there is no shortcut through

“There is economy in this. For the attempt to see all things freshly and in detail, rather than as types or generalities, is exhausting, and among busy affairs practically out of the question. In a circle of friends, and in relation to other close associates or competitors, there is no shortcut through, and no substitute for, an individualized understanding. Those whom we love and admire most are the men and women whose consciousness is peopled thickly with persons rather than with types, who know us rather than the classification into which we might fit. For even without phrasing it to ourselves, we feel intuitively that all classification is in relation to some purpose not necessarily our own; that between two human beings no association has final dignity in which each does not take the other as an end in himself. There is a taint on any contract between two people which does not affirm as an axiom the personal inviolability in both.”

Walter Lippmann wrote this is in 1965.

note: when he writes “there is economy in this”, the “this” refers to stereotyping, which is the section of his book (Public Opinion) that this passage is taken from.