“He is as loving and tender as a child, but strong and sturdy as a rock.”

—  Juan Ramón Jimenéz , book Platero

Source: ‪Platero and I‬ (1917), Ch. 1 : Platero, as translated by Eloïse Roach (1957).
Context: He is as loving and tender as a child, but strong and sturdy as a rock. When on Sundays I ride him through the lanes in the outskirts of the town, slow-moving countrymen, dressed in their Sunday clean, watch him a while, speculatively:
"He is like steel," they say.
Steel, yes. Steel and moon silver at the same time.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "He is as loving and tender as a child, but strong and sturdy as a rock." by Juan Ramón Jimenéz?
Juan Ramón Jimenéz photo
Juan Ramón Jimenéz 18
Spanish poet 1881–1958

Related quotes

Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo

“His shroud was damp, his face was white:
He said,—"I cannot sleep,
Your tears have made my shroud so wet;
Oh, mother, do not weep!"
Oh, love is strong!—the mother's heart
Was filled with tender fears;
Oh, love is strong!—and for her child
Her grief restrained its tears.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) English poet and novelist

The Little Shroud from The London Literary Gazette (28th April 1832)
The Vow of the Peacock (1835)

Julian of Norwich photo

“As much as He was most tender and pure, right so He was most strong and mighty to suffer.
And for every man’s sin that shall be saved He suffered: and every man’s sorrow and desolation He saw, and sorrowed for Kindness and love.”

Julian of Norwich (1342–1416) English theologian and anchoress

The Eighth Revelation, Chapter 20

Louis Pasteur photo

“When I approach a child, he inspires in me two sentiments; tenderness for what he is, and respect for what he may become.”

Louis Pasteur (1822–1895) French chemist and microbiologist

The phrase in French is found in Étienne Blanchard (1941), "Recueil d'idées", p. 76: "Quand je m'approche d'un enfant, il m'inspire deux sentiments: la tendresse pour ce qu'il est, et le respect pour ce qu'il peut être un jour." It doesn't give any reference, just like modern books which include the quote in English.
Disputed

Virgil photo

“So strong is habit in tender years.”
Adeo in teneris consuescere multum est.

Virgil Georgics

Book II, line 272 (tr. Fairclough)
Compare: "Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined." Alexander Pope, Moral Essays: Epistle I (1734), line 150.
Georgics (29 BC)

Kyuzo Mifune photo

“The weed crushed and pressed by the heavy rock may slowly and gently grow up anew helped by the fresh air, sunshine, and sympathetic rain. On the other hand, the rock is often broken through exposure to nature and weathering. Life is a strong power to grow in tenderness; this fact may be considered as having a close relation with human life. At the same time tenderness has sometimes stronger power against stiffness or hardening due to extreme strain.”

Kyuzo Mifune book The Canon of Judo

The Canon of Judo (1956, 1960)

Laura Ingalls Wilder photo

“Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmastime.”

Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867–1957) American children's writer, diarist, and journalist
William Davenant photo

“For angling-rod he took a sturdy oake;
For line, a cable that in storm ne'er broke;
His hooke was such as heads the end of pole
To pluck down house ere fire consumes it whole;
The hook was baited with a dragon's tale,—
And then on rock he stood to bob for whale.”

William Davenant (1606–1668) English poet and playwright

Britannia Triumphans (1637; licensed Jan. 8, 1638; printed 1638), p. 15.
Compare:
"For angling rod he took a sturdy oak; / For line, a cable that in storm ne'er broke;... His hook was baited with a dragon's tail,— / And then on rock he stood to bob for whale."
From The Mock Romance, a rhapsody attached to The Loves of Hero and Leander, published in London in 1653 and 1677, republished in Chambers's Book of Days, vol. i. p. 173; Samuel Daniel, Rural Sports, Supplement, p. 57.
"His angle-rod made of a sturdy oak;
His line, a cable which in storms ne'er broke;
His hook he baited with a dragon’s tail,—
And sat upon a rock, and bobb'd for whale"
William King (1663–1712), Upon a Giant’s Angling (in Chalmers's British Poets, ascribed to King).

“As strong, as deep, as wide as is the sea,
Though by the wind made restless as the wind,
By billows fretted and by rocks confined,
So strong, so deep, so wide my love for thee.”

Francis William Bourdillon (1852–1921) British poet

"Sonnet II" in Scribner's Monthly Vol. IX (November 1874 - April 1875), p. 359.

Zabel Yesayan photo

“Who destroys the seeds of past antagonisms in the tender mind of a child and prepares it for a bright, infinite peace of soul. It is of course the child's mother.”

Zabel Yesayan (1878–1943) Armenian writer

Gini…Khağağutyan Hamar [Woman… For Peace] (1911)
Context: All over the world, and quite independently of each other, there is a growing wish for peace. This idea travels around the world, growing stronger all the time and becomes one irresistable and universal ideal. This is the great hope of people who are weary and dissillusioned by wars between nations and social groups. Both the victors and the defeated need an end to hostilities. [... ] Who destroys the seeds of past antagonisms in the tender mind of a child and prepares it for a bright, infinite peace of soul. It is of course the child's mother. [... ] The backbone of the feminist movement in France is formed by the women who get together to achieve peace through education and this movement also determines the direction taken by feminist movements in other countries, with their various branches and supporters

Related topics