“ If a man simply lets others pay for him, he is "mean" ”
 C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (1942). copy citation

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Author C. S. Lewis
Source The Screwtape Letters
Topic meaning
Date 1942
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink https://www.truechristianity.info/en/the_screwtape_letters.php

Context

“so seriously that a deficiency in this sense is almost the only deficiency at which they feel shame. Humour is for them the all-consoling and (mark this) the all-excusing, grace of life. Hence it is invaluable as a means of destroying shame. If a man simply lets others pay for him, he is "mean"; if he boasts of it in a jocular manner and twits his fellows with having been scored off, he is no longer "mean" but a comical fellow. Mere cowardice is shameful; cowardice boasted of with humorous exaggerations and grotesque gestures can passed off as funny.” source