Mark Twain? Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.? Alexandre Dumas fils? Lady Mary Wortley Montagu? Ellen Osborn? Manley H. Pike? Ben Johnson? Benjamin Disraeli? Alexander Chase? Roger O’Mara? Anonymous?
Question for Quote Investigator: Making sweeping statements about the universe is difficult to resist, but exceptions seem to be unavoidable. The following comically paradoxical statement is popular. Here are two versions:
(1) All generalizations are false, including this one.
(2) No generalization is wholly true—not even this one.
This notion has been attributed to many people including U.S. humorist Mark Twain, U.S. jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., and French playwright Alexandre Dumas fils. The situation is confusing. Would you please explore this topic?
Reply from Quote Investigator: This thought has been expressed in many ways. The identity of the creator remains uncertain. A precursor was penned in 1710 by English aristocrat Lady Mary Wortley Montagu who achieved fame via her eloquent letters. Below is an overview sampling with attributions and dates:
1710: General notions are generally wrong. (Lady Mary Wortley Montagu)
1882 Jul: All generalizations are false, including this one. (Attributed to a “witty Frenchman”)
1886: All generalizations are dangerous, even this one. (Attributed to Alexandre Dumas fils)
1892 Dec: No concise, unqualified assertion is ever entirely true—not even this one. (Manley H. Pike)
1894: No generalization is quite true; not even this one! (French adage)
1895 Aug: No generalization is absolutely correct—not even this one. (French adage)
1896 Jun: No generalization is accurate—not even this one. (Ellen Osborn)
1897 Jun: No generalization is quite true, not even this one. (Attributed to a “famous Frenchman”)
1903 May: No generalization is wholly true, not even this one. (Anonymous)
1911 Jul: No generalization is wholly true—not even this one. (Private detective Roger O’Mara)
1917 Feb: No generalization is ever completely true, not even this one. (Attributed to a Frenchman by Henry Cabot Lodge)
1926: Toutes les généralisations sont fausses, y compris celle que je viens de faire. Translation: All generalizations are wrong, including the one I just made. (Anonymous)
1930: No generalization is wholly true—not even this one. (Attributed to Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. by Owen Wister)
1943: All generalizations are dangerous, even this one. (Attributed to Alexandre Dumas fils)
1973 Jan: All generalizations are false including this one. (Attributed to Mark Twain)
1979 Mar: All generalizations are false, including this one. (Attributed to Ben Johnson)
1981: All generalizations are false, including this one. (Attributed to Benjamin Disraeli)
1984: All generalizations are false, including this one. (Attributed to Alexander Chase)
Additional details and citations are available in the article on the Medium platform which is located here.
Image Notes: Illustration of lightbulbs with one illuminated from ColiN00B at Pixabay.
Acknowledgement: Great thanks to Mordechai Schiller whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration. Schiller found no substantive support for the attribution to Mark Twain. He located the entry in “The Yale Book of Quotations” which listed the 1930 attribution to Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.