Quotes about a smile
page 2

“When they finally did dare it, at first with stolen glances and then candid ones, they had to smile. They were uncommonly proud. For the first time they had done something out of Love.”

Patrick Süskind (1949) German writer and screenwriter

Source: Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

Love, Time

“It is easy enough to be pleasant,
When life flows by like a song,
But the man worth while is one who will smile,
When everything goes dead wrong.”

Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850–1919) American author and poet

Life, Dead, For Men

“don't treat me like a child."
He smiled. "Of course I do, but you seem to have this ridiculous notion that being treated like a child means to be treated with less respect than an adult.”

Derek Landy (1974) Irish children's writer

Source: The Faceless Ones

“Valkyrie smiled patiently. "I like how you do your make-up. Do you use a brush, or just dip your head in the bucket?”

Derek Landy (1974) Irish children's writer

“Maybe time didn't heal wounds exactly, but it gave you a kind of armor, or a new perspective. A way to remember with a smile instead of a sob.”

Kristin Hannah (1960) American writer

Source: Night Road

Way, Time

“As I nodded and smiled and'd and'd my way down the drive, I wondered if boys had any sort of magazine that told them how to attract women and, if so, did it ever tell them to put the girls' interests first?”

Jennifer Donnelly A Northern Light

Source: A Northern Light

Women, Way, Girl, Boy

“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 man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress and grow.”

Thomas Paine (1737–1809) English and American political activist

Love

“He smiled the most exquisite smile, veiled by memory, tinged by dreams.”

Virginia Woolf book To the Lighthouse

Source: To the Lighthouse

Dreams, Memory

“When they see us dance. When they see how you look at me. When they see how I smile at you.”

Philippa Gregory book The Other Boleyn Girl

Source: The Other Boleyn Girl

Dance

“I had to smile at the man. I mean, you have to smile at idiots and children.”

Jim Butcher book Fool Moon

Source: Fool Moon

Children

“A smile is the chosen vehicle of all ambiguities.”

Herman Melville book Pierre: or, The Ambiguities

Bk. IV, ch. 5
Pierre: or, The Ambiguities (1852)
Source: Pierre: or, the Ambiguities

Cute

“Everyone smiles in the same language.”

George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian

Cute

“Perhaps the crescent moon smiles in doubt
at being told that it is a fragment
awaiting perfection.”

Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) Bengali polymath

Source: Fireflies: A Collection of Proverbs, Aphorisms and Maxims

Perfection

“Let a smile be your umbrella, and you'll end up with a face full of rain.”

George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian

“She gave me a smile I could feel in my hip pocket.”

Raymond Chandler book Farewell, My Lovely

Source: Farewell, My Lovely

Feeling

“What have I eaten? Lies and smiles.”

Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) American poet, novelist and short story writer

“There is no other world. Nor even this one. What, then, is there? The inner smile provoked in us by the patent nonexistence of both.”

Emil M. Cioran (1911–1995) Romanian philosopher and essayist

World

“If you smile when you are alone, then you really mean it.”

Andy Rooney (1919–2011) writer, humorist, television personality

Cute

“Thy loving smile will surely hail
The love-gift of a fairy tale.”

Lewis Carroll book Through the Looking-Glass

Source: Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There

Love

“Life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating.”

O. Henry book The Gift of the Magi

The Four Million (1906)
Source: "The Gift of the Magi"
Context: There was clearly nothing to do but flop down on the shabby little couch and howl. So Della did it. Which instigates the moral reflection that life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating.

Life

“You could have had anything else in the world, and you asked for me."
She smiled up at him. Filthy as he was, covered in blood and dirt, he was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen.
"But I don't want anything else in the world.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Source: City of Glass

World, Beauty

“Smiling always seems to annoy people more than actually insulting them. Or maybe I just have an annoying smile.”

Jim Butcher book Storm Front

Source: Storm Front

People

“Stella:
And when he comes back I cry on his lap like a baby..
[she smiles to herself]
Blanche:
I guess that is what is meant by being in love..”

Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire

Source: A Streetcar Named Desire

Love, Baby, Cry

“Honestly," she sighed, "I don't know what kind of life we'll have together, with me always flying off in one direction and you in the other."
I smiled. "It's a good thing the world's round," I said.”

Kenneth Oppel (1967) Canadian children's writer

Life, World, Flying

“I am happier than Jane; she only smiles, I laugh. Mr. Darcy sends you all the love in the world, that he can spare from me.”

Jane Austen book Pride and Prejudice

Source: Pride and Prejudice

Love, World

“I am the happiest creature in the world. Perhaps other people have said so before, but not one with such justice. I am happier even than Jane; she only smiles, I laugh.”

Jane Austen book Pride and Prejudice

Source: Pride and Prejudice

People, World, Justice

“In the time of your life, live—so that in that wondrous time you shall not add to the misery and sorrow of the world, but shall smile to the infinite delight and mystery of it.”

William Saroyan The Time of Your Life

The Time of Your Life (1939)
Context: Remember that every man is a variation of yourself. No man's guilt is not yours, nor is any man's innocence a thing apart. Despise evil and ungodliness, but not men of ungodliness or evil. These, understand. Have no shame in being kindly and gentle, but if the time comes in the time of your life to kill, kill and have no regret. In the time of your life, live — so that in the wondrous time you shall not add to the misery and sorrow of the world, but shall smile to the infinite delight and mystery of it.
Context: In the time of your life, live — so that in that good time there shall be no ugliness or death for yourself or for any life your life touches. Seek goodness everywhere, and when it is found, bring it out of its hiding-place and let it be free and unashamed. Place in matter and in flesh the least of the values, for these are things that hold death and must pass away. Discover in all things that which shines and is beyond corruption. Encourage virtue in whatever heart it may have been driven into secrecy and sorrow by the shame and terror of the world. Ignore the obvious, for it is unworthy of the clear eye and the kindly heart. Be the inferior of no man, nor of any man be the superior. Remember that every man is a variation of yourself. No man's guilt is not yours, nor is any man's innocence a thing apart. Despise evil and ungodliness, but not men of ungodliness or evil. These, understand. Have no shame in being kindly and gentle, but if the time comes in the time of your life to kill, kill and have no regret. In the time of your life, live — so that in the wondrous time you shall not add to the misery and sorrow of the world, but shall smile to the infinite delight and mystery of it.

Life, World, Time

“Be helpful. When you see a person without a smile, give him one of yours. ~”

Zig Ziglar (1926–2012) American motivational speaker

Source: Something to Smile about: Encouragement and Inspiration for Life's Ups and Downs

Help, Personality

“Breathing in, I calm body and mind. Breathing out, I smile. Dwelling in the present moment I know this is the only moment.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

Source: Being Peace

Peaceful

“He smiled understandingly-much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced--or seemed to face--the whole eternal world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

Source: The Great Gatsby

Life, World, Hope, Time

“I grew, a happy, healthy child in a bright world of illustrated books, clean sand, orange trees, friendly dogs, sea vistas and smiling faces.”

Vladimir Nabokov book Lolita

Source: Lolita

Happiness, Books, World, Dogs

“Frank Sinatra stopped his car. The light was red. Pedestrians passed quickly across his windshield but, as usual, one did not. It was a girl in her twenties. She remained at the curb staring at him. Through the corner of his left eye he could see her, and he knew, because it happens almost every day, that she was thinking, It looks like him, but is it? Just before the light turned green, Sinatra turned toward her, looked directly into her eyes waiting for the reaction he knew would come. It came and he smiled. She smiled and he was gone.”

Gay Talese (1932) American writer

"Frank Sinatra Has a Cold" (Esquire, April 1966)

Cars, Girl, Thinking, Light

“Dexter, please put your shirt on. Valkyrie’s getting distracted.”
“I’m not,” she said, then smiled at Vex. “You don’t have to put your shirt on.”

Derek Landy (1974) Irish children's writer

Source: Last Stand of Dead Men

“She glared at him. "Why are you forever asking hard questions?"
He smiled. "Sooner or later you'll have to be able to answer one."
Daja shoved him, grinning.”

Tamora Pierce (1954) American writer of fantasy novels for children

Question

“What makes big boobs and perkiness so attractive to boys? I mean, really. Two round, mounds of fat and a fake smile. Yeah, winning attributes.”

Gena Showalter (1975) American writer

Source: Oh My Goth

Boy

“So my last image was as the first. A sleeping youth cloaked in light, who opened his eyes with a smile of recognition for someone who had never been a stranger.”

Patti Smith Just Kids

Source: Just Kids

Youth, Sleep, Light

“She smiled and said with an ecstatic air: "It shines like a little diamond",
"What does?"
"This moment. It is round, it hangs in empty space like a little diamond; I am eternal.”

Jean Paul Sartre book The Age of Reason

Source: The Age of Reason

“Among the things you can give and still keep are your word, a smile, and a grateful heart.”

Zig Ziglar (1926–2012) American motivational speaker

Heart

“I like joy; I want to be joyous. I want to smile and I want to make people laugh. And that`s all I want. I like being happy. I want to make others happy.”

Doris Day (1922–2019) American actress, singer, and animal rights activist

Happiness, People, Joy

“A baseball bat could not have hit me harder than that smile did. I was sixteen years old. In that time, how many thousands of smiles had been aimed at me? so why did this one feel like the first?”

Jerry Spinelli book Stargirl

Source: Stargirl

Feeling, Time

“I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! —and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.”

Elizabeth Barrett Browning book Sonnets from the Portuguese

No. LXIII
Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850)
Context: How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints,—I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! —and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

Love, Life, Death, God

“Little crimes breed big crimes. You smile at little crimes and then big crimes blow your head off.”

Terry Pratchett book Snuff

Source: Snuff

“How doth the little crocodile
Improve his shining tail,
And pour the waters of the Nile
On every golden scale!

How cheerfully he seems to grin,
How neatly he spreads his claws,
And welcomes little fishes in,
With gently smiling jaws!”

Lewis Carroll (1832–1898) English writer, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer

Source: The Best of Lewis Carroll

Fish, Water

“Smooth and smiling faces everywhere, but ruin in their eyes.”

Jean Paul Sartre (1905–1980) French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and …

“I sighed. I hated the maze of bureaucracy with a passion, but I've found the best way to deal with it is to smile and act stupid. That way, no one gets confused.”

Kim Harrison (1966) Pseudonym

Source: Dead Witch Walking

Hate, Stupidity, Way, Passion

“Imagine me; I shall not exist if you do not imagine me; try to discern the doe in me, trembling in the forest of my own iniquity; let's even smile a little. After all, there is no harm in smiling.”

Vladimir Nabokov book Lolita

Source: Lolita

Imagination

“The worst kind of pain is when you're smiling just to stop the tears from falling.”

Hiro Mashima (1977) Japanese manga artist

Pain, Tear, Depressing

“The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection.”

Thomas Paine (1737–1809) English and American political activist

Courageous, For Men

“If the moon smiled, she would resemble you.
You leave the same impression
Of something beautiful, but annihilating.”

Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) American poet, novelist and short story writer

Source: Ariel: The Restored Edition

Beauty

“You'll find that life is still worthwhile, if you just smile.”

Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977) British comic actor and filmmaker

Lyrics to "Smile", written by John Turner and Geoffrey Claremont Parsons in 1954, the music of which was composed by Chaplin in 1936. - "Smile" music, as used in Modern Times (1936) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps6ck1ejoAw - "Smile" tribute to Chaplin, as sung by Michael Jackson http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu-rLA4POkI Misattributed Context: Smile though your heart is aching Smile even though its breaking When there are clouds in the sky, you'll get by If you smile with your fear and sorrow Smile and maybe tomorrow You'll find that life is still worthwhile If you just Light up your face with gladness Hide every trace of sadness Although a tear may be ever so near That's the time you must keep on trying Smile, what's the use of crying? You'll find that life is still worthwhile.

Life

“She smiled at him, making sure that the smile gathered up everything inside her and directed it toward him, making him a profound promise of herself for so little, for the beat of a response, the assurance of a complimentary vibration in him.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald book Tender Is the Night

Source: Tender Is the Night

“Because of your smile, you make life more beautiful.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

Life, Beauty, Beauty, Cute

“The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other’s welcome.”

Derek Walcott Sea Grapes

Source: Sea Grapes

Time

“"Well there goes my plan for selling them on eBay," Clary muttered.
"Selling them on what?"
Clary smiled blandly at him. "A mythical place of great magical power."”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Clary and Jace, pg. 98
Source: The Mortal Instruments, City of Bones (2007)

“I'm going to smile, and my smile will sink down into your pupils, and heaven knows what it will become.”

Jean Paul Sartre No Exit

Source: No Exit

“You wish to be liked. I wish simply to be. One day you will know what that means, perhaps. And you will smile. Not against me. But with me.”

John Fowles book The Magus

Source: The Magus

“They were smiling at each other as if this was the beginning of the world.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald book The Love of the Last Tycoon

Source: The Last Tycoon

World

“Ah, what happiness it is to be with people who are all happy, to press hands, press cheeks, smile into eyes.”

Katherine Mansfield (1888–1923) New Zealand author

Happiness, People

“a young woman in love always looks like patience on a monument smiling at grief”

William Shakespeare Twelfth Night

Source: Twelfth Night

Love, Patience

“The robb'd that smiles, steals something from the thief; He robs himself that spends a bootless grief.”

William Shakespeare Othello

Source: Othello

“But we're going to smile and pretend we're fine with the dorky birthmas gifts because people do not get that they can't mush a birthday into christmas.”

P. C. Cast book Chosen

Source: Chosen

People, Birthday, Christmas

“I'm not scared of dying. I'm not scared of death. I'll keep a smile 'til my last breath. I've loved 'til I've lost. I've lived how I felt. One day I will find peace within myself.”

Ed Harcourt (1977) British musician

Braille

Love, Death, Peace

“Haven't people learned yet that the time of superficial intellectual games is over, that agony is infinitely more important than syllogism, that a cry of despair is more revealing than the most subtle thought, and that tears always have deeper roots than smiles?”

Emil M. Cioran (1911–1995) Romanian philosopher and essayist

On the Heights of Despair (1934)

People, Game, Tear, Learning

“The smile that flickers on baby's lips when he sleeps — does anybody know where it was born? Yes, there is a rumor that a young pale beam of a crescent moon touched the edge of a vanishing autumn cloud, and there the smile was first born in the dream of a dew-washed morning.”

Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) Bengali polymath

61 Gitanjali http://www.spiritualbee.com/gitanjali-poems-of-tagore/ (1912)

Dreams, Autumn, Sleep, Baby

“The protector of the three worlds, the child Rāma asks Kausalyā with great inquisitiveness, “Whence the darkness in the moon?” The mother says, “A blackbuck has entered the moon, afraid of your arrows.” Rāma says, “Not thus, mother. I slay only the deer in the disguise (Mārīca) – whose delusion is renowned, and no other.” Kausalyā says, “Pṛthvī has gone into the moon out of the fear of Rāvaṇa, which is the darkness seen in the moon.” Rāma says, “How can the Candra, himself afraid of Rāhu protect someone, surely Pṛthvī is not naive.” Kausalyā then says “You saw the moon to be similar to the face of your bride, hence you have entered the moon to kiss your wife, and hence the moon appears dark.” Rāma says, “No mother, its only your milk that I drink, so how is the moon dark?” On hearing this, the queen smiled and the speech of Giridhara was amazed. ॥ 1.3.6 ॥”

Rāmabhadrācārya (1950) Hindu religious leader

śaśāṅke kutaḥ śyāmatā jātā ।
pṛcchati jananīmatikutūhalādbālastribhuvanatrātā ॥
kṛṣṇamṛgastava śarabhayādvidhuṃ yāto naitanmātaḥ ।
kapaṭamṛgaṃ praṇihanmi nāparaṃ tasya vimohakhyātaḥ ॥
daśamukhabhayādbhuvo yātā yā vidhuṃ śyāmatā dṛṣṭā ।
kathaṃ rāhubhītoऽsau pāyānmahī mūḍhatāspṛṣṭā ॥
tvamatha vīkṣya candramasaṃ nijadayitānanarūpasamānam ।
śaśini gato śyāmaḥ kila dṛṣṭaḥ kartuṃ tadadharapānam ॥
nahi mātaḥ pīye tava stanaṃ śrutvā manujendrāṇī ।
sasmitamukhī vismitā jātā cakitā giridharavāṇī ॥
Gītarāmāyaṇam

World, Fear, Drink, Kiss

“"In twenty years," I said, smiling at her tears, "a man grows humble, Mary. I have stored within me a great fund of affection, with nobody to give it to, and I swear to you, on the word of a soldier, that if there is one of those ladies who can be got to care for me I shall be very proud." Despite her semblance of delight I knew that she was wondering at me, and I wondered at myself, but it was true.”

J. M. Barrie book The Little White Bird

Source: The Little White Bird (1902), Ch. 26

Tear

“The whole world will smile at you when your heart is peaceful and your mind is clean. When you can smile at yourself, not a single trouble in the world will affect you. When you are sincere to yourself, no one in the world can deceive you.”

Jun Hong Lu (1959) Australian Buddhist leader

Malaysia, (28 August 2017)[citation needed].

World, Peace, Heart, Sincerity

“Then proudly smiled that old man
To see the eager lad
Rush madly for his pen and ink
And for his blotting-pad –
But, when he thought of publishing,
His face grew stern and sad.”

Lewis Carroll (1832–1898) English writer, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer

Poeta Fit, Non Nascitur, last stanza
Rhyme? and Reason? (1883)

Sadness

“Love is a never ending smile.”

Ronnie James Dio (1942–2010) American singer

Lyrics
Source: "Wishing Well" on Heaven and Hell (1980)

Love

“While the children laughed
I was always afraid
Of the Smile of the clown
So I close my eyes
Till I can't see the light
And I hide from the sound

We're two of a Kind
Silence and I
We need a chance to talk things over
Two of a kind
Silence and I”

Alan Parsons (1948) audio engineer, musician, and record producer from England

"Silence and I", from the album Eye In The Sky. (Written by Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson.)
Quotes from songs

Children, Light, Silence, Chance

“Anything above 40 is a little too old for me. I just look for a girl who is funny and has nice eyes and a smile.”

Justin Bieber (1994) Canadian singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor

Quoted in MTV Bieber ‘I Like Older Women’ http://www.mtv.co.uk/news/justin-bieber/219749-bieber-i-like-older-women, April 2010

Girl

“Star of descending night! fair is thy light in the west! thou liftest thy unshorn head from thy cloud: thy steps are stately on thy hill. What dost thou behold in the plain? The stormy winds are laid. The murmur of the torrent comes from afar. Roaring waves climb the distant rock. The flies of evening are on their feeble wings; the hum of their course is on the field. What dost thou behold, fair light? But thou dost smile and depart. The waves come with joy around thee: they bathe thy lovely hair. Farewell, thou silent beam! Let the light of Ossian's soul arise!”

James Macpherson (1736–1796) Scottish writer, poet, translator, and politician

"The Songs of Selma"
The Poems of Ossian

Love, Soul, Star, Light

“Pick me up, o stranger, it is no sin, so lovely is my smell.
Violet's a smile of those who in their graves now dwell.”

Paul-Jean Toulet (1867–1920) French poet

Coples

Love

““So you are still our Master,” said Sabrina. She was frowning. She had come to be afraid again.
“Not so!” Lucifer turned, almost in rage. “You are your own masters. Your destiny is yours. Your lives are your own. Do you not see that this means an end to the miraculous? You are at the beginning of a new age for Man, an age of investigation and analysis.”
“The Age of Lucifer,” I said, echoing some of His own irony.
He saw the joke in it. He smiled.
“Man, whether he be Christian or pagan, must lean to rule himself, to understand himself, to take responsibility for himself. There can be no Armageddon now. If Man is destroyed, he shall have destroyed himself.”
“So we are to live without aid,” said Sabrina. Her face was clearing.
“And without hindrance,” said Lucifer. “It will be your fellows, your children and their children who will find the Cure for the World’s Pain.”
“Or perish in the attempt,” said I.
“It is a fair risk,” said Lucifer. “And you must remember, von Bek, that it is in my interest that you succeed. I have wisdom and knowledge at your disposal. I always had that gift for Man. And now that I may give it freely I choose not to do so. Each fragment of wisdom shall be earned. And it shall be hard-earned, captain.””

Michael Moorcock book The War Hound and the World's Pain

Source: The War Hound and the World's Pain (1981), Chapter 18 (p. 166)

Wisdom, Pain, Children, Age

“Unforced, as conversation passed,
he had the talent of saluting
felicitously every theme,
of listening like a judge-supreme
while serious topics were disputing,
or, with an epigram-surprise,
of kindling smiles in ladies' eyes.”

Aleksandr Pushkin book Eugene Onegin

Source: Eugene Onegin (1823), Ch. 1, st. 5.

“Anger he smiles towering in shiney metallic purple armour,
Queen jealousy envy waits behind him,
Her fiery green gown sneers at the grassy ground.”

Jimi Hendrix (1942–1970) American musician, singer and songwriter

Bold as Love
Song lyrics, Axis: Bold as Love (1967)

Jealousy, Waiting, Envy, Anger

“The following week, when he Toulmouche passed in front of me, he sat down and squarely positioned on my chair, looked at my piece. I could then see him turn around, inclining his serious face with a satisfied air and I heard him say to me while smiling: "Not bad, not at all bad this, but it is too much like the real model. You have a stocky man and you depict him as stocky… Nature, my friend, serves well as a means to study but offers no real interest. Style is the only thing that matters." I was flabbergasted. The truth, life, nature - all that provoked emotions in me - all that constituted for me the real essence and the unique "raison d'être" of art, did not exist for this man!”

Claude Monet (1840–1926) French impressionist painter

Quote from Claude Monet par lui-meme – an interview by Thiébault-Sisson / translated by Louise McGlone Jacot-Descombes; published in 'Le Temps newspaper', 26 November 1900.
About Toulmouche, Monet first painting-teacher in Paris c. 1857
1900 - 1920

Life, Truth, Art, Nature

“Those who try to give us advice on matters of human rights do nothing but provoke an ironic smile among us. We will not permit anyone to interfere in our affairs.”

Konstantin Chernenko (1911–1985) Soviet politician

Quoted in "Simpson's contemporary quotations" - by James Beasley Simpson - Page 2

“A sadder vision yet: thine aged sire
Shaming his hoary locks with treacherous wile!
And dost thou now doubt Truth to be a liar?
And wilt thou die, that hast forgot to smile?”

Lewis Carroll (1832–1898) English writer, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer

Four Riddles, no. II
Rhyme? and Reason? (1883)

Truth, Age

“See her smiling at him? That used to be me, and I could find her in a thunderstorm just by the way that the rain would fall.”

Ryan Adams (1974) American alt-country/rock singer-songwriter

Hard Way To Fall
29 (2005)

Way

“First you must learn to smile as you kill.”

John Lennon (1940–1980) English singer and songwriter

"Working Class Hero"
Lyrics, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970)

Learning

“Wounded and fleeing, heroes passed you by, while your face remained bright and your lips, smiling.
You surpassed the bounds of courage and understanding, until people claimed that you knew the unseen.
To you belongs the praise for these pearls I pronounce; you are the giver, I the arranger.
Oh, Sword never sheathed, whom none can doubt and from whom there is no refuge.
Blessed are warfare, glory and eminence; blessed are your subjects and all of Islam, for you are safe!”

Al-Mutanabbi (915–965) Arabic poet from the Abbasid era

From the poem "To Sayf Al-Dawla" Here 'Sword never sheathed' refers to 'Sayf Al-Dawla', whose name is a laqab meaning 'Sword of the Dynasty'. http://samarmedia.tv/en/video/295/al-mutanabi-arabic-poem-with-english/

People, Courage, Understanding

“Somewhere there's a happy harbor
far from the storm.
Out where the sun shines there is someone
I'm meant to adore,
and I know the day I find her,
I'll smile once more.”

Burt Bacharach (1928) American pianist, composer and music producer

Song Nikki

Happiness, Sun

“Currency means nothing if you still ain't free. Money breeds jealousy. Take the game from me; I hope for better days. Trouble comes naturally. Running from authorities. 'Til they capture me, and my aim is to spread more smiles than tears. Utilize lessons learned from my childhood years.”

Tupac Shakur (1971–1996) rapper and actor

"Hold Ya Head" https://play.google.com/music/preview/Te5ppuyfquh4t6lnlla3zs6w33e?lyrics=1&utm_source=google&utm_medium=search&utm_campaign=lyrics&pcampaignid=kp-lyrics 1990s, The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory (1996)

Money, Jealousy, Hope, Game

“I may not be walking with you all the way, or even much of the way, as I walk with you now. Don’t be angry with me if I am not there in person, alive and well, when you need me. I would like nothing more than to be with you always. Do not feel sorry for me if I am gone. When we were together, I loved you deeply and you gave me so much happiness I can never repay you. Camera, wherever I am when you feel sick at heart and weary of life, or when you stumble and fall and don’t know if you can get up again, think of me. I will be watching and smiling and cheering you on.”

Arthur Ashe (1943–1993) American tennis player

Message to his daughter Camera, p. 341
Days of Grace: A Memoir (1994)

Love, Life, Happiness, Way

“Tho' lost to sight, to memory dear
Thou ever wilt remain;
One only hope my heart can cheer,—
The hope to meet again.

Oh, fondly on the past I dwell,
And oft recall those hours
When, wandering down the shady dell,
We gathered the wild-flowers.

Yes, life then seemed one pure delight,
Tho' now each spot looks drear;
Yet tho' thy smile be lost to sight,
To memory thou art dear.

Oft in the tranquil hour of night,
When stars illume the sky,
I gaze upon each orb of light,
And wish that thou wert by.

I think upon that happy time,
That time so fondly loved,
When last we heard the sweet bells chime,
As thro' the fields we roved.”

George Linley (1798–1865) British writer

Song, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). This song was written and composed by Linley for Mr. Augustus Braham, and sung by him. It is not known when it was written,—probably about 1830. Another song, entitled "Though lost to Sight, to Memory dear," was published in London in 1880, purporting to have been written by Ruthven Jenkyns in 1703 and published in the "Magazine for Mariners". That magazine, however, never existed, and the composer of the music acknowledged, in a private letter, that he copied the words from an American newspaper. The reputed author, Ruthven Jenkyns, was living, under another name, in California in 1882.

Love, Life, Happiness, Hope

“I thought I should make something – I felt it would be so easy – it would take form under my hands like magic.
Then people would see!
A strong naked arm – a tanned powerful neck a young woman rests her head on the arching chest.
She closes her eyes and listens with open and quivering lips to the words he whispers into her long flowing hair.
I should paint that image just as I saw it – but in the blue haze.
Those two at that moment, no longer merely themselves, but simply a link in the chain binding generation to generation.
People should understand the significance, the power of it. They should remove their hats like they do in church.
There should be no more pictures of interiors, of people reading and women knitting.
There would be pictures of real people who breathed, suffered, felt, loved.
I felt impelled – it would be easy. The flesh would have volume – the colours would be alive.
There was an interval. The music stopped. I was a little sad. I remembered how many times I had had similar thoughts – and that once I had finished the painting – they had simply shaken their heads and smiled.
Once again I found myself out on the Boulevard des Italiens.”

Edvard Munch (1863–1944) Norwegian painter and printmaker

written in Saint Cloud, 1889
Quotes from his text: 'Saint Cloud Manifesto', Munch (1889): as quoted in Edvard Much – behind the scream, Sue Prideaux; Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2007, pp. 120 -121
1880 - 1895

Love, Women, People, Sadness

“The deepest and most organic death is death in solitude, when even light becomes a principle of death. In such moments you will be severed from life, from love, smiles, friends and even from death. And you will ask yourself if there is anything besides the nothingness of the world and your own nothingness.”

Emil M. Cioran (1911–1995) Romanian philosopher and essayist

On the Heights of Despair (1934)

Love, Life, Death, World