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.

Wit enables us to act rudely with impunity.

He who laugheth too much, hath the nature of a fool; he that laugheth not at all, hath the nature of an old cat.

A jest breaks no bones.

It is easy to distinguish between the joking that reflects good breeding and that which is coarse—the one, if aired at an apposite moment of mental relaxation, is becoming in the most serious of men, whereas the other is unworthy of any free person, if the content is indecent or the expression obscene.