I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.

Extended Quotation:

I remember seeing an elaborate and complicated automatic washing machine for automobiles that did a beautiful job of washing them. But it could do only that, and everything else that got into its clutches was treated as if it were an automobile to be washed. I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.

Source: “The Psychology of Science: A Reconnaissance”. (1966), Ch. 2, p. 15. Variations:

Give a boy a hammer and everything he meets has to be pounded.

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