“It seems to me that a man who is incapable of humor is capable of cruelty.”

“Women are necessarily capable of almost anything in their struggle for survival and can scarcely be convicted of such man-made crimes as “cruelty.”

“For every act of cruelty mankind is capable of, they're just as capable of kindness.(Leta)”

“I sometimes think that animals are incapable of the kinds of cruelty that humans willingly inflict on each other.”

“Humor is a developed sense, stemming basically from cruelty. The more primitive a mind, the less selectivity exists. … A man slips on a banana peel and breaks his back. The adult stops laughing at that point, the child does not. And a civilized ego finds embarrassment as acutely distressing as physical pain. A baby, a child, a moron is incapable of practicing empathy. He cannot identify himself with another individual. He is regrettably autistic; his own rules are arbitrary”

“Never say a humorous thing to a man who does not possess humor. He will always use it in evidence against you.”