“Tender-handed stroke a nettle,
And it stings you for your pains”

— Aaron Hill (writer)

Verses Written on a Window in Scotland.
Context: Tender-handed stroke a nettle,
And it stings you for your pains;
Grasp it like a man of mettle,
And it soft as silk remains.’Tis the same with common natures:
Use ’em kindly, they rebel;
But be rough as nutmeg-graters,
And the rogues obey you well.

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Aaron Hill (writer)11

British writer 1685–1750

Aaron Hill (writer) (1685–1750) British writer

Verses Written on a Window in Scotland.

“The world is a nettle; disturb it, it stings.
Grasp it firmly, it stings not.”

Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton (1831–1891) English statesman and poet

Part iii, canto ii. Quoted by Walt Whitman in Roaming in Thought.
Lucile (1860)

“You paint stinging-nettles, and I prefer roses.”

Narcisse Virgilio Díaz (1807–1876) French painter

Diaz, quoted by Muther; cited in The Barbizon Painters – being the story of the Men of thirty, Arthur Hoeber – associate of the National Academy of Design; publishers, Frederick A. Stokes Company, New York 1915, p. 138
according to Richard Muther this was the characteristic expression which Diaz used to Millet
Quotes of Diaz

“Make your hearts tender so that the grace the God of life abundantly grants us will drench you, and you will experience his salvation. Make your hearts tender so that you will not be indifferent to the pain or suffering of anyone.”

Mario Aurelio Poli (1947) Catholic Cardinal from Argentine.

Cardinal calls on faithful to have tender hearts during Lent https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/29155/cardinal-calls-on-faithful-to-have-tender-hearts-during-lent (5 March 2014)