Quotation by Henry Fairlie

It is true ... that animals are not cruel. They cannot be cruel; if we say that they are being cruel, we mean only that they are being savage, whether to survive or simply to triumph. They cannot be cruel because they cannot associate themselves with the feelings of their victims, and even their own feelings are only those of enjoyment, if there is enjoyment at all, of their own power. A man is cruel, on the other hand, and is rightly said to be being cruel, when he is associating himself with the feelings of his victims, when he is enjoying, not only his own power, but the suffering of another.