“The social smile, the sympathetic tear.”

— Thomas Gray

Education and Government; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The social smile, the sympathetic tear." by Thomas Gray?

Thomas Gray 81

English poet, historian 1716–1771

Related quotes

“Or ope the sacred source of sympathetic tears.”

Thomas Gray (1716–1771) English poet, historian

III. 1, Line 12
The Progress of Poesy http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=pppo (1754)

“She tried to smile sympathetically, but with her face it wasn't quite possible.”

Anthony Horowitz book Point Blanc

Source: Point Blank

“There's nothing like your mother's sympathetic voice to make you want to burst into tears.”

Sophie Kinsella book The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic

Source: Confessions of a Shopaholic

“Smiling through tears.”

Homér Iliad

VI. 484 (tr. Lord Derby); of Andromache.
Iliad (c. 750 BC)

“Sweetest smile is made saddest tear-drop!”

Edwin Arnold (1832–1904) British poet and journalist

“Jesus wept; Voltaire smiled. Of that divine tear and that human smile is composed the sweetness of the present civilization.”

Victor Hugo (1802–1885) French poet, novelist, and dramatist

Jésus a pleuré, Voltaire a souri; c’est de cette larme divine et de ce sourire humain qu’est faite la douceur de la civilisation actuelle.
Speech, "Le centenaire de Voltaire" http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Actes_et_paroles_-_Depuis_l%E2%80%99exil_-_1878#II_LE_CENTENAIRE_DE_VOLTAIRE, on the 100th anniversary of the death of Voltaire, Théâtre de la Gaîté, Paris (30 May 1878); published in Actes et paroles - Depuis l'exil (1878)