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

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.

A jest breaks no bones.

Laughter almost ever cometh of things most disproportioned to ourselves and nature. Laughter hath only a scornful tickling.

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