He could sentence thousands of innocent people to death with a stroke of the pen and then go to his private cinema to enjoy an American cowboy movie, yet he could also display affection and tenderness.
His writings about the hoax, though rigorously scientific, display great tenderness toward the two country girls whose idle boast of seeing magical creatures captivated a nation convulsed by war and modernity.
The final result, which displays "the tenderness one would like to imagine God has as he watches a human community act and interact," is "a masterpiece," Noel Perrin wrote here.
He was deeply affected by her death, and to the surprise of many displayed "a tenderness of which the world thought him before utterly incapable".
While tolerant of error and not above displays of tenderness, when his wrath was aroused he resorted to torture in the most ingenious ways, and had special torture chambers constructed underneath his palace.
Only rarely do the images display joy or tenderness: swimmers in the Mediterranean; an embrace in the bleachers of a soccer stadium.
No candy was offered, no hair ruffled, no age asked, no tenderness displayed.
The tenderness displayed here mixes with hilarity in a way very few directors could even begin to achieve.
Here, though he displayed an easy tenderness on "Look Heart, No Hands" and "If I Didn't Have You," the slightly naughty songs were the most vibrant.
It has been invoked, for example, to explain the contradictory manifestations of morality displayed in battle: tenderness towards one's own side; ruthlessness towards the enemy.
