Love is like dew that falls on both nettles and lilies.

This saying is generally circulated in English as a “Swedish proverb,” reflecting the Scandinavian tradition of nature-based folk imagery. It belongs to a broad Northern European proverbial repertoire that uses everyday rural observation—dew falling impartially on all plants—to comment on human feeling and social life. In that context, nettles (stinging, unwanted weeds) and lilies (valued, beautiful flowers) function as familiar opposites, making the point memorable in oral transmission. However, the proverb’s precise Swedish-language original, first attested appearance in print, and the circumstances of its earliest recording are not securely identifiable from the information provided.

The proverb suggests that love, like dew, is impartial in where it falls: it can alight on the admirable and the unlovely, the gentle and the harmful. Dew is a quiet, unearned gift of nature—brief, delicate, and not distributed according to merit—so the comparison implies that affection often arrives without rational selection or moral judgment. The nettle/lily contrast also hints at love’s vulnerability: the same tenderness that beautifies can also expose one to pain. In ethical terms, it can be read as a call to compassion that extends beyond the “deserving,” or as a sober observation that love does not guarantee wise choice.