“He who sees in men only men never sees anything in them.”Georg Christoph Lichtenberg · Caietele de însemnări · 1799 · Caietul F, însemnarea 536
The label already knows the person before looking, so it sees nothing.
General labels are economical but poor: 'a clerk', 'an old man', 'a stranger' say nothing about the concrete person. Lichtenberg suggests that truly seeing someone means grasping the particular — their gestures, contradictions, and history. Whoever stops at the general never discovers anything, because the general was already known before they even looked.
Why it matters A reminder for everyday life: the colleague, neighbor, or child you think you know through a label deserves a second look, as an individual.