Generally Speaking Few truths are true in every respect. The Marquis de Vauvenargues Years ago, perhaps in a fit of intellectual self-righteousness, I vowed to avoid generalizations as I would certain smug and boisterous acquaintances. I have managed to succeed in avoiding most of the people who bore or otherwise irritate me, but I find myself constantly running into generalizations. It may be a sign of maturity or it may be recognition of the inevitable, but I actually find that many generalizations give me an enormous amount of pleasure.
Generalizations are unavoidable.
And, so long as they avoid being malicious, racist or sexist, they can have great charm. As Montaigne, William Hazlitt, Charles Lamb, George Orwell and Oscar Wilde demonstrated, masters at generalization have a special view of the world, one that is made up of roughly equal parts of comedy, skepticism and deadly earnestness. At the risk of generalizing, masters of the art should possess an unerring gift for going straight to the point. They should be keenly aware of the absurd, have a strong distaste for sham and be endowed with strong feelings for the simple joys of life. They must excel at the revealing anecdote, the smart phrase and the art of happy extravagance.