The smile that illumines the features of beauty, When kindled by virtue, alluring appears; But smiles, tho' alluring, no magic can borrow, To vie with the softness of beauty in tears. The smiles that are sweetest are often deceiving; Too often a mask which the cold-hearted wears; But a tear is the holiest offspring of feeling, And monarchs are weak before beauty in tears.
Henry George Bohn (1867). “A Dictionary of Quotations from the English Poets”, p.623