2857. Badinage is pleasant, but it may be dangerous; stupid people may imagine you are ridiculing them, and the stupid are the most assiduous enemies.
2858. Abjure punning; it has been aptly designated "the wit of fools." Gentlemen never pun.
2859. A tattler is a most contemptible character, uniting in person either excessive ignorance, folly, and vanity, or the extremes of meanness, mischief and malignity.
2860. Women ordinarily slander more from vanity than vice—men, from jealousy than malignity.