Quotes About Specificity

But, the third conclusion, and the most confounding conclusion: You can't design a character too specifically.

Generalities are intellectually necessary evils.

The Germans had a word for everything—a word that could be very focused, very specific, because it could be constructed for a precise set of circumstances. They even had a word, it was said, for the feeling of envy experienced when one sees the tasty dishes ordered by others in a restaurant and it is too late to change one's own order. Mahlneid, meal envy, she believed that was the word—if it existed at all.

Until your desires are specific and completely clear, you won't be happy with the results they bring. You've got to fill in all the blanks in your description of a dream life—or risk having others fill in those blanks for you. Leave nothing to chance, and decide on everything you want.

A succession of philosophers and historians spent their time studiously attempting to say nothing as successfully as possible. The less that was successfully said, the greater the relief and acclaim. No attempt to address any idea, history or fact was able to pass without first being put through the pit-stop of the modern academy. No generality could be attempted and no specific could be uttered.

Broadly speaking, the thing you need to avoid is the general as contrasted with the particular (reptile creates a less vivid image than does rattler); the vague as contrasted with the definite (them guys is less meaningful than those three hoods who hang out at Sammy's poolroom); and the abstract as contrasted with the concrete (to say that something is red tells me less than to state that it's exactly the color of the local fire truck).

The devil is in the detail.

Be particular. That is, without a doubt, the Best Advice Ever Given in the History of the Entire World. Consider, if you will, the profound effect that following that advice would have on, say, your diet, your love life, your financial situation, your decision on whether to have that next drink. I mean, what do those two words not cover?

I've always wanted to be somebody. I should have been more specific." – Chloe Traeger

She [Judith Butler] specifies the ways in which the logic of identity politics—which is to gather together similar subjects so that they can achieve shared aims by mobilising a minority-rights discourse—is far from natural or self-evident. Michael Warner makes a similar point about the cultural specificity of identity politics when observing that, because its 'frame ... belongs to Anglo-American traditions', it therefore 'has some distorting influences'.

Generalization is impossible. It is an insult.

Don't be vague, ask for Haig.

The novelist's job is to] make everything, even an ultimate concern, as solid, as concrete, as specific as possible.

Jewish, black, Filipino, whatever the specificity is, it's specificity that makes a good story. And I think people are tired of seeing the same old shtick on network television. It's just a group of white people hanging out talking about their jobs. Who cares? We've seen that.

I've made a couple of films that were a little too wide and non-specific - like 'The Doctor.'

I think fiction isn't so good at being for or against things in general - the rhetorical argument a short story can make is only actualized by the accretion of particular details, and the specificity of these details renders whatever conclusions the story reaches invalid for wider application.

There have been moments when I was on a modeling job, and it was the most fantastic thing in the world. And there have been moments where I've realized, 'Okay, I'm ten years old, and I've spent the past six hours outside in the rain.' It taught me how to be specific about what kinds of projects I wanted to do and what kind of work I wanted to do.

We never pull down the quality of the product, and I think that pays in the long term. People come up to me and say, 'I'm still wearing a Missoni sweater from 30 years ago, and it still looks great.' So quality, specificity and passion.

Recognition is powerful, as long as it's authentic and specific. Whatever their level on the inverted pyramid, employees wants to feel needed and valued.

Hate generalizes, love specifies.

A complaint had to be true and specific

Marriage, she felt, was a fine arrangement generally, except that one never got it generally. One got it very, very specifically.

I nodded, trying to imagine the very particular sadness of a vanished childhood yogurt now found only in France. It was a very special sort of sadness, individual, and in its inability to induce sympathy, in its tuneless spark, it bypassed poetry and entered science.

Ésta es mi filosofía del entrenamiento: un deportista debería hacer, en el momento adecuado, la mínima cantidad de entrenamiento específico que proporciona una mejora continua.