs when a style leads to racist generalizations or stereotypes where it originated, but is deemed as high fashion, cool, or funny when the privileged take it for themselves. Appropriation occurs when the appropriator is not aware of the deep significance of the culture that they are partaking in.”

Culture Fashion Style Racist Significance Privileged Stereotype Generalization Appropriation High Fashion

Author:Amandla Stenberg

“I think one of the things you have to learn if you're going to create believable characters is never to make generalizations about groups of people.”

People Ifs Thinking Character Groups Believable Generalization

Author:Mark Haddon

“Mental models are deeply ingrained assumptions, generalizations, or even pictures of images that influence how we understand the world and how we take action.”

World Action Influence Models Assumption Generalization

Author:Peter Senge

“The most obvious purpose of college education is to help students acquire information and knowledge by acquainting them with facts, theories, generalizations, principles, and the like. This purpose scarcely requires justification.”

Facts Helping Purpose Principles Information Students College Theory Obvious Acquire Justification College Education Generalization

Author:Derek Bok

“I tend to support and get behind issues instead of candidates, because of the whole 'Super Bowl' generalization of our world - You're on this side, I'm on that side; you're a Republican, I'm a Democrat; you're country music, I'm rock music.”

World Country Whole Sides Behinds Support Issues Rocks Republican Democrat Candidates Our World Bowls Rock Music Super Bowl Generalization

Author:Brandi Carlile

“Let me go out on a limb and suggest that those who see hints of a new class ideology developing around information technology are not necessarily wild-eyed. "Bit-twiddlers" are neither exactly proletariat nor bourgeoisie. They may not own the means of production in the sense that Marx argued, but they certainly do have significantly control over those means, in a more profound way than the term "symbols analysts" or "knowledge workers" captures. As a rough generalization, they value science and technological problem-solving elegance equally at least with profit.”

“Generalization, especially risky generalization, is one of the chief methods by which knowledge proceeds... Safe generalizations are usually rather boring. Delete that "usually rather." Safe generalizations are quite boring.”

Safe Method Boring Chiefs Generalization

Author:Joseph Epstein

“The thing that distinguishes social systems from physical or even biological systems is their incomparable (and embarrassing) richness in special cases. Generalizations in the social sciences are mere pathways which lead through a riotous forest of individual trees, each a species unto itself. The social scientist who loses this sense of the essential individuality and uniqueness of each case is all too likely to make a solemn scientific ass of himself, especially if he thinks that his faceless generalizations are the equivalents of the rich vareity of the world.”

“Aspiring to these wide generalizations, the analysis of quadratic functions soars to a pitch from whence it may look proudly down on the feeble and vain attempts of geometry proper to rise to its level or to emulate it in its flights.”

Looks May Levels Function Wide Flight Vain Analysis Soar Geometry Emulate Generalization Quadratics

Book:The Collected Mathematical Papers of James Joseph Sylvester

Source: The Collected Mathematical Papers of James Joseph Sylvester

“Scientific wealth tends to accumulate according to the law of compound interest. Every addition to knowledge of the properties of matter supplies the physical scientist with new instrumental means for discovering and interpreting phenomena of nature, which in their turn afford foundations of fresh generalisations, bringing gains of permanent value into the great storehouse of natural philosophy.”

“I'm always loath to make generalizations about what is for children and what isn't. Certainly children's literature as a genre has some restrictions, so certain things will never pop up in a Snicket book. But I didn't know anything about writing for children when I started - this is the theme of naïveté creeping up on us once more - and I sort of still don't, and I'm happy that adults are reading them as well as children.”

Knows Writing Wells Children Stills Book Certain Reading Literature Adults Pops Genre Theme Restriction Generalization Vets Children's Literature Snicket

Author:Daniel Handler

“In a novella, a whole lot of crap can happen, and you can build momentum and suspense and leave room for a surprise or three. Stories are cut down to the most essential elements, and novels (this might be an unfair generalization on my part) are big fat clumsy efforts where the reader can snooze for a couple chapters and miss nothing of consequence. Hence my love for the middle way.”

“In your 20s - and these are generalizations of course - I feel like I didn't care about as many things or as many people, or even myself, as much. There's more recklessness and more ruthlessness; you're not as considerate of how things land with other people I think.”

People Thinking Feels Care Courses Land Generalization Considerate Recklessness Ruthlessness

Author:Naomi Watts

“There are great people everywhere, and there are all kinds of exceptions to any generalizations, and it was a huge privilege for me to get to learn that.”

People Kind Huge Privilege All Kinds Exception Great People Generalization

Author:Jenny Hoyston

“So far, we have been able to study only one evolving system and we cannot wait for interstellar flight to provide us with a second. If we want to discover generalizations about evolving systems, we will have to look at artificial ones.”

Ifs Want Looks Has Beens Able Waiting Study Flight Evolve Artificial Generalization Interstellar

Author:John Maynard Smith

“In displaying the psychology of your characters, minute particulars are essential. God save us from vague generalizations! Be sure not to discuss your hero's state of mind. Make it clear from his actions. Nor is it necessary to portray many main characters. Let two people be the center of gravity in your story: he and she.”

People Mind Two States Character Stories Action Clear Psychology Minutes Hero Essentials State Of Mind Gravity Vague Generalization Main Characters Center Of Gravity

Author:Anton Chekhov

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Generalization Quotes