When we think of cruelty, we must try to remember the stupidity, the envy, the frustration from which it has arisen. Edith Sitwell
I learned that it is the weak who are cruel, and that gentleness is to be expected only from the strong. Leo Rosten
The best political weapon is the weapon of terror. Cruelty commands respect. Men may hate us. But, we don’t ask for their love; only for their fear. Heinrich Himmler
One of the ill effects of cruelty is that it makes the bystanders cruel. Thomas Fowell Buxton
All cruelty springs from weakness. Seneca
There is an accumulative cruelty in a number of men, though none in particular are ill-natured. Lord Halifax (George Savile)
Cruelty, like every other vice, requires no motive outside of itself; it only requires opportunity. George Eliot
Idle people are often bored and bored people, unless they sleep a lot, are cruel. It is not accident that boredom and cruelty are great preoccupations in our time. Renata Adler
My doctrine is this, that if we see cruelty or wrong that we have the power to stop, and do nothing, we make ourselves sharers in the guilt. Anna Sewell