quotes, quotations and passages on smiles and smiling

smiles

Those who smile rather than rage
are always the stronger.

Japanese Proverb

If a child smiles, if an adult smiles, that is very important. If in our daily lives we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we, but everyone will profit from it. If we really know how to live, what better way to start the day than with a smile? Our smile affirms our awareness and determination to live in peace and joy. The source of a true smile is an awakened mind. Thich Nhat Hanh

The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value. I love the person that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress and grow. Thomas Paine

If you have only one smile in you, give it to the people you love. Don't be surly at home, then go out in the street and start grinning 'Good morning' at total strangers. Maya Angelou

A smile costs nothing but gives much. It enriches those who receive without making poorer those who give. It takes but a moment, but the memory of it sometimes lasts forever. None is so rich or mighty that he cannot get along without it and none is so poor that he cannot be made rich by it. Yet a smile cannot be bought, begged, borrowed, or stolen, for it is something that is of no value to anyone until it is given away. Some people are too tired to give you a smile. Give them one of yours, as none needs a smile so much as he who has no more to give. unattributed We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do. Mother Teresa

Every time a person smiles, and much more when that person
laughs, it adds something to his or her fragment of life.

Laurence Sterne

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It's the Songs you sing and the Smiles you wear that
make the Sunshine everywhere.

unattributed

A smile is the light in your window that tells others
that there is a caring, sharing person inside.

Denis Waitley

Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love,
a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.

Mother Teresa

Smile at each other, smile at your wife, smile at your
husband, smile at your children, smile at each other--
it doesn't matter who it is--and that will help you
to grow up in greater love for each other.

Mother Teresa

A woman has two smiles that an angel might envy, the smile that
accepts a lover before words are uttered, and the smile that
lights on the first-born babe, and assures it of a mother's love.

Thomas C. Haliburton

Our smile will bring happiness to us and to those around us. Even if
we spend a lot of money on gifts for everyone in our family, nothing
we buy could give them as much happiness as the gift of our awareness,
our smile. And this precious gift costs nothing.

Thich Nhat Hanh

A warm smile is the universal language of kindness.

William Arthur Ward

If you see a friend without a smile; give him one of yours.

Proverb

The hardest thing you can do is smile when you are ill,
in pain, or depressed. But this no-cost remedy is a necessary
first half-step if you are to start on the road to recovery.

Allen Klein

What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are
but trifles, to be sure; but scattered along life's pathway,
the good they do is inconceivable.

Joseph Addison

It’s obvious that smiling shows you are happy but it is, admittedly,
a bit strange to realize that the act of smiling can itself make you
happy. It’s a perfect illustration of just how close the links are
between the mind and body. Smiling is infectious, too. When you
see someone grin, you almost invariably smile back. You can’t help
it. Think about that for a moment: just the act of smiling can make
you happy (even if it’s forced); and if you smile, others will smile
back at you, reinforcing your own happiness. It’s a virtuous circle.

Mark Williams
Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan

Nobody needs a smile so much as the one who has none to give.
So get used to smiling heart-warming smiles, and you will
spread sunshine in a sometimes-dreary world.

Lawrence G. Lovasik

One word or a pleasing smile is often enough to raise up a saddened and wounded soul.

Therese of Lisieux

A socially appropriate, unfelt smile is very different from a spontaneous one. A genuine smile, like a sneeze or a yawn, instigates itself and is not totally under your control. It goes along with a certain inner sensation, different for each of us but unmistakable when you feel it. For you, it may be a sense of bubbling pleasure, or a tendency to hum, or a little tickle in your heart. You may not always smile when you feel it, but you certainly wouldn't mind. By contrast, any other sort of smile is a small violation of the true self.
Don't believe it? Try this: Put on a big old smile, right now. How does that feel? If you were in a pretty good mood already, it may have brightened you up even further, like an emotional tickle. If you're seriously unhappy, however, you'll probably find that smiling feels not only like an effort, but a betrayal. Call up the memory of a situations where you felt you had to smile even though you were sad or in pain, and you'll likely recall a sense of profound violation. Smiling is very serious business to our bodies and hearts, and to practice it, you must treat it with respect.

Martha Beck
The Joy Diet

You're never fully dressed without a smile.

Martin Charnin

There are two kinds of smiles, genuine and artificial. Very
often we put on smiles, but the heart does not smile, only the
lips and face take part in it. This is not a real smile. When
the heart is filled with joy, it is reflected on the face as a
smile. It is a natural outflow of joy.

Papa Ramdas

If you force yourself to smile, you'll end up laughing.
You will be cheerful because you smile.

Kenneth Goode

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A wise person laughs and smiles through the eyes. . . . The smile and
laughter through the eyes influence people tremendously.
No energy leaks if you smile through the eyes.

Sivananda

Some people are too tired to give you a smile. Give them one of yours,
as no one needs a smile so much as one who has none to give.

Frank I. Fletcher

When we learn to smile at life, we shall find that the problems we encounter dissolve.

Donald Curtis

All life is like a mirror. Smile at it and it smiles back at you.
I just put a big smile on my face and everyone smiles back.

Peace Pilgrim

If in our daily life we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only
we, but everyone will profit from it. This is the most basic kind of peace work.

Thich Nhat Hanh

If you can smile here and now with only that which
is presently available, then life is lived to the fullest.

Narayana

If good people would make their goodness agreeable, and smile instead
of frowning in their virtue, how many would they win to the good cause.

James Usher

If you're not using your smile, you're like a person with a million
dollars in the bank and no checkbook.

Les Giblin

Smiles are contagious. . . . Watch how quickly someone responds to you
when you are smiling at them. We are all spiritually unified in a joyous universe.

Norma Hawkins