“It is delightful to kiss the eyelashes of the beloved—is it not? But never so delightful as when fresh tears are on them.”

Tenderness heightened by sorrow · Conversation / essay (as commonly attributed)

• Love
• Sorrow
• Tenderness

“We care not how many see us in choler, when we rave and bluster, and make as much noise and bustle as we can; but if the kindest and most generous affection comes across us, we suppress every sign of it, and hide ourselves in nooks and covert.”

We hide our tenderness, not our anger · Conversation / essay (as commonly attributed)

• Anger
• Privacy
• Tenderness

“There is only one word of tenderness we could say, which we have not said oftentimes before; and there is no consolation in it.”

The insufficiency of words in grief · Conversation / essay (as commonly attributed)

• Consolation
• Tenderness
• Words

“There is a gravity which is not austere nor captious, which belongs not to melancholy nor dwells in contraction of heart: but arises from tenderness and hangs upon reflection.”

Gravity born of tenderness and reflection · Conversation / essay (as commonly attributed)

• Gravity
• Reflection
• Tenderness

“There are notes in the poet's intelligence that belong to that of woman, and these are the ones that express tenderness, passion and feeling.”

Original: En la escala de la inteligencia del poeta hay notas que pertenecen á la de la mujer, y éstas son las que expresan la ternura, la pasión y el sentimiento. — He places tenderness and emotional sensitivity at the heart of poetic intelligence. · Letter I, Cartas literarias a una mujer (Spanish)

• Feeling
• Poetry
• Tenderness

“I was not ashamed that it did.”

Recalling how the sight of his childhood sister's doll unexpectedly restored an old tenderness · Letter to W. R. Sturtevant, September 17, 1878

• Childhood
• Memory
• Tenderness

“My heart is tender. I am fond of children, and of talking childishly.”

A tender affection for children and simplicity · Letter (as quoted in Edward Dowden, Studies in Literature, 1878)

• Children
• Simplicity
• Tenderness