Have a heart that never hardens, a temper that never tires, a touch that never hurts.

The line urges a threefold ethic of humane conduct: keep one’s compassion from calcifying (“a heart that never hardens”), sustain patience and self-command under strain (“a temper that never tires”), and practice gentleness in everyday contact (“a touch that never hurts”). Its power lies in pairing inner dispositions (heart, temper) with outward behavior (touch), suggesting that moral character is proven not by grand gestures but by the steady refusal to become callous, irritable, or casually cruel. Read as a compact moral ideal, it reflects a Victorian emphasis on sympathy and self-restraint, while remaining broadly applicable as a standard for interpersonal decency.