We think in generalities, but we live in details.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- We form broad ideas in our minds, but daily life is full of small specifics. Thinking is general, living is detailed.
- In plain terms
- Our thoughts are broad, but life is made of details.
- What can you take from it?
- Apply broad ideas carefully to specific situations.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Where did a general idea fail in practice?
Another view
General thinking is also needed to navigate details effectively.
More from Alfred North Whitehead
Life is an offensive, directed against the repetitious mechanism of the Universe.
Permalink to quote #72 There remains the final reflection, how shallow, puny, and imperfect are efforts to sound the depths in the nature of things. In philosophical discussion, the …
Permalink to quote #74 It requires a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious.
Permalink to quote #71
Related quotes
Cogito, ergo sum.
Rene DescartesRene Descartes quote #2 To the question whether I am a pessimist or an optimist, I answer that my knowledge is pessimistic, but my willing and hoping are optimistic.
Albert SchweitzerAlbert Schweitzer quote #3 And there is ev'n a happiness That makes the heart afraid!
Thomas HoodThomas Hood quote #4