Choose a topic from Part 2B:

159. Cruelty

1. Cruelty is hardness of heart which makes one willing toinflict injurious or excessive punishment. It is a vice whichdirectly opposes the virtue of clemency.

2. Cruelty differs from brutality or savagery in this:cruelty recognizes its victim as one truly deserving punishment andis excessive in inflicting it; savagery or brutality takes inhumanand even bestial delight in the torture it inflicts on a humanbeing, regardless of the guilt or innocence of its victim.

"Before a man chooses his confessor, he ought to think well about it, and pray about it also; but when he has once chosen, he ought not to change, except for most urgent reasons, but put the utmost confidence in his director."
St Philip Neri

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"If you wish to learn and appreciate something worth while, then love to be unknown and considered as nothing. Truly to know and despise self is the best and most perfect counsel."
Thomas á Kempis

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"God has no need of men."
St Philip Neri

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