A jest breaks no bones.

Jests and scoffs do lessen majesty and greatness and should be far from great personages and men of wisdom.

A difference of taste in jokes is a great strain on the affections.

I said of laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure, “What use is it?”

A joke is at most a temporary rebellion against virtue, and its aim is not to degrade the human being but to remind him that he is already degraded.