Tenderness Quotes

“Your actions will always be what the world sees, but people who choose to see through God's eyes will always have the compassion to understand why.”
― Shannon L. Alder

“In the end, you will not see the physical beauty in others that caught your eye, but the fire that burned within them. This kind of beauty is the bonfire you had to attend.”
― Shannon L. Alder

“Our soul is like a soft and gentle flower, it needs to be nurtured, cared for, tended to, with sufficient sunlight, fresh air and freedom to bloom into its most precious and beautiful form. This, my friend, is self-love.”
― Miya Yamanouchi, Embrace Your Sexual Self: A Practical Guide for Women

“Speaking a painful truth should be done only in love - like wielding a sword with no hilt - it should pain oneself in direct proportion to the amount of force exerted.”
― Criss Jami, Healology

“I knelt and locked the door. I locked the door locking the world and time outside. I stretched my body across the mattress and Saskia drew in close to me and placed her open hand on my chest, her mouth near my shoulder; her breath, my breath blew out the candle, and I held my lost Wanderess with tenderness until sweet sleep overcame us.”
― Roman Payne, The Wanderess

“when i speak to you
i speak as though
i am offering a rose
in your hand.”
― Sanober Khan

“There is no such thing as tough love. Love is kind, love is compassionate, love is tender.”
― Heather Wolf, Kipnuk the Talking Dog

“Beauty that steals the heart is often imperfect, suggests grace and kindness, and inspires tenderness more than it incites lust.”
― Dean Koontz, Forever Odd

“I breathe in...the silence
of my own heart
aching with tenderness
with memories..
Of home.”
― Sanober Khan, A touch, a tear, a tempest

“there have been mornings
so quiet and tender
like a poem, on Thursday's lips
that I wondered
if I'd been kissed at all...”
― Sanober Khan, Turquoise Silence

“Happiness will bloom
With fragrance and beauty
If you plant the seeds of love
With a deep driving desire
in the garden of hope
And nurture with tenderness,
Compassion, and care;
If you are always eager to share.”
― Debasish Mridha

“Kindness is like a warm blanket of snow, softly covering and gently touching the heart.”
― Heather Wolf, A Snowy Day

“The architecture of the Minotaur’s heart is ancient. Rough hewn and many chambered, his heart is a plodding laborious thing, built for churning through the millennia. But the blood it pumps—the blood it has pumped for five thousand years, the blood it will pump for the rest of his life—is nearly human blood. It carries with it, through his monster’s veins, the weighty, necessary, terrible stuff of human existence: fear, wonder, hope, wickedness, love. But in the Minotaur’s world it is far easier to kill and devour seven virgins year after year, their rattling bones rising at his feet like a sea of cracked ice, than to accept tenderness and return it.”
― Steven Sherrill, The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break

“may my touch
always...be tender

as i would stroke
mother's cheeks
when she cried.”
― Sanober Khan, Turquoise Silence

“[It] was the first time in my life I ever knew the meaning of that rare thing, tenderness. A quality different from kindliness, affectionateness, or benevolence; a quality which can exist only in strong, deep, and undemonstrative natures, and therefore in its perfection is oftenest found in men.”
― Dinah Maria Mulock Craik, John Halifax, Gentleman

“Yes, it hurts to fall—
ache, tenderness
—but each scar is a sign your system is working.”
― Kelli Russell Agodon, Hourglass Museum

“He turned and pulled her in, placed his hands on the sides of her face and gazed into her eyes, his head moving closer and closer----she still couldn't say anything, couldn't think of anything other than his mouth landing on hers.”
― Jane Green, Summer Secrets

“Even when I press against him his presence is too far away.”
― Johnny Rich, The Human Script

“you and I are black and white—a film noir, filled with gestures, poignant and tender”
― john j geddes

“Спомням си някои такива минути - да ги наречем айсберги в рая, - когато, наситил се на нея, отмалял от баснословните, безумни усилия, безволно отпуснал се под лазурната ивица напряко на тялото си, понякога я затварях в своите прегръдки със сподавения стон на човешка (най-сетне!) нежност.
Кожата й лъщеше в неоновия лъч, който проникваше през жалузите от двора на мотела, сажденочерните й ресници се слепваха; сивите й без усмивка очи изглеждаха по-безучастни отвсякога - тя смешно напомняше за малка пациентка, неотърсила се още напълно от наркозата след много сериозна операция; и тогава нежността ми преминаваше в срам и ужас, утешавах и лелеех сиротната, лекичка Лолита върху мраморните си гърди и с ръмжене заравях лице в топлите й къдри, галех я наслуки и като Лир молех за благословията й, а на самия връх на тази страдалчески безкористна нежност (в мига, когато душата ми се въздигаше над нейната голота и бе готова да се разкае) внезапно, с отвратителна подигравка желанието се надигаше отново... "Ах, не!" - мълвеше Лолита, извила с въздишка очи към небето, и в следващата минута и нежността, и лазурният лъч - всичко рухваше.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita

“Finally, he smiled, and although his smile was bumpy because some of his teeth were jagged and broken, it was a warming, infectious smile that was reflected in his eyes. It made her smile widely in return. She felt as if the room had been lit up. He held out his arms, and she went across the room to him, almost running. She buried her face in his shirt, her nose wrinkling up as the scent of his cologne mixed with the nutty, sourish smell of camphor that filled the room. He put his arms around her, but gently, so that there was space between his forearms and her back, holding her as if she was to fragile to hug properly. Awkwardly, he patted her light, bushy aureole of dark brown hair, repeating: "Good girl. Fine daughter.”
― Helen Oyeyemi, The Icarus Girl

“All that interior violence and complication to defend themselves from the very tenderness.”
― Susana Fortes, Waiting for Robert Capa

“You let me set the water in the shower, and followed me into the booth to stand there with me under the warm spray. You kept your head down, not looking me in the eyes—though if you were shy, I couldn’t tell. You had no reason to be. You know what you look like.

I know you don’t remember what we did.

I want to tell you.”
― Julio-Alexi Genao, When You Were Pixels

“The death of Robert G. Ingersoll, on July 21, 1899, was one of the most widely -- noted events of that year in the civilized world. It was also one of the most widely and profoundly regretted, -- the most deeply deplored. Everywhere, the wisest knew (and the noblest felt) that the cause of humanity had met its greatest loss. To many thousands who realized the intellectual amplitude, the moral heroism and grandeur, the boundless generosity and sympathy, the tenderness and affection, of this incomparable man, his passing was as an intimate and bitter bereavement.

Ingersoll was doubtless known, personally and otherwise, to more people than any other American who had not sat in the presidential chair; and, notwithstanding either the number or the wishes of his critics, his death probably brought genuine grief to more hearts than has that of any other individual in our history. Twice before, 'a Nation bowed and wept'; this time, a people.”
― Herman E. Kittredge, Ingersoll: A Biographical Appreciation

“You can grow softly, lovely and delicately amidst the hard surfaces. Not all who passed tougher times in life have a hard heart, kindness and tenderness do breathe despite of worse times.”
― Angelica Hopes, Landscapes of a Heart, Whispers of a Soul

“Love is an expression of tenderness. Practice it in all ways. Of course you will be tender and loving to your child. Express that same love to the rest of the family, your spouse, and, most importantly,
yourself. There is so much love around you. Let it in. Let it ease the burden. Let it envelope you and hold you ever so tenderly as you journey through these days.”
― Laura Lane

“Allow the hammer of pain to split open the stone armor of your hardness; exposing the tenderness and beauty of your sweet spirit and sacred heart.”
― Bryant McGill, Simple Reminders: Inspiration for Living Your Best Life

“Another tear appeared and then another, trailing silently down her cheeks. This was so much harder than she’d thought it would be. She was usually so articulate, yet at the moment her brain seemed to have turned to mush.
He turned his head to kiss the tears from her cheek, and it was as though his act of tenderness finally unleashed the truth that was struggling to emerge.”
― Emily Arden, Lover by Moonlight

“When we see everyone the way God sees them, all their frailties and weaknesses as well as their strengths,we can learn to treat them tenderly.”
― Laura Lane, Two Mothers, One Prayer: Facing your Child's Cancer with Hope, Strength, and Courage

“When we see everyone the way God sees them, all their frailties and weaknesses as well as their strengths,we can learn to treat them tenderly. We must also view ourselves from God's perspective: lovingly, tenderly, and patiently. We can do the same with our spouses and other children or family members.”
― Laura Lane, Two Mothers, One Prayer: Facing your Child's Cancer with Hope, Strength, and Courage