A Commonplace Book

Not only was it difficult for him to comprehend that the generic symbol dog embraces so many unlike individuals of diverse size and form; it bothered him that the dog at three fourteen (seen from the side) should have the same name as the dog at three fifteen (see from the front). His own face in the mirror, his own hands, surprised him every time he saw them.

To think is to ignore (or forget) differences, to generalize, to abstract. In the teeming world of Funes there was nothing but particulars -- and they were virtually immediate particulars.