In the "Havamal" you will not find anything quite so openly wicked as that; but we must suppose that the Norsemen knew the secret, though they might not have put it into words.

As for the social teaching, you will find it very subtly expressed even in the modern English novels of George Meredith, who, by the way, has written a poem in praise of sarcasm and ridicule.

But let us now see what the Spanish author has to tell us about friendship and unselfishness.
The shrewd man knows that others when they seek him do not seek "him," but "their advantage in him and by him." That is to say, a shrewd man does not believe in disinterested friendship.

This is much worse than anything in the "Havamal." And it is diabolically elaborated.

What are we to say about such teaching as the following: "A wise man would rather see men needing him than thanking him.