In our relations with people who are bashful about their feelings we must be capable of dissimulation; they feel a sudden hatred against anyone who catches them in a tender, enthusiastic, or elevated feeling, as if he had seen their secrets. If you want to make them feel good at such moments, you have to make them laugh or voice some cold or witty sarcasm; then their feeling freezes and they regain power over themselves.
(Nietzche)