Czeslaw Milosz Quotes

I just don't believe in generalisations.

I don't believe in typecasting. Just because all my characters may come from the other side of the tracks doesn't mean they are all the same. You don't stereotype people and generalize people, everyone's different.

There's bad apples in whatever way you want to group people - doesn't matter if it's religious, political or social. The big mistake is generalizing.

I am fearful, or suspicious, of generalizations... They cannot guide me reliably in making decisions about particular individuals.

Putting labels on entire groups of people makes things much simpler. If all New Yorkers are pushy, or all politicians are dishonest, we don't have to do the hard work of figuring out who's who.

Where any one body of educated men, of whatever denomination, are condemned indiscriminately, there must be a deficiency of information, or...of something else.

People forget that stereotypes aren’t bad because they are always untrue. Stereotypes are bad because they are not always true. If we allow ourselves to judge another based on a stereotype, we have allowed a gross generalization to replace our own thinking.

(Stereotyping) is only for those without the imagination to see people as they are instead of being like someone else they understand.

Instead of being presented with stereotypes by age, sex, color, class, or religion, children must have the opportunity to learn that within each range, some people are loathsome and some are delightful.

Prejudices are what fools use for reason.

No one knows 'men' as such, any more than anyone knows 'women,' and if they do generalise they're probably trying to hide their own ignorance. You might know one 'man,' yes, or even lots of individual 'men'.

Not every Muslim is out to get us.

I hate stereotypes and I hate cliche.

I don't like stereotypes - no kind of stereotypes.

To like an individual because he's black is just as insulting as to dislike him because he isn't white.

You see, that's the problem I have with 'you people.'

None of us is responsible for the complexion of his skin. This fact of nature offers no clue to the character or quality of the person underneath.

I think any stereotyping is too much.

I definitely don't generalize and put everybody in the same cup of water.

It's not a stereotype if it's always true.

You really can't stereotype people or put them in boxes, it's unfair.

The whole idea of a stereotype is to simplify. Instead of going through the problem of all this great diversity - that it's this or maybe that - you have just one large statement; it is this.

There is a tendency to judge a race, a nation, or a distinct group by its least worthy members.

The tendency of the casual mind is to pick out or stumble upon a sample which supports or defies its prejudices, and then to make it representative of a whole class.

The absolute basis of all prejudice is ignorance and generalization.