APAD：cold hands, warm heart

cold hands, warm heart

A reserved exterior may disguise a kind hearted person.

Having cold hands is an indication of warmheartedness; used as a rejoinder if one finds that another's hands are cold.

The earliest known use of this proverb was in Collectanea edited by V.S. Lean - a collection of English and foreign proverbs published in Bristol, England in 1903.