Humor brings insight and tolerance. Irony brings a deeper and less friendly understanding.

Repplier contrasts two neighboring modes of wit. “Humor,” in her sense, is a generous comic vision: it notices human folly while still granting fellow-feeling, perspective, and patience—hence “insight and tolerance.” “Irony,” by contrast, is sharper and more distancing. It also sees through pretenses, but its understanding is “deeper” because it is more skeptical and analytic, less willing to be consoled by sympathy. That depth comes at a social cost: irony tends to expose, judge, or chill rather than reconcile. The aphorism suggests that how we laugh matters ethically—humor can enlarge our humanity, while irony can harden it.