A sweeping statement is the only statement worth listening to. The critic without faith gives balanced opinions, usually about second-rate writers.
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Generalization is necessary to the advancement of knowledge; but particularly is indispensable to the creations of the imagination. In proportion as men know more and think more they look less at individuals and more at classes. They therefore make better theories and worse poems.
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Any general statement is like a check drawn on a bank. Its value depends on what is there to meet it.
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Obvious enough that generalities work to protect the mind from the great outdoors; is it possible that this was in fact their first purpose?
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There are one-story intellects, two-story intellects, and three-story intellects with skylights. All fact collectors with no aim beyond their facts are one-story men. Two-story men compare reason and generalize, using labors of the fact collectors as well as their own. Three-story men idealize, imagine, and predict. Their best illuminations come from above through the skylight.
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To generalize is to be an idiot. To particularize is the alone distinction of merit. General knowledge are those knowledge that idiots possess.
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It is always dangerous to generalize, but the American people, while infinitely generous, are a hard and strong race and, but for the few cemeteries I have seen, I am inclined to think they never die.
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An idea is always a generalization, and generalization is a property of thinking. To generalize means to think.
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We are more prone to generalize the bad than the good. We assume that the bad is more potent and contagious.
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To generalize is to be an idiot.
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To generalize on women is dangerous. To specialize on them is infinitely worse.
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You perceive I generalize with intrepidity from single instances. It is the tourist's custom.
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I realize that I'm generalizing here, but as is often the case when I generalize, I don't care.
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