Every generalization is false, including this one.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- All generalizations are false, including the statement that they are false.
- In plain terms
- Every broad claim is inaccurate, even this one.
- What can you take from it?
- Beware of over‑generalizing.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- When is a generalization acceptable?
- How can you test a claim’s universality?
Another view
Some generalizations are useful heuristics.
More from Samuel Langhorne Clemens
Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.
Permalink to quote #166 France is miserable because it is filled with Frenchmen, and Frenchmen are miserable because they live in France.
Permalink to quote #168 America is built on a tilt and everything loose slides to California.
Permalink to quote #165
Related quotes
The number of syllables in the English names of finite integers tends to increase as the integers grow larger, and must gradually increase indefinitely, since …
Bertrand RussellBertrand Russell quote #7 Nonbeing must in some sense be, otherwise what is it that there is not? This tangled doctrine might be nicknamed Plato's beard; historically it has proved toug…
Willard van Orman QuineWillard van Orman Quine quote #1 I cannot get from the nature of the proposition to the individual logical operations!!! That is, I cannot bring out how far the proposition is the picture of t…
Ludwig WittgensteinLudwig Wittgenstein quote #2