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cruel to be kind

Cultural Dictionary

cruel to be kind definition

To be “cruel to be kind” is to cause someone pain for his or her own good. The phrase is used by Hamlet after he has berated his mother for her infidelity to the memory of her deceased husband.

The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Cruel to be kind is always a great word to know.

So is ninnyhammer. Does it mean:

an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.

a fool or simpleton; ninny.

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"Pleasure cannot be shared; like Pain, it can only be experienced or inflicted, and when we give pleasure to our Lovers or bestow Charity upon the Needy, we do so, not to gratify the object of our Benevolence, but only ourselves. For the Truth is that we are kind for the same reason as we are cruel, in order that we may enhance the sense of our own Power."

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