gentleness

Treating others with tender care; acting so as not to hurt the feelings of others.

a.k.a. mildness, tenderness

Complementary virtues

  • Often seems to be twinned with or even to be interchangeable with “meekness” in the Christian context, but I think of meekness as having a modest/humble/submissive component that gentleness doesn’t necessarily have.

Contrasting vices

  • carelessness
  • severity

Virtues possibly in tension

TBD

How to acquire or strengthen it

TBD

Notes and links

Mentioned elsewhere

Inspirational quotes

  • “When death, the great Reconciler, has come, it is never our tenderness that we repent of, but our severity.” —George Eliot (Adam Bede)