Top 76 Quotes About Specifics
#1. 'This is how democracy works,' Barack Obama lectured the country before giving everyone the specifics of his expansive one-man executive overreach on immigration. If you enjoy platitudinous straw men but are turned off by open debate and constitutional order, this speech was for you.
David Harsanyi
#2. To see how to make something more general, you need to start with something concrete. In particular, you need to understand the specifics of a particular domain to discover the right abstractions.
Alexander A. Stepanov
#3. Avoid context and specifics; generalize and keep repeating the generalization.
Jack Schwartz
#4. Some people today are wandering generalities instead of meaningful specifics because they have failed to discover and mine the wealth of potentials in them.
Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha
#5. Reality deals in specifics under the guise of generalities. Literature does the contrary ...
Alberto Manguel
#6. Sometimes in my class I have people come in and do monologues inspired by people they know and I always find that to be useful to do specifics about somebody and then you're actually doing a character and not doing some random old lady or something.
Amy Poehler
#7. Most of us forget the basics and wonder why the specifics don't work.
Garrison Wynn
#8. When we deal in generalities, we shall never succeed. When we deal in specifics, we shall rarely have a failure. When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported, the rate of performance accelerates.
Thomas S. Monson
#9. First you have your baby, which in and of itself is a stunning feat. I won't go into specifics, but ouch and no thank you.
Ellen DeGeneres
#10. Cruelty is not taught. It is as certain as a compass point. One can be instructed in the specifics of cruelty, like one can be taught to use a spoon, a knife, a fork, but even without these skills a man will still eat. The need is with us.
Lee Thomas
#11. Much of the research into humans' risk-avoidance machinery shows that it is antiquated and unfit for the modern world; it is made to counter repeatable attacks and learn from specifics. If someone narrowly escapes being eaten by a tiger in a certain cave, then he learns to avoid that cave.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
#12. The great majority of people are "wandering generalities" rather than "meaningful specifics". The fact is that you can't bit a target that you can't see. If you don't know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else. You have to have goals.
Zig Ziglar
#13. Riley might've been more appreciative had he had any idea what was going on. He tried to rouse himself, find out specifics, but his head was throbbing - or maybe that was his brain; he could've sworn it was about to go pop like an overripe berry under a truck tire ...
J. Fally
#14. Although I am nine months pregnant, although I have had plenty of time to dream, I have not really considered the specifics of this child. I have thought of this daughter only in terms of what she will be able to do for the daughter I already have.
Jodi Picoult
#15. The certainty with which Cameron informed MPs and Shadow ministers of the specifics of a Labour offer that never actually existed suggests a degree of flexibility with the truth.
Michael Ashcroft
#16. The specifics of Cathy's and my life are different now, but the basic life challenges are exactly the same.
Cathy Guisewite
#17. Since - in my belief system - we each get only one go-round here on planet Earth, it is the task of the writer to interpret, examine, and reflect on the specifics of their one and only life experience.
Merrill Markoe
#18. I feel like a lot of serious music lives in generalizations - 'Love is a flower,' 'The sky is so dark' - but comedy lives in specifics.
Rachel Bloom
#19. As I've said, I've been advised not to get into the specifics out there. Is there some truth out there? Yes. Is there a lot of falsehood out there? Absolutely.
Jeff Gannon
#20. In an age when stagecraft, gauzy themes, and sound-bites have too often been substituted for leadership, Bill Clinton as a candidate made it essential to campaigning to take the specifics of governance seriously. Practical solutions were 'in;' ideology was 'out.'
Sylvia Mathews Burwell
#21. I told him I'd always found the description a little too long on adjectives and a little too short on specifics.
Amor Towles
#22. Our memories are convenient lies we create, cribbing images from others' experiences. We discard the personal specifics which don't conform to the ideal conventional beauty created by art directors and cinematographers.
Damian Loeb
#23. The nature and specifics of the negative depend on the part of the country and the year, but the common thread is: self-doubt.
Gloria Steinem
#25. I won't even try to predict the specifics, but I think the ebook - as a medium - could be a game-changer.
David Gerrold
#26. I don't know which is finally sicker
specifics or engulfing abstractions.
Gary Lutz
#27. People say, 'Just say who you're dating. Then people will stop being so ravenous about it.' It's like, No they won't! They'll ask for specifics.
Kristen Stewart
#28. I believe the best creative writing lessons live in the specifics.
Jeff VanderMeer
#29. It was so much more. You allowed your feelings to spill onto the stage in a way everyone in that room could relate to. Angela inspired it, perhaps, but the specifics you chose made a universal statement. That is the art of choreography.
Kathryn Craft
#30. If you are seeking the counsel of God on a directional matter in your life, never get so caught up in the specifics of your own situation that you selfishly forget about others. Don't neglect the poor. Think outside yourself. It's liberating! Likewise,
John Crowder
#31. I like gross generalizations ... I also like disgusting specifics!
Josh Stern
#32. The imagery is very much released from reality. It's not nailed down to specifics of the words. They're painting a picture, not telling linear stories.
Daniel B. Shapiro
#33. When students write from experience, they can breathe those specifics into their writing- dialect, odd smells, precise names of plants- that can animate even the most tired and tedious text.
Ralph Fletcher
#34. Photography, of course, is the perfect medium for the investigation. It can reveal the truth of present day specifics and particularities, while at the same time, by conscious choice of lighting and pictorial structure, suggest the aesthetic legacy of the past.
John Pfahl
#35. My fear in life, I don't have any kind of specifics like snakes or spiders or anything but I think if I was covered in buttermilk naked running down the street being chased by Gandalf, I'd say, or I don't know, I'm just making it up!
Theo James
#36. If the Net becomes the center of the universe, which is what seems to be happening, then the dizzying array of machines that will be plugged into it will virtually guarantee that the specifics of which chip and which operating system you've got will be irrelevant.
Marc Andreessen
#37. What Republicans have actually put on the table is almost nothing. All of the rest is just big talk. So how is the president supposed to negotiate with people who say, 'Here's my demands. By the way, I can't give you any specifics. Just make me happy'?
Paul Krugman
#38. The truth of good economic doctoring is to know the general principles, and to really know the specifics. To understand the context, and also, to understand that an economy may need some tender loving care, not just the so-called hard truths, if it's going to get by.
Jeffrey Sachs
#39. These days she tended to think of herself as a Heisenbergian Christian: she believed in the broad outlines of Christianity, but she was unable to pinpoint the specifics of her creed. She was OK with the wave; it was the particles that tended to escape her.
Robert Kroese
#40. When setting intentions, focus on the specifics of what you really want, not necessarily how it plays out.
Russell Eric Dobda
#41. You didn't need to know the specifics about a male like that to be fully aware he was a Taylor Swift song waiting to happen.
J.R. Ward
#42. People, based on their emotions, will express support for the sentiment, not necessarily the specifics, because there are none.
Jeb Bush
#43. Apparently the police were hot on the trail of the Tamiami Butcher. There were no specifics available, but Captain Matthews got a lovely sound bite. He made it seem like he would personally make the arrest as soon as he finished his coffee.
Jeff Lindsay
#44. She has a particular penchant for mentally noting how much I drink, how much I eat, how much exercise I get, and the like. These specifics all fall within her purview. So in truth, I don't remember how much I drink; it's not my job.
Jack Flanagan
#45. Technology is changing so fast that knowledge about specifics can quickly become obsolete. That's why so much of what technicians learn is on the job.
Robert Reich
#46. You break the story first, and then you go into the specifics.
Seth MacFarlane
#48. My thinking pattern always starts with specifics and works toward generalization in an associational and nonsequential way.
Temple Grandin
#49. So without getting into the specifics, I can tell you that to the extent that investigation is a relatively important investigation and meaningful, the president would have been periodically briefed.
Robert Mueller
#50. We were succeeding. When you looked at specifics, this became a war of attrition. We were winning.
William Westmoreland
#51. It's great to be able to connect parents with children both emotionally and through humor. I look forward to exploring family entertainment once again and examining the specifics of our day-to-day lives against the backdrop of an extraordinary adventure.
Jon Favreau
#52. The basic science is very well established; it is well understood that global warming is due to greenhouse gases. What is uncertain is projections about specifics in the next few decades, by how much will the climate change.
Mario J. Molina
#53. I'm not avoiding specifics, but I've always written songs from more of a global standpoint.
William Beckett
#54. A lot of those ideal towns are all starting to look the same, the specifics are starting to disappear. So we need to retain a love for life, a love for one's family, a love for where one's really from.
Jason Mraz
#55. I would never speak about specifics in my own relationships because I think it's tacky.
Jennifer Lopez
#56. I think on this issue more than any other we're going to see sort of a bipartisan longing to get something done, and hopefully you're not going to find the fisticuffs that you would find on lots of other issues. I think you'll be able to glean a sense of progress without us revealing the specifics.
Charles Schumer
#57. I couldn't decide if he was four or nine or twelve. I had no idea of the specifics of children. He was too young to drive, but old enough to be able to turn doorknobs.
Maggie Stiefvater
#58. Thrift is an attractive idea until you get down to specifics.
Mason Cooley
#59. When you have a lot of opportunities, which I am blessed to have had in terms of my work, you get into the habit of not paying attention to certain specifics. And as we get busy, anything we do is the same thing.
Jake Gyllenhaal
#60. Junk food's not going anywhere. The specifics of what's being snacked on, and what's considered 'junk' and what's 'healthy' will change, of course, depending on what's available.
Ann Leckie
#62. Readers want a story, not a pattern. It's the specifics of a story that make it really ping our various reader radars.
Sara Zarr
#63. Most books, after all, are ephemeral; their specifics, several years later, inspire about as much interest as daily battle reports from the Hundred Years' War.
Stephen Jay Gould
#64. I can't get into specifics. Someday, hopefully, I'll be able to.
Jason Giambi
#65. Dante thought a state of eternal, rapturous contemplation, and few have proffered more specifics than that. Post-redemption theology seems an oxymoron.
Terryl L. Givens
#66. My friends and family are not really fixated on the specifics of 'Star Wars.' My parents don't know anything about 'Star Wars.' They've never watched a 'Star Wars' film.
John Boyega
#67. I don't want to talk about the specifics of other people's performances compared with my own. I'd never do that.
Jonny Lee Miller
#68. Still, as long as you keep pointing to the specifics, you will miss the full meaning of your pain. You will deceive yourself into believing that if the people, circumstances, and events had been different, your pain would not exist. This might be partly true, but
Henri J.M. Nouwen
#69. I'm happy to talk in general themes, but when we get down to specifics about my family, for me that's always been off-limits.
J.K. Rowling
#70. What depressed me, I think, was that McGovern was the only alternative available this time around, and I was sorry I couldn't get up for it. I agreed with everything he said, but I wished he would say a lot more - or maybe something different. Ideas? Specifics? Programs? Etc.? Well
Hunter S. Thompson
#71. If you don't know what you want, and you won't tell me specifics, then I'll tell you what I think you need. You're mine now, Ashleigh. I'm claiming you. I'm claiming Kate too. If you want to be with me then I call the shots. And I've made my first decision.
J.A. Huss
#72. Later he decided the specifics were not important, that the true lesson of accidents is not the how or the why, but the taken-for-granted world they exile you from.
Colson Whitehead
#73. Without getting into specifics, I assure you we are looking at very substantial opportunities for Loon - Google-scale opportunities.
Astro Teller
#74. You might get the impression from the specifics of my less than stellar career that all line cooks are wacked-out moral degenerates, dope fiends, refugees, a thuggish assortment of drunks, sneak thieves, sluts and psychopaths. You wouldn't be too far off base.
Anthony Bourdain
#75. I'm sure that creating the cosmos was a great deal of work, but it happened before I got here. I didn't ask for it to be created, I wasn't consulted on the specifics, and I don't intend to pay for it.
Robert Kroese
