All cruelty springs from hard-heartedness and weakness.

All cruelty springs from hard-heartedness and weakness.

Inhumanity is caught from man,
From smiling man.

Inhumanity is caught from man,
From smiling man.

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.]

Detested sport,
That owes its pleasures to another's pain.

Detested sport,
That owes its pleasures to another's pain.

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.

One of the ill effects of cruelty is that it makes the bystanders cruel

One of the ill effects of cruelty is that it makes the bystanders cruel

Even bear-baiting was esteemed heathenish and unchristian: the
sport of it, not the inhumanity, gave offence.

Even bear-baiting was esteemed heathenish and unchristian: the
sport of it, not the inhumanity, gave offence.

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.

And you, enchantment,
Worthy enough a herdsman--yea, him too,
That makes himself, but for our honor therein,
read more

And you, enchantment,
Worthy enough a herdsman--yea, him too,
That makes himself, but for our honor therein,
Unworthy thee-if ever henceforth thou
These rural latches to his entrance open,
Or hoop his body more with thy embraces,
I will devise a death as cruel for thee
As thou art tender to't.