All cruelty springs from hard-heartedness and weakness.

All cruelty springs from hard-heartedness and weakness.

Cruelty, like every other vice, requires no motive outside of itself; it only requires opportunity

Cruelty, like every other vice, requires no motive outside of itself; it only requires opportunity

Men so noble,
However faulty, yet should find respect
For what they have been: 'tis a cruelty
read more

Men so noble,
However faulty, yet should find respect
For what they have been: 'tis a cruelty
To load a falling man.

If it were absolutely necessary to choose, I would rather be guilty of an immoral act than of a cruel read more

If it were absolutely necessary to choose, I would rather be guilty of an immoral act than of a cruel one.

I would love to see the grimace he [Marquis de Cinq-Mars] is now
making on the scaffold.
[Fr., read more

I would love to see the grimace he [Marquis de Cinq-Mars] is now
making on the scaffold.
[Fr., Je voudrais bien voir la grimace qu'il fait a cette heure
sur cet echafaud.]

I must be cruel only to be kind.

I must be cruel only to be kind.

In order to get power and retain it, it is necessary to love power; but love of power is not read more

In order to get power and retain it, it is necessary to love power; but love of power is not connected with goodness but with qualities that are the opposite of goodness, such as pride, cunning and cruelty

Cruelty is a part of nature, at least of human nature, but it is the one thing that seems unnatural read more

Cruelty is a part of nature, at least of human nature, but it is the one thing that seems unnatural to us.

Man's inhumanity to man Makes countless thousands mourn!

Man's inhumanity to man Makes countless thousands mourn!