more in sorrow than in anger
Saddened rather than infuriated by someone's behavior. For example, When Dad learned that Jack had stolen a car, he looked at him more in sorrow than in anger. This expression first appeared in 1603 in Shakespeare's Hamlet (1:2), where Horatio describes to Hamlet the appearance of his father's ghost: “A countenance more in sorrow than in anger.”
Nearby words
more and more, more bang for the buck, more dead than alive, more dict., more fun than a barrel of monkeys, more in sorrow than in anger, more often than not, more or less, more power to someone, more sinned against than sinning, more sol.
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
Examples from the Web for more in sorrow than in anger
I'd guess they told him to come across as genially disappointed, more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger, and he kind of went off the rails.